I am a bit confused. In you recipe under the design tab, there is no "set price" function. Are you talking about the "update prices" function?
When you make a recipe, BeerSmith pulls the information on pricing for that item at the time you enter it into the recipe from the ingredient profile listings. If you later go out and purchase the item(s) at a different price and enter it into your inventory, the change will not show in the recipe until you click on "update prices".
When you click on "update prices" in the design tab, beersmith will check the prices listed for each of the items in the recipe and update it to the current price.
The "set price" option shows on the inventory page as well as the ingredient listings. In these views, you must highlight the item you wish to change the price of and click on 'update price' in order to enter the new value. Updating the pricing in the ingredient list will automatically update it in your inventory and vice versa. Again, it will not update the prices in your already created recipes.