[Wikipedia-l] culture - recipes and other stuff

Tue Jan 25 18:32:27 UTC 2005

Matt Brown wrote:

>On Sat, 22 Jan 2005 12:40:51 -0700, Mark Williamson <node.ue at gmail.com> wrote:
>  
>
>>But the thing with a recipie is that there are infinite possibilities,
>>and different people make it different ways. As I said before, we
>>should describe what makes it what it is and how it is made, but be
>>vague enough that we include every possibility for that food. This
>>isn't a recipie.
>>    
>>
>On the other hand, we can ILLUSTRATE with sample recipes, just as we
>can illustrate with sample photographs.  Sometimes vagueness is too
>vague; sometimes what is needed is a specific as an example.  So long
>as we note that variations do exist and this is just an example, we're
>fine.  Just as we illustrate, say, an article on Persian cats with a
>picture of a specific cat; we do have to point out the possible
>variations and that this is just an example, not the definition.
>
Exactly.  Very few good cooks will follow a recipe to the letter; they 
know that they need to make adjustments.  Many of the possible variants 
are not critical to the recipe.  Good cooks will know from experience 
what needs to be adjusted to allow for one's altitude above sea level.

Ec