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One addition to Jane's plea for a member who might be willing to index the American Cooking: New England title from Time-Life's Foods of the World series: we've been indexing these FOTW titles from the spiral-bound "recipe booklet" that accompanied the hardbound main volume, as the booklet contains all the same recipes in the hardback volume as well as bonus recipes unique to the booklet.  The hardbounds were not really designed to be cooked from -- in fact, they were probably intended to be displayed encyclopedia-style in a nice bookcase -- whereas the recipe booklets were for use in the kitchen.  So if a member with the FOTW American Cooking: New England recipe booklet would like to index it, please contact me for further instructions!

I'm sure I've seen the answer somewhere but can't find it! My question is that if a potential store-cupboard ingredient is listed in a more general way than that specified in the list, can it still be treated as a store-cupboard ingredient and excluded? Specific examples would be ingredients simply listed as onions, wine vinegar, vinegar, mustard etc.

TrishaCP, are you asking if we can copy the recipes from the indexed book to the unindexed book to save time?  The answer is yes; in fact, we do this all the time for pro-indexed books!  Please email me ([email protected]) the specifics on the indexed book and the unindexed edition you want to index -- links to the books in the EYB Library are best -- and we'll do the copying and tell you how to proceed from there.

Jane, Christine, Deborah, Sydney, and all EYB staff: Thanks very much for the responses, and the insight into the decision-making behind the indexing priorities.  This kind of responsiveness and transparency is what makes the difference between a true membership site and a commercial "community".

I very much take your point about the Escoffier and New Doubleday books being the equivalent of four or five normal cookbooks. Back when Larousse Gastronomique was indexed, I remember being pleased and impressed, then immediately wondering if the person who did it needed to take a good long time off afterwards. 

Maybe there could be tag teams of 5-6 Member Indexers to tackle some of those remaining encyclopedic works that are on a good number of bookshelves? I'd happily be on a team for Encyclopedia of Chinese Food & Cooking, if the process were that one indexer does the first 200 recipes, the next 201-400, etc., but would not feel able to commit to being responsible for the whole thing.  Just a thought.

ICE (cubes)

I can't seem to find them, am I just not entering the right search terms or do they really not exist? My very first recipe for indexing is a breakfast smoothie that has ice cubes as a major component. I know it's just frozen water but when it's a major element of a simple dish I feel it should be included? Have I just missed it or should I submit a new ingredient request?

Fahara - ice cubes and water are not considered to be ingredients that you would be using when searching for a recipe or need on a shopping list.  Items that are considered as store-cupboard ingredients i.e. that most cooks would have in stock, are not indexed.

3 questions

I added mentsuyu (noodle dipping sauce) as a new ingredient.  This shows up on several recipes throughout the book.  Do I have to keep adding it each time?  Without adding each time, this ingredient will be missed?

Negi onions - I see it referred as Tokyo negi onions or Tokyo green onions.  Although that's ok, negi is more generic and can be found elsewhere in Japan.  Can I just add the new ingredient as negi (Japanese long green onions)?

Can ramen noodles (soups) considered soups?  Can ramen salads considered salads? 

Hi Jane, I understand the rules about Storecupboard ingredients, but it says under the relevant briefining doc (http://support.eatyourbo...pboard-ingredients-table) that you DO include things like flour/baking powder/wate/ice if they are named in the title OR are in unusually large quantities, and so they all (except ice) come up if you type them in the ingredients field. In the case of the recipe I'm indexing (a frozen smoothie), the ice is 50% of the volume of the final recipe - would that not be a case for being its own ingredient?

Originally Posted by: Jane

Fahara - ice cubes and water are not considered to be ingredients that you would be using when searching for a recipe or need on a shopping list.  Items that are considered as store-cupboard ingredients i.e. that most cooks would have in stock, are not indexed.

Another question please?

Many recipes in the book I am indexing contain a number of sub-recipes, eg the recipe titled "Banana bavarois with oat wafer and salted caramel sauce" contains 3 subrecipes for banana bavarois, oat wafer and salted caramel sauce..

As far as indexing the main title, goes, this is fairly straightforward and I have listed all ingredients as per the recipe within a recipe guidelines.

I have also indexed the sub recipes, oat wafer and salted caramel sauce, as these can be used in other ways or in other dishes. So far, so good.  However:

1  Should I also index the first component of the dish - banana bavarois - as a separate entry?

2  Also, in the main entry - Banana bavarois with oat wafer and salted caramel sauce - should I include the recipe types  Cookies, biscuits and crackers, and Sauces for desserts along with the main recipe type of Mousses, custards, trifles and creams?

Similar questions arise with many other recipes in this book so a ruling would be appreciated.

Many thanks

Chris Ann

Hi, pokarekare -- You don't actually need to index those sub-recipes separately unless the book presents them as separate recipes, or unless another recipe suggests, say, the salted caramel sauce as a sauce to be served alongside, in which case you'd have to index the sauce on its own so that you could list it as an Accompaniment to that other recipe.  When the book/author presents a composed dessert like your example as one recipe, all you need to do is to make sure to index an appropriate Recipe Type for each component: Mousses, trifles... for the Banana Bavarois (note the capital on Bavarois, as indicated in the Recipe Types List); Cookies, crackers & biscuits for the oat wafer; and Sauces for desserts for the salted caramel sauce.  And of course you need to list all the ingredients for the entire composed dessert recipe as you've done.  If you feel the components merit separate indexing as recipes, feel free to do so, but it's extra work for you, and the sub-recipes are equally accessible either way.

Thanks Deborah! I was slowly coming to the view that was likely the most sensible way to proceed but I thought I should check! :)

If a recipe has a place name in the title, should I include the Ethnicity category to be that country? I'm just indexing Somerset chicken - it's a one-pot chicken in the oven dish and I'm wondering if I should include English as the Ethnicity.  If the dish didn't have Somerset in the title I wouldn't include any Ethnicity category for this recipe.

Originally Posted by: Rinshin

3 questions

 

I added mentsuyu (noodle dipping sauce) as a new ingredient.  This shows up on several recipes throughout the book.  Do I have to keep adding it each time?  Without adding each time, this ingredient will be missed?

 

Negi onions - I see it referred as Tokyo negi onions or Tokyo green onions.  Although that's ok, negi is more generic and can be found elsewhere in Japan.  Can I just add the new ingredient as negi (Japanese long green onions)?

 

Can ramen noodles (soups) considered soups?  Can ramen salads considered salads? 

Help appreciated. 

Rinshin- maybe email [email protected] with these questions directly, as if a new ingredient is featured frequently its much easier to ask for it to be created first. But in the interim, What I would do would be to indicate the new ingredient you are requesting in the indexer notes for each recipe where you need it, so that you can go back and add it in when its created, or Sydney can easily see where it needs to go.

As to negi onions: what you sound as though you're asking for is a regional variation - again, I'd note the regional variation in the  indexer note section, and use the variant that is listed in the drop down list

As to ramen: if its a soup list as soup and pasta dough/sauce (to cover the noodle); if its a salad list as salad and pasta/dough

But Deborah or Sydney will have the authoratative response! Its often quicker to email these sort of questions direct to Deborah!

Susan F: I'm guessing Somerset chicken is a casserole type of dish that includes cider and apples possible cream.. I'd index English given teh place name that's included (I think you;ll find the manual indicates to do that too!)

Thanks DebKellie, you're right.  I even had the Ethnicities section open and somehow missed this:

Doh!!  :-)

I am having difficulty categorising recipes for 'crumbs', dusts, soils, foams, powders etc. The don't really fit into recipe types such as Spice/herb blends, rubs. Just a few examples are: virtual bacon dust, chocolate foam, olive soil, popcorn powder, coffee crumb etc.

Not every recipe can have a type, the search index was going to get too unwieldy.  So if there isn't an obvious type and you cannot find the word in a search of the Recipe Types List then leave that field blank.  Sounds like you are indexing a molecular gastronomy book - we have in the past had to add many new ingredients for those books.

Not really molecular gastronomy at all! ;) Just recipes using the thermomix - a wonderful machine that makes producing such things in your own kitchen really easy!