On Tue, 11 May 2004, Ray Saintonge wrote:
So a description of how a food is made is encyclopedic, but instructions on how to make that food are not encyclopedic.
The descriptive/prescriptive distinction is very narrow in this case. I prefer to avoid a pompous definition of what is encyclopedic.
Not really, the instructive case tells you how to make a specific version of a food product but the descriptive case tells you how it is made in general.
To look at a very simple case consider boiling rice, a specific recipe could tell you to use a kettle to pre-boil water, another could state the entire procedure should be done on a hob, yet another could suggest using a microwave. And that's before you start considering things such as whether you should add salt and how much you should add.
On the other hand a descriptive version could just be "the rice is heated in boiling water".
Imran