Holidays

Would you consider adding New Year's Day to your list of Holidays for purposes of categorizing recipes?

boulangere
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20 Comments

Panfusine November 27, 2011
Speaking of categorization of 14 k recipes, I remember a project that was on the web some 10 yrs ago.. classification of galaxies into spiral (right handed/left handed) , circular & 'fuzzy', the consensus was that scanning software was no match for actual human eyes & so they threw open the images from the hubble space telescope to the general public to be classified.. I'm sure some of us will be glad to help you out with categorizations in the future..if you provide a set of guidelines.
 
Panfusine November 27, 2011
There you go.. The New Year theme theme just got a fabulous infusion of Ideas from world traditions! Interesting point about colors.. For the Tamil New year, tradition requires that the food prepared has components (not necessarily all in one dish of course) that encompass all 4 tastes.. sweet, salty, sour & bitter - to remind one that life offers all these 4 flavors and its essential to embrace them all
 
mensaque November 27, 2011
Reveillon as we call New Year's in Brazil comes with lots of traditions mostly based on superstitions and religious beliefs.To prosper,nothing like a bowl of lentils!And do not serve birds,or your life plans wil be held back.So we serve pork or 'bacalhau',a kind of salt-dried cod fish from Portugal.Most people go to the beach,where they pay respects and offer gifts like flowers and perfume to 'Iemanjá',the sea goddess to those like me who are spiritualists and follow 'Umbanda",an african religion based on the elements in nature tranlated into divinities,the 'Orixás'.Also jumping 7 waves at midnight on your right foot is believed to bring good luck,don't know if it really works but it's lots of fun.Also at midnight-and back to the food-you must have a glass of champagne with three green grapes in it...and you get a wish per grape!Like luvcookbooks said,collor is important,but over here is the collor of your clothes and not the of food that matters:white is for peace,yellow for gold(wealth),green for hope,red for passion,pink for love,and blue for good health.No black--black is for funerals!
 
luvcookbooks November 27, 2011
This is so interesting. I wasn,t sure I wanted to do New Year's this year, but this food pickle has inspired me, God willing. Thanks!
 
luvcookbooks November 27, 2011
Can you post some recipes for New Year's?
 
mensaque November 27, 2011
I'll be having a crazy,crazy week but I'll try to adapt a few recipes,just to make it easier on you to find the ingredients.I'll send you a message thru the site.
 
amysarah November 27, 2011
Just to clarify, I meant one broad category simply called Celebrations - which could sort of be a catch all for recipes that don't exclusively conform to one commonly agreed upon occasion...e.g., it could be a birthday cake or a wedding shower cake, or a Super Bowl dip or a house warming dip, or....different strokes, so to speak. A way of denoting celebration, but simplifying instead of adding (what could be) endless holiday/event categories.
 
amysarah November 27, 2011
Maybe rather than including Birthday, or New Yr, in the Holiday category, there could be another broader category simply called Celebrations - to cover any recipe the poster typically reserves for a special occasion, per family - or their own - tradition. Birthdays, ethnic celebrations, graduations, anniversaries, Super Bowl Parties, etc. Understanding it's a major project for Food52 to re-assign a new category to 14K+ recipes, could this simply be self-tagged moving forward? (Everything begins somewhere.) Perhaps this would help search for a special 'party' dish, w/o having to vet slippery - often idiosyncratic - distinctions (one man's birthday cake is another man's anniversary cake, is another...) The poster could still be more specific in their intro, of course: 'this is our favorite Boxing Day muffin' (huh?)....or, 'I make this elaborate pasta dish every year for my son's birthday' and so on.) Just a thought.
 
luvcookbooks November 27, 2011
heart the Super Bowl Party idea and the Celebration idea
just tried to order a ckbk about obscure celebrations, tho listed on the seller's website it was unavailable
incl Boxing Day
 
luvcookbooks November 26, 2011
For birthdays, isn't cake traditional? And children's bday parties are a huge challenge that I struggled with when my children were small.... adult food, kid food, how much, what, games, decor... gift parameters...
interesting to see adult b day ideas as well. My idea of heaven is going out to a nice restaurant for my birthday celebration, invented it myself so I wouldn't be the cook.
 
Amanda H. November 26, 2011
This summer as part of the redesign, we had 7 interns go through our 14,000+ recipes and re-categorize them all for our new, more-detailed categorization system. With birthdays, outside of cakes, it became too arbitrary to decide -- for instance, what you might serve at a birthday party when you're 25 is very different from what might be served at a party for 5 year old; also when it comes to cakes, we found ourselves asking what cake doesn't really work as a birthday cake?! Our amazing interns did their very best but in the end, the category became just too huge, unwieldy, and ultimately unhelpful. We could try again but going through that many recipes is quite the task!
 
luvcookbooks November 27, 2011
I think it would be (maybe) more useful to solicit birthday menus/recipes (would be a nice app, people struggle with birthday party menus and overall planning) and then categorize them as such if the submitter describes them as birthday. Otherwise you are trying to assign to a category without knowing the recipe writer's intention and you're right, it's impossible. I do have a cookbook of birthday cakes, but they could be used for other occasions. I have a cookbook of children's b day parties, too, but the individual recipes could be used for other parties. :) Interesting to hear the thought process behind the scenes.
 

Voted the Best Reply!

Panfusine November 25, 2011
Don't mean to sound like the proverbial devils advocate, but, does 'new year' have to be restricted to Jan 1 ? Traditions from different religions welcome a 'new year' like Rosh Hoshanah (Judaism), Navroze (Persian new year), Baisakhi, Vishu (Hindu/Indian) that does not fall on Jan 1st. but the calendar New year would be a great excuse to share recipes from all these different world traditions...
 
luvcookbooks November 26, 2011
Great thought, just expanded the New Year's horizon by dozens of cuisines. Can't wait to see this...
 
Homemadecornbread November 25, 2011
I disagree with Amanda. New Year's Day Foods is a good idea for a category. It would be fun to see the variety of things that people of different backgrounds serve on that day. I have found that some people like to serve dishes that remind them of their families' roots. Or dishes that evoke a special memory or tradition. I usually host a party on New Year's Day and serve ham, cabbage for money in the coming year, black eye for good luck, and cornbread - that's how my mom, from Alabama, did it. Sometimes it's been gumbo, oysters on the half shell, crab dip and shrimp cheesecake, too.

The traditions are out there. My Nevada cousins always serve curried chicken on that day. And when I lived in NYC, friends always cooked Chinese food.

Maybe you could limit the category to foods that are family traditions on New Years's Day. Might be fun!
 
BoulderGalinTokyo November 28, 2011
I think so too. From New Year's Eve soba (connecting old year to the new-and long life) to three days of specific New Year dishes in Japan, each has a meaning and history. Maybe we need to share and "create" a new tradition of "regional" dishes here. Maybe keep it to one day though...
 
SKK November 25, 2011
At our Thanksgiving dinner tonight we had a conversation about holidays in the US and where they came from. When we noticed ourselves veering off into an historical argument based on who knew what when and who was really the first group of Europeans to set foot in the Americas someone had the foresight to shift the conversation by asking "which months have no holidays?" in the US.

Could only come up with August - August recipes?

 
Amanda H. November 24, 2011
We could but it feels a little open-ended, since there are very few "traditional" New Year's Day foods. (Similarly, we tried to add Birthday Parties as a category and faced the same issue.) Do you have thoughts about what kinds of foods could qualify, or how to go about it? Let us know.
 
boulangere November 24, 2011
Oh, gosh, I was thinking Birthdays too! Let me think about it and I'll send you an email. Loved the photo of your daughter helping with that beautiful pie!
 
luvcookbooks November 26, 2011
Hopping John is a traditional New Year's Food. Green food for $$$ in the New Year and legumes (I forget why) are trad. I have a New Year's Day party most years and have tried many variations on Beans and Greens. That would be plenty for a contest, wouldn't it? I try to make healthy food because of the holiday excess just winding up. Rice and beans, soup, greens... fruit dessert... and chocolate because we get a lot for Christmas. Sparkling wine and sparkling juice for the kids. As soon as possible, kids get real champagne flutes for their "champagne". Hot spiced cider and hot chocolate for hors d'ouevre with popcorn.
 
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