Often no answers to Hotline questions about food52 on-site reipes
I've noticed for a long time that questions about recipes posted here that are either incomplete (ingredients, quantitates and/or directions) are not answered. There used to be a writer or editor who would address these questions if the members reading the section hadn't seen them or had no answers.
While I understand you only test a portion of the recipes in the test kitchen, users of food52 site may be disappointed both in an incomplete recipe (even if from a member and not tested) and silence on problems once noticed.
Is there a better way to handle these posted-but-not-tested recipes published under your auspices?
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12 Comments
Are you suggesting they are having similar problems with reliability of member-posted recipes? And/or could it be an issue of cutting tech costs for maintenance of the archive?
Nancy
I would think the reliability, food safety aspects, etc. of the member posted recipes would be a concern, and at least part of the reason for the purge. How much a part, I have no idea.
If a recipe has the test kitchen approved stamp, it has been verified and approved by our Test Kitchen team. If the stamp of approval is not present, we have not yet tested and verified the recipe shared by our Community members.
The easiest way to search a recipe to see if it has been tested and approved is to search a recipe or key words and select the filter on the left titled "Test Kitchen-Approved".
For example, a search for Maple Walnut Cake pulled up 26 results. An amazing show of contributions from our Community! When I selected the "Test Kitchen-Approved" filter, 2 recipes have been verified by our team.
Hope this answers your question and guides you towards the recipes we have tested and approved!
I'm an occasional visitor, and experienced cook and baker, now semi-retired and what I find odd about this site, that I've previously mentioned, are all the requests for substitutions and how to make recipes vegan, gluten-free, etc. It's absurd. If it were up to me, I'd simply delete the majority of those posts out-of-hand. They're almost self-parodying. They're ridiculous and there rarely is a right answer though people earnestly post as if there were one. "It worked great" from somebody who couldn't cook their way out of a wet paper sack isn't terribly reassuring. And then other people think it works, but it doesn't, and the process repeats itself.
I'm asking, if new(ish) cooks and users have twice found the food52 site not great:
* recipe they choose to make is incomplete or inconsistent,
* no response on Hotline to question about the problem,
will they come back?
Or just go to another cooking site for a similar recipe, help, shopping?
Thanks for your consideration; over to you,
Nancy
Some of the threads devolve into coming very close to providing medical advice to people who claim to have celiac and other disease conditions. Taking a stranger's advice about a substitute ingredient could put your health at serious risk. Please don't tempt people to provide such advice out of a sense of trying to be helpful. It's selfish and unfair to the rest of the group. If you're a strict vegan, have a competently and have a legitimately diagnosed serious celiac disease, there are websites specifically for you. If you're not eating gluten simply because it's the latest trend then YOU TELL US how to fix these recipes to make them work with no gluten. Let the rest of us enjoy our wheat flour, butter, cream, and eggs.
What I was (and am) asking about are missing, incomplete and/or misleading basic ingredients lists and directions.
For ex, see the one on hotline home page about no amount for sour cream in maple walnut cake recipe.