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I would like to see a couple of additional features on ingredients:

1. I would like to see resources such as Charmaine Solomon's Encyclopedia of Asian Food be indexed (linked) to the ingredient list for all ingredient entries. This would be separate from the recipes. (Note one could easily expand this concept to link to Wikipedia or http://gernot-katzers-spice-pages.com/ as well as ingredient description sections of cookbooks.)


2. I would like to see ingredients have subindex of other names for the ingredient in the form of language-name. This would make it easier to handle ingredients for recipes from countries such as India where the name of the ingredient in the cookbook depends on the regional language of the author. One language could be scientific which would disambiguate cases where the same name is used for different ingredients in different parts of the world.

This would make it easier when I run into a recipe using an unfamiliar ingredient to find where I have information about the ingredient or to discover that I know it but under a different name.

This is tagging that could easily be done by users as there is little of the classification issues associated with recipes.

Isn't that what "google" exists for Mjes??? I think your suggestion, although valid, would make indexing awfully complicated ! And as an indexer, I  would NOT like to see this suggestion implemented ;-)

Originally Posted by: mjes

I would like to see a couple of additional features on ingredients:

1. I would like to see resources such as Charmaine Solomon's Encyclopedia of Asian Food be indexed (linked) to the ingredient list for all ingredient entries. This would be separate from the recipes. (Note one could easily expand this concept to link to Wikipedia or http://gernot-katzers-spice-pages.com/ as well as ingredient description sections of cookbooks.)


2. I would like to see ingredients have subindex of other names for the ingredient in the form of language-name. This would make it easier to handle ingredients for recipes from countries such as India where the name of the ingredient in the cookbook depends on the regional language of the author. One language could be scientific which would disambiguate cases where the same name is used for different ingredients in different parts of the world.

This would make it easier when I run into a recipe using an unfamiliar ingredient to find where I have information about the ingredient or to discover that I know it but under a different name.

This is tagging that could easily be done by users as there is little of the classification issues associated with recipes.

 

Only Google books even comes close :-)

I have yet to gain sufficient experience in indexing but coming from an IT background, I would expect it to be easier to code. For the indexer it should make no change to their current method unless they were indexing a reference book. For a reference book it would add an entry per headword but that would be a very simple entry.

However, it is my limited experience in searches returning erroneous results on ingredients and my difficulty in finding appropriate ingredients for manually added online recipes that made me create the suggestion

I've discovered that a personal recipe that lists the ingredients covered by a reference section serves well for searching. I made such a "personal recipe" for Kansha: Celebrating Japan's Vegan and Vegetarian Traditions and ran into only a couple of problems in finding the ingredient on the list.

mjes - I appreciate that you are a new member and very enthusiastic about ways the site could be improved to suit your needs. However EYB is a very small company with limited resources and we apply them (staff and money) to areas that will be of the most benefit to the most members. In seven years of operation no other member has made the requests you mention so they cannot be priorities for us.

I have to agree with Debkellie.  I've indexed quite a few books, and if in addition to the actual indexing, I also would have to consider the names of ingredients in multiple iterations/languages....I'm pretty sure I would stop indexing!!!!!! 

As another member indexer I can only say that I agree with Debkellie and TrishaCP.  Indexing is already fairly complex, let's not complicate it further or give Sydney something else to check our work for!

What would be the purpose of indexing reference books at all? They have a firm position on our bookshelves but they do not contain recipes. But many of them are tagged with "request index" and I would suggest to tag them as "no recipes". The same goes to other nonfiction titles. I wonder how such books one could find in our library.

We do tag "No recipes" on many books, including reference books, memoirs/biographies, etc., if they absolutely don't contain anything indexable as a recipe. But many such non-cookbooks often do contain recipes buried in the narrative so we wouldn't want to exclude those from Request Index status.

That was nicely said, thank you. But still, can those books be listed (searched for)? So far, you can find them under "unindexed books".

I have also used Google and Wikipedia for ingredient searches, especially for unusual fruits and vegetables. It helps me know the name that my grocery store might call something, its seasonality, and a picture (so I can recognize it). Sometimes it helps with ingredient substitutions, if I know related items in the same botanical family. 

And I agree with the other member-indexers: it doesn't need to be more complicated!

Originally Posted by: Jane

In seven years of operation no other member has made the requests you mention so they cannot be priorities for us.

Having a background in IT I have no problem with your decision although I suspect others would find it useful if they were familiar with cookbooks that have such coding. But I will find ways around the problems that fit within your structure.

Originally Posted by: Braco777

What would be the purpose of indexing reference books at all?

Actually, I would index reference books before I would index recipes. Why? If I am looking at a recipe with an unfamiliar ingredient, the reference books tells me:

1. What stores I should target to find the ingredient


2. How to store the ingredient and for how long it can be kept which tells me the timing of my trip to the market


3. How to recognize the product which can be tricky for many Asian products.


4. Sufficient knowledge of the product to know what the pros / cons of available substitutes are

That gives me enough motivation to index reference books ... and yes, I've found a satisfactory work around and tested its usefulness.

Originally Posted by: TrishaCP

 I also would have to consider the names of ingredients in multiple iterations/languages...

You misunderstand the process - names would be added only as you encounter them just as you currently have to consider other names to determine if an ingredient has to be added. It should actually be simpler but the point is moot at this point.