Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!apple!rutgers!cmcl2!panix!mara
From: mara@panix.UUCP (Mara Chibnik)
Newsgroups: news.groups
Subject: Re: CALL FOR DISCUSSION: rec.food.recipes
Summary: Just what *is* a recipe, anyhow?
Message-ID: <838@panix.UUCP>
Date: 1 Feb 90 11:10:13 GMT
References: <1532@umigw.MIAMI.EDU>
Reply-To: apple!panix!mara (Mara Chibnik)
Organization: PANIX - Public Access Computer Systems of NY
Lines: 50
Status: R

In article <1532@umigw.MIAMI.EDU> aem@mthvax.cs.miami.edu writes:
calls for discussion of establishing an unmoderated newsgroup to
include only recipes:

>it seems that a separate newsgroup for just recipes would be a *real good
>idea*.  rec.food.cooking would remain for discussions of technique, 
>equipment, ingredients and so on, and the new group would solely be recipes.

I think it's a sad idea.  For many reasons.

The only impoartant reason is, of course, that I like the group the way
it is.  ;-)  But there are justifications, or explanations. 

First, I'm not really sure what a recipe is.  Suppose someone asks
how to make an omelet, complaining about always getting scrambled
eggs (or vice versa).  The answer, which I think might reasonably be
posted as SCRAMBLED EGGS: RECIPE  (or omelet, ditto) is really a
presentation of technique.  And maybe also of equipment.  

Second, if you separate these discussions you lose their synergy.
I posted a recipe that I thought of when someone asked about a
technique that I use in the recipe.  I've seen other people do the
same thing.  There are recipes that I think of trying because I've
seen them in the context of some interesting discussion of
techniques or equipment or ingredients.

There are other complications, too.  Someone recently asked for
inexpensive recipes.  But it's not easy to figure out what someone
else finds inexpensive.  My cheapest recipes use the staples that
*I* have on hand; if I need to buy something that I wouldn't
otherwise have around, even if it doesn't cost a lot, it costs *me*
more.

Finally, it isn't clear to me whether the recipes would be (or
ought to be) crossposted to rec.food.cooking.  If enough people
think it's worth the effort to cull the recipe articles from
rec.food.cooking and spend the bandwidth on presenting them in a
separate group, I probably wouldn't vote against it.  (This isn't a
commitment; I'm open to discussion.)  But I wouldn't vote for it
either.  If it's meant to take the recipes out of rec.food.cooking,
my vote is clearly no.



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		         Mara Chibnik	  
         Life is too important to be taken seriously.