In my database the table is set out like this:

id | title | category

There is about 1000 records in there and i want to be able to create a list of the categories but if i do a foreach statement i just get the same categories over and over.

try this

Code:

$select = "SELECT subcategory FROM recipes WHERE category = '" . $row['category'] . "' GROUP BY subcategory";

don't do this in php, use a mysql query.
Code:

SELECT DISTINCT ( category ) FROM mytable

OR

Code:

SELECT category FROM mytable GROUP BY category