Hi,
Why the command \placerecipe{}{} does not with an environment \starttikzpicture
\stoptikzpicture ?
Fabrice

\setupexternalfigures[location={local,global,default}]

\setuppagenumbering[location=]

\usemodule[tikz]
\usemodule[pgfplots]
\pgfplotsset{compat=1.8}

\definefloat
   [recipe]
   [figure]

\setupfloat
   [recipe]
   [default={right,none}]

\starttext
\startitemize[n][stopper={.},style=bold]
\placerecipe
   {}
{\externalfigure[cow.pdf][width=4cm]}
\item \input knuth
\placerecipe
   {}
{
\starttikzpicture[level 1/.style={level distance=35mm,sibling distance=40mm},level 2/.style={level distance=25mm,sibling distance=15mm},cadre/.style={rectangle,draw}]
\node{}[grow=right]
child{node{$\overline{R}$}
child{node{$\overline{M}$}
edge from parent node [below=0.2cm,midway] {\unknown}}
child{node{$M$}
edge from parent node [above=0.2cm,midway] {\unknown}}
edge from parent node [below=0.2cm,midway] {\unknown}
}
child{node{$R$}
child{node{$\overline{M}$}
edge from parent node [below=0.2cm,midway] {\unknown}}
child{node{$M$}
edge from parent node [above=0.2cm,midway] {\unknown}}
edge from parent node [above=0.2cm,scale=0.75] {\unknown}
};
\stoptikzpicture
}
\item \input knuth
\stopitemize
\stoptext