Magazine vs. Online Recipes

[Michael Smith]

Nice online resource. This is second only to Epicurious.com in terms of features. Hope you guys continue to upgrade your site - it's a valuable addition to your magazine.

Your magazine recipes include a prep time metric which the online recipes seem to omit. Why?

On a related topic. What exactly is prep time a measure of? A friend of mine showed me a 5 min prep time recipe which I couldn't explain given the amount of ingredient handling mentioned. I'm sure your actual subscribers would be interested in this also.

[lisad]

Hey, Michael--

Thanks for the kind words. Sorry it took so long to get a reply, but I wanted to check with one of our food staff before I ventured an answer.

Unfortunately, the database we're currently using doesn't include the field for prep time. But we're really excited to say that we'll be debuting a new Recipe Finder in the next couple of weeks that will provide that metric and allow you to do more sophisticated searches of our database, besides. It also has a rate/review feature, and a cookbook feature that allows you to save our recipes and enter your own online.

As for calculating prep time, it's really not that complicated: Prep time is how long it takes you to get the ingredients together (trimming meat, chopping vegetables, measuring spices etc). It doesn't include cooking time, meaning that sauteeing for 5 minutes, baking for 30, etc., wouldn't be part of prep time, but it would be part of cooking time or total time.

Hope that helps!
Lisa D

[Michael Smith]

Thanks for the clarification Lisa. Prep time = non-cooking time. Great!

I have a feeling that maybe there was a misprint in the magazine or else my friend just preps at a very mild pace. Having a more interactive site will also allow for reader-suggested updates to classic recipes.

One more thing - in terms of more thorough info on the recipes published, you might consider adding a spiciness (heat) indicator. Some people with sensitive palates tend to judge a recipe negatively (from what I've seen on Epicurious and on your site) if it is too spicey for them. I know that it's an objective measure, but it could prevent premature hot flashes for those who are heat sensitive!

Keep up the good work!
Michael