Instant Pot

It's Go Time: Enter Your Best Hands-Off Recipe

January 31, 2018

PSST! Submissions close TODAY (January 31st) at 6:00 PM EST, enter your recipe ASAP!

Let's get right to it: It's a new year and as we mentioned earlier this month, we're thrilled to announce that recipe contests are back!

There will be 6 recipe contests this year—a new one kicking off every other month—and we're starting with Your Best Hands-Off Recipe. With winter weather reaching new levels of blustery cold, many of us are ready to stay curled up indoors—buried in a bomb cyclone of blankets—and let dinner take care of itself.

Will you enter a hearty stew? Photo by Bobbi Lin

We know you've got the perfect recipe for warming up from the inside out. Here's a bit more about what we're looking for:

  • Great recipes. (You know that—we're just easing into this list.)
  • New recipes. While you will be able to enter existing recipes on the site, we’re really interested in seeing all the new creations you come up with.
  • Recipes that cook without too much effort on your part (this is the Hands-Off part)—there can be some amount of prep, but this particular contest is really about set-it-and-forget-it cooking. Get creative; we're excited to see how you interpret our theme.
  • The dish can cook in an appliance (like a slow or multi-cooker), but it doesn't have to. Perhaps your dish braises all day in the oven, bubbles away on the stovetop, or roasts on a sheet pan. We're into that, too.
  • We're primarily looking for main dish recipes, but substantial sides are also fair game.
  • And while slow cooking often first conjures up meaty braises, vegetarian and vegan recipes count, too.

Entries are open from now through the end of the month—submissions close January 31st at 6:00 PM EST.

Sheet pan suppers definitely qualify as hands-off. Photo by Bobbi Lin

Before you rush off to start dreaming up the recipe you're going to enter, stick with us for a few more minutes. We want to make sure everyone knows how the contests work—from those of you who are brand new to our process to those of you who have been participating since the very beginning. We've updated the rules to streamline steps—and make sure each recipe gets the attention it deserves.

Shop the Story

Read on for the nitty-gritty of what's going to happen, from the time we announce the contest theme to the time we announce the contest's winner, and everything that happens in between.

First things first—we decide on a contest theme.

This time, it's about Your Best Hands-Off Recipe. In the past, we've decided on themes because we wanted your help making the site's collection of recipes more well-rounded (themes have included Your Best Cheap Feast, Your Best Open House Dish, or Your Favorite Ways to Eat Eggs for Dinner). Sometimes we've focused on a seasonally relevant theme (this can be challenging with participants from around the globe!) or, alternatively an aseasonal one, like "Your Best Mash-Up." Our goal: to think up a wide variety of themes that'll give everyone a chance to participate.

This year, there will be 6 contests—we'll be announcing new ones every two months on the 15th at noon in both a post on the site and on our contest page. You can start submitting your recipes right away! (And if you're at all confused about dates, there's a handy-dandy visual guide to the schedule for the year at the bottom of this page).

Next, you get to submit your recipe. Here's how:

Head to your profile page (make sure you're signed into the site), select "Recipes," click the "Add a Recipe" button, and upload your recipe. (You can always feel free to enter existing recipes on the site if they fit the theme, though as discussed, we’re especially interested in new ones.) Once you've added or picked out the recipe you want to submit, hit "Edit Recipe" and scroll down to the drop-down menu called "Submit my recipe to a contest." Click the menu, select the current contest, and then save your recipe. That's it! (See the example below.)

Select "Your Best Hands-Off Recipe" and you're all set!

You have until the last day of the month to submit. While you wait, you can see what other community members are submitting on the contest page.

Got a meaty main you'd like to enter? We're standing by. Photo by Julia Gartland

Next, we read all the recipes submitted and narrow them down—with your help.

Yep, every single one. Our Food Writer & Recipe Developer Emma Laperruque, along with other members of the editorial team, will take 2 weeks to read through every submission, looking for recipes to test that really jump out at us—ones that are new, fit with the season, or that use interesting techniques or ingredients in unusual ways. And, of course, ones that sound really, really good.

To help us narrow down, we’ll be depending on your input—we'll take into consideration which recipes you favorite and your comments on each submission. Between your feedback and our own review and testing, we’ll announce a list of the top 5 contenders on the 15th of the following month.

Then, it's test kitchen time.

Our Test Kitchen Director Josh Cohen and Test Kitchen Cook Allison Bruns Buford test all 5 contenders, making any additional notes. And then, members of the Food52 team (the ones lucky enough to be in the office that day, anyway) will taste and review all five dishes too...it's a tough job, we know.

You can start testing some of the contenders' recipes at home, too—that way, you’ll be one step ahead of schedule when we get to the final voting round.

Meanwhile, we polish up the recipes.

Emma will review each of the 5 contenders again, editing for style (e.g. making sure the right words are capitalized), grammar, spelling, and clarity (e.g. making sure the ingredients are listed in the order used, and that the steps make sense). She'll add in any testing notes from our test kitchen and staff reviews.

Dinner is served—now it's time to go from hands-off to (very) hands-on. Photo by Rocky Luten

We blow the trumpets and announce the 2 finalists! (And ask for your vote.)

At long last, we’ll whittle it down to the final two. We’ll announce them on the 1st of the third month at noon. We'll photograph them here in the office, with our stylists and photographers working to make each recipe look its most beautiful. We'll upload the photos to the recipes after Liz Andrew, our Senior Retoucher & Digital Asset Manager, puts the final touches on them. Then we need our community to determine the winner!

You’ll have about a week (until the 8th of the month) to check out the finalists, cook the recipes, and document the results. You can vote on the contest page—you can only vote once, but it's completely acceptable to vote for your own recipe. We also want you to keep us in the loop as you're cooking these recipes on Instagram using the hashtag #f52recipecontest. So get ready to share your feedback.

We announce the winner!

After we announce our finalists, Emma will email them both a Q&A. At noon on the 9th, we'll tally up the votes and announce the winner. The winner gets to do a happy dance, and we'll share their answers to the Q&A in a post on the site that week so that the community can get to know them. Then on the 15th, the whole cycle begins again with a new contest!

So what does the winner get?

The two big Fs! No, not fame and fortune: fame and FUN. We're mostly in this for the fun of the community coming together around a new theme every couple of months and inspiring each other to create new recipes—based on your feedback, that's what's it about for many of you, too. We'll also do our best to make winners famous (Food52 famous, anyway) by promoting the winning recipe on our site, on social media, and in at least one of our email newsletters. Plus, all contest finalists get prime placement in our recipe search, so other people are more likely to find and cook your recipe and it's more likely to be featured in future articles.

We know that's a lot of dates to try and remember, so here's the aforementioned handy-dandy visual guide to the schedule for this year's contests:

Who's ready to rummmmble?! Or, you know, create some recipes?

You can read the very official, super-serious contest rules here. Have any questions? Ask us in the comments.

See what other Food52 readers are saying.

  • Andreea Stanescu
    Andreea Stanescu
  • Janet Mowery
    Janet Mowery
  • gr8chefmb
    gr8chefmb
  • sexyLAMBCHOPx
    sexyLAMBCHOPx
  • TheFritschKitchen
    TheFritschKitchen
I like esoteric facts about vegetables. Author of the IACP Award-nominated cookbook, Cooking with Scraps.

24 Comments

Andreea S. January 29, 2018
If I read this correctly, I cannot submit a recipe for the contest if liveing outside US?? TIA
 
Lindsay-Jean H. January 30, 2018
I'm sorry to say that is correct Andreea.
 
Andreea S. January 30, 2018
oh, so bad :( really looking forward this rule to change. thanks for your answer
 
Deedledum February 2, 2018
It's a really unfortunate and offensive policy. I'm Canadian, and you don't want my dollars in your shop, or my recipes in your contests. I'm more than a little annoyed.
 
Lindsay-Jean H. February 4, 2018
Hi Deedledum, we've received many requests for international shipping, however, we're not quite there yet—right now, we're only able to ship within the US. Our shop is a bit unusual in that we curate items directly from artisans, designers, and small shops all over the country, so we don't have one central shipping location we ship from. It makes crossing borders extra complicated (surprisingly so) but please know that it's still very much something we are moving towards. We're in a somewhat similar situation with our contests—contests laws and regulations vary by country, as do data privacy laws. While we'd absolutely love to open up our contests to non-US entries, this is a complicated undertaking and we aren't quite there yet. Please know that we're working on a solution and I'm very sorry for the disappointment.
 
Deedledum February 7, 2018
Thanks for your response Lindsay-Jean.
 
Janet M. January 24, 2018
Just speaking for myself, of course. But even the prospect of a small "prize" would make it so much more appealing to enter...a kitchen utensil or a gift certificate to the site, for example.
 
sexyLAMBCHOPx January 25, 2018
I agree with you, Janet. The explanation is that F52 cant ship internationally. I lovingly call BS because the contest is open to US residents only. A fat gift certificate (with FREE shipping!) or items from their shop would be great incentive.
 
gr8chefmb January 22, 2018
Just curious...may we enter multiple recipes or is there a limit of just one recipe per contest? Thank you! :-)
 
inpatskitchen January 22, 2018
Well this is something new...I just read the official contest rules and found that only one recipe can be submitted. I've already submitted two and had planned on submitting one more. Previously we were able to submit as many recipes as we liked except in special circumstances. Oh well.....
 
cookinginvictoria January 22, 2018
The contest rules also say: "This contest is open to all US residents, aged 18 or older." Is that correct, Lindsay-Jean? Are international Food52ers no longer eligible to enter contests?
 
Lindsay-Jean H. January 26, 2018
We're grateful to our eagle-eyed members for bringing up the points regarding US-only entries and the single entry limitation. They aren't new additions to our contest rules, but they were important ones for us to carefully address. We're happy to say that we've updated the rules to remove the single entry limitation. We've looked into removing the US-only entry restriction, but have discovered some potential legal issues, so we need to stick with that for now. Thanks for your understanding and patience as we get back into the groove of contests.
 
cookinginvictoria January 26, 2018
Thanks for the update, Lindsay-Jean. Hoping that the U.S. only entry rules can be resolved soon. Would love to participate in an upcoming contest. In the meantime, I will cheer all of you American cooks on!
 
gr8chefmb January 26, 2018
Thank you so much for the update!! :-) Now, I can add another recipe that I think everyone will love. WooHoo!!!
 
sexyLAMBCHOPx January 19, 2018
A gift certificate to the Shop or a sponsor related prize would have been nice.
 
sexyLAMBCHOPx January 21, 2018
Would you re-consider a prize for the winner?
 
Lindsay-Jean H. January 22, 2018
We opted to forgo prizes for multiple reasons, one of the main ones being that we heard from our community that entering our contests was more about the participation than the prizes. Additionally, forgoing them enables an even playing field for worldwide participation, since we currently don't support international shipping. We're of course open to revisiting this topic, but we're going to test out this new system and see how it goes for now. We're hopeful that community members will still be excited to participate for the fun (and internet fame!).
 
sexyLAMBCHOPx January 24, 2018
A few people mwntioned that it wasn't the prize as it was the community spirit, recipe submissions by community and the fun. We, the community did not vote nor were we asked about how important a prize was if a winner. The fame and fun is good for amateur or season community members who have a blog or aspirations. Me, I would take a prize and the thought of having a winning recipe exploited for F52 doesn't excite me a bit.
 
TheFritschKitchen January 15, 2018
Will there no longer be community testing of the finalist?
 
Lindsay-Jean H. January 15, 2018
Hi TheFritschKitchen, that's correct, we've eliminated the formal community selection for recipe testing. This was done in the hopes of getting more community members involved making recipes right from the get-go—now there's no need to call dibs on a recipe you're interested in (or feel bummed that a recipe you wanted to test was already claimed by someone else). You can cook your way through as many of the submissions as you like! And we're still counting on your feedback to help us narrow the field (just share it in the comments of each recipe, and favorite the ones you've tested and loved). Also, we know a lot of community members test the two finalists, and we wanted to be able to engage more with Food52ers at that stage of the contest. We'll be looking for your votes then, along with pics of what you've tested on Instagram (just use the hashtag #f52recipecontest).
 
inpatskitchen January 15, 2018
So I went to one of my recipes that's slow cooked but when I went to the "edit" page there was no drop down to enter the recipe in the contest. I wasn't planning on entering it although I was curious to see if all was working. Also I can't seem to find the page with the entries ( or the soon to be entries) for the current contest. Help!
 
Lindsay-Jean H. January 15, 2018
Argh, so sorry Pat, looking into this now!
 
Lindsay-Jean H. January 15, 2018
Everything should be in working order now! My apologies again, and thanks for the quick catch!
 
inpatskitchen January 15, 2018
Thank YOU Lindsay-Jean!