unable to create a foreign key

I'm still trying to learn the ins and outs of posgresql. I've got the following table structure:

ingredients
ing_id interger primary key
name
basic_unit

recipes extends ingredients with the following extra columns
recipe_text
amount_made
made_unit

and a table
recipe_ingredients

recipe_id
ing_id
amount_required
weight
id

I'm trying to create a foreign key on recipe_ingredients
recipe_id
on recipes ing_id

using the following statement:
LTER TABLE "recipe_ingredients" ADD FOREIGN KEY ("recipe_id") REFERENCES "recipes"("ing_id") ON UPDATE CASCADE ON DELETE CASCADE

However when ever I do this I get the following error:

ERROR: $3 referential integrity violation - key referenced from recipe_ingredients not found in recipes

Is there any way I can do this, or will I need to look at triggers?

That error means you already have an invalid reference in data inside the table. You need to make sure existing data is valid for ANY new constraint, FK, check, whatever, BEFORE applying the constraint.

could you avoid this problem by doing a pg_dump to a file with just the insert statements for that table, then apply the constraint then move the data back? U should know the constraints ri when you make the tables in an ideal world but that's why they make the dump tool.

There is only a little bit of test data in there, easier to do fix it up by hand. Thanks for the help.

John Joske