You have to hold a specific item in your hand for the "blue prints" to unlock.

For food stuff its the Turnip.

Yeah, it's dumb and I complained about this already for other things like having to hold nails to unlock blueprints for the cart or, iron nails for the better ship.

I tried to figure out how to unlock the spice-rack in my session totally blind without reading how to online and it took me hours to realize I had to farm a Turnip and simply hold it in m hand.

Imo, stations and their upgrades should be unlocked as you build each station, period. Having it the current way turns into a 'newb trap', resulting in the player having to goggle it. If people are having to do that, then the "tech tree" is poorly designed.

Ingredients should unlock blueprint when its for very specific items that require that specific ingredient. Like, Needles for Needle Arrows.