Need help with this phrasing

[scofansnags]

Which sentence is correct?

The food is just as good, if not better, as the recipe.
The food is just as good, if not better than the recipe.
The food is just a good if not better than the recipe.
The food is just as good (if not better) as the recipe.

[The Dude]

Wishful thinking - none of them.

Think about what you want to say. It's perfectly logical, with no hidden twists.

Use commas to insert a separate clause or phrase into a sentence.

Make sure that an extra idea put within commas in a sentence does not disrupt the meaning of the original sentence. You should be able to take out the extra bit, along with its commas, and still have a complete, correct sentence.

Understand 'as good as' and 'better than' as expressions.

Now try again.

(Hint: the second is the closest to being correct.)

[scofansnags]

Thank you for the input, but I just need someone to correct the sentence.

[The Dude]

That's not what you asked.

God helps those who help themselves. So do I.

[scofansnags]

Wishful thinking - none of them.

Think about what you want to say. It's perfectly logical, with no hidden twists.

Use commas to insert a separate clause or phrase into a sentence.

Make sure that an extra idea put within commas in a sentence does not disrupt the meaning of the original sentence. You should be able to take out the extra bit, along with its commas, and still have a complete, correct sentence.

Understand 'as good as' and 'better than' as expressions.

Now try again.

(Hint: the second is the closest to being correct.)

I think this is correct:
The food is just as good as, if not better than, the recipe.

If the phrase 'if not better than' is removed, the sentence still makes sense: The food is just as good as the recipe.

[The Dude]

Perfect. That means you've learnt something. Happens to me every day.

Just for fun - you could rewrite the whole caboodle like this:

'The food is just as good as the recipe, if not better.'

That would be more fluent.

[Barb_D]

I do have a problem with the logic. Unless the recipe is written on chocoate parchment (something not invented yet, but should be!), the recipe is not tasty.

Sure if you are comparing one recipe to another, you can say one is tastier than the other, referring to the food you make from the recipe.

But it doesn't make sense to me to compare the food to a recipe, unless you add something else, like "than the recipe led to believe" or "than the recipe made it sound."

(Yes, the latter is not logical either, since a silent recipe doesn't sound like anything, but that sounded natural to me.)