[WikiEN-l] How to make a recipe NPOV

Fri May 21 13:26:40 UTC 2004

Peter Jaros wrote:
> Recipes are tricky.  If you provide a recipe for chocolate cake as a 
> "chocolate cake" recipe, that's POV: you're asserting that *this* is 
> chocolate cake.  If you include "Le Grand Pain's famous chocolate cake 
> recipe", that's the only one of *those*.  It's all in the presentation.

I think that's right, it's all in the presentation.

I find the argument that recipes are inherently POV to be
unconvincing.  It's easy enough to "go meta" with a suitable phrasing.

"Here is a traditional recipe for Key Lime Pie.  This version is from
_Traditional Recipes of Florida_, which quotes it from a newspaper
article first published in 1857.  Many variants on the traditional
recipe exist, including those which use ordinary limes (instead of Key
limes) and those which substitute sweetened whipped cream on top for
egg white."

<and then we include the recipe cited>

If the variants are interesting or historically important, they could
be fully included.

I think such a recipe would really improve this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Key_lime_pie

Please don't use my text above, it is sheer fantasy designed to
illustrate how I think a recipe can be properly included.

--Jimbo