On Thu, 20 Jan 2005 00:50:47 -0500, Olve Utne utne@nvg.org wrote:
I agree with Sabine, Giuseppe Guillaume, Sj, & al.: Recipes do belong in Wikipedia -- they are excellent sources of cultural information. The appropriate level of detail for the recipe may of course vary between articles: A recipe for "pinnekjøt(t)" (typical of (mostly) one region of Norway) is relatively easy to write down, and the variants are similar enough to each other that one can keep it short and clear. A recipe for "haroset" (typical of almost all Jewish cultures) is obviously going to be a much harder task with all its variety...
I disagree. The recipe may be the _source_ of the information, but we should extract the information that is important (product such-and-such has always those ingredients and sometimes those too, it is baked/cooked/whatever, etcetera) and leave out the information that is not descriptive of the product, but prosprictive of how it is made, as well as details that probably differ from person to person (exact quantities, temperature of the oven, cooking times). At the Dutch page on asparagus I wrote that a traditional way of eating them is with ham and eggs. That's essential information. Whether there should be one egg per 2, 4 or 10 asparagus cannot be specified without going POV. But a recipe is not complete without it.
Andre Engels