diff --git a/src/calibre/web/feeds/recipes/__init__.py b/src/calibre/web/feeds/recipes/__init__.py
index 5a54021bb7..5dd143e846 100644
--- a/src/calibre/web/feeds/recipes/__init__.py
+++ b/src/calibre/web/feeds/recipes/__init__.py
@@ -57,10 +57,15 @@ def compile_recipe(src):
         _tdir = path(PersistentTemporaryDirectory('_recipes'))
     temp = _tdir/('recipe%d.py'%_crep)
     _crep += 1
+    if not isinstance(src, unicode):
+        match = re.search(r'coding[:=]\s*([-\w.]+)', src[:200])
+        enc = match.group(1) if match else 'utf-8'
+        src = src.decode(enc)
     f = open(temp, 'wb')
+    src = '# coding=utf-8\n' + src
     src = 'from %s.web.feeds.news import BasicNewsRecipe, AutomaticNewsRecipe\n'%__appname__ + src
     src = 'from %s.ebooks.lrf.web.profiles import DefaultProfile, FullContentProfile\n'%__appname__ + src
-    f.write(src.replace('from libprs500', 'from calibre'))
+    f.write(src.replace('from libprs500', 'from calibre').encode('utf-8'))
     f.close()
     module = imp.find_module(temp.namebase, [temp.dirname()])
     module = imp.load_module(temp.namebase, *module)