When you come back to do the "same" operation again, you're fundamentally dealing with different items, even if it doesn't appreciably appear to be the case.

You might have different criteria for evaluation, but something has fundamentally changed.

Let's look at the simplest case you might be tempted to model as a cycle:

> "Salt to taste"

Now, that would traditionally be modelled in a flowchart as a cycle:

1. Add salt

2. Test taste. Too little salt? Go to step 1. Else go to step 3.

3. End.

However, in strict modelling terms, I'd argue there's a hidden parameter, "number of saltings attempted".

You wouldn't repeat that a hundred times and keep adding salt, after a while you'd suspect that your taste-buds had gone or the salt had gone funny.

So rather than a cycle, it's actually a series of steps with a hidden step counter, which eventually has different outcomes.

I think the post you're replying to is saying that you'll make 3 "white balsamic vinaigrettes" instead of reusing the same one 3 times.

Which makes sense since one step of the recipe will be to divide the vinaigrette into 3 amounts to make the other ingredients.