1200/1500 have a lot of similarities to the 300/400, but a lot of differences as well.
There is a way to do it, yes. Retentivity is tag by tag now, instead of DB by DB, and it is off by default. Sorry, wasn't specific above.
It isn't a great solution for recipes, though, because there isn't a ton of retentive memory available, and it is way too easy to reinitialize the DB and lose the data.
The better PLC based solution, like I said above, is to use the Recipe blocks to store them as CSV files on the memory card (which is now PC readable with the newer PLCs). Or you can use HMI/other methods of handling recipes.