Guide to Recipe Submissions
Recipe writing is kind of like writing stereo instructions: It has to be very precise to ensure our audience can put create the dish. When you call for white wine in a recipe, your reader doesn’t know whether you want dry or sweet. If you call for butter, they don’t know if you want unsalted or salted. So double guess yourself! We want people to be able to make your dish with ease, and love it as much as you do. Plus, we’d like to employ consistency across the platform. So please follow these simple recipe guidelines.
All fresh recipes are welcome here. We can only publish recipes sourced from our community and who accurately source their sources.
Provenance of Dish
In 3 or 4 sentences tell us the provenance of the dish. For example:
“I learned how to make this from my father, a Polish American who loved to hunt mushrooms in Oregon”
“I adapted this dish from The Joy of Cooking”
If applicable, a bit about what the reader can expect. For example:
“It’s soupy, but you can eat it with a fork.”
“This is a very sweet, yummy dish that is wonderful with any mushroom, but especially shiitake mushrooms.”
Tell us your substitutions or adaptations. For example:
“Sometimes I add a little sweet paprika after the sour cream has been introduced. I’ve also tried substituting the sour cream with plain yogurt. It works fine.”
We’d love to know what you like to accompany your dish. For example:
“Excellent with fresh tortillas.”
Or where you like to find the specific ingredient on the dish. You can get a lot of your personality into a headnote so have fun!
Ingredients
Please use metric measurements. Or both imperial and metric if you can. Celcius for temperature, and be specific about the food, even the alternatives. For example:
600 grams of boneless, skinless chicken thighs (you can use breasts, too).
Just slice each breast into two cutlets, then cut the cutlets in half)
Start with the measurement and treatment of the ingredient, and then, if applicable, the number of food items. For example:
1 finely chopped, medium-sized yellow onion
You don’t need to indicate water unless it needs to be cold or boiling. For example:
250 ml of boiling water or 30 ml (2 tbsp) ice cold water
Even if you have a composite recipe, say a mushroom quiche where you are supplying a recipe for the pastry and another for the filling, list all the ingredients in order of use.
Instructions
List the preparation instructions in steps. If the oven has to be preheated, start with that. For example:
Preheat the oven to 350F
Remember to let us know what kind of pot to use. For example:
In a large skillet, add the mushrooms.
Let us know what the heat is (High, Medium high, etc.) and let us know if the pot needs to be covered, or partially covered.
Times are important, so let us know how long something cooks, though it is always helpful to add a sensory cue. For example:
“Sauté the onions over a low heat until they are very soft, about 10 minutes. Do not brown.”
It’s great to add warnings as well. For example:
“Don’t cover the chopped mushrooms while they are cooking or they will steam and not caramelize.”
If yours is a composite recipe, say a mushroom quiche where we will be making a pastry crust and a filling, then start each set of instructions by telling us which part we are cooking. For example:
“For the pastry, combine the flour and butter.”
