Slate | The Envelope, Please

"The results are in for Slate's recipe contest. About two weeks ago, we matched Web upstartfood52 (which invites recipe contributions from users) against Cook's Illustrated (which relies on professional cooks and a meticulous testing process). Each contender created two recipes—one for pork shoulder, another for chewy sugar cookies; then we asked Slate readers to vote for their favorites.

In both competitions, Cook's Illustrated won. But it was a very close vote. This particular election did not necessarily provide a broad mandate for experience, tradition, and professional expertise over crowd-sourcing. Out of the 103 respondents who prepared both pork shoulder recipes and completed our poll, 54 chose the Cook's Illustrated pork shoulder with peach sauce, and 49 opted for food52's porchetta. The cookie competition was even more of a squeaker: Out of 166 respondents, 84 chose Cook's Illustrated Chai-spice sugar cookies, while 82 preferred food52's chewy sugar cookies No. 2."

-Sara Dickerma