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INSTRUCTIONS & FAQ

FAQ & Instructions for making a request:

  • You gotta sign your real first name to your request. Not e-mail name, not chat handle, not initials (unless you're one of those people who uses their initials as their first name in everyday life), but your real first name. You don't need to go overboard and send me your home address and phone number. I don't need those things, and you shouldn't give them out too freely, anyhow. Just sign your real first name at the bottom of your request, like signing a letter.
  • Please limit your recipe requests to one per e-mail. It's okay to send multiple e-mails, each with a different request, but please don't send one e-mail with multiple requests in it.
  • PLEASE AVOID USING ALL-CAPS. On the Internet and in e-mails, all caps means you're shouting. Besides that, it looks terrible on my pages, so if I'm going to use your request, then I have to re-type the whole thing. I know we aren't all expert typists (myself included), but please turn off that caps lock.
  • Before you write, check the Most Popular Requests Page to see if what you want is already there. Then search the Archives with the search engine. If you don't find what you want, then e-mail me.
  • Please enhance the chance of finding your recipe by providing as much of this information as possible (in order of importance):
    • The name of the recipe or dish is most important.
    • As many of the ingredients as you know.
    • What type of recipe is it? What cuisine - Italian, German, French, Southern U.S., etc?
    • Where did you have it? A restaurant? What was the name of the restaurant? What city was the restaurant in? Perhaps it's an old family recipe? What's the family ancestry? Italian, German, Polish , etc? In what part of this country did your family live? Was the recipe in a magazine or newspaper or in a cookbook or on a TV cooking show? Which one?
    • Was there anything special about the recipe instructions or technique? What?
    • If you are looking for a restaurant or bakery recipe, and you are a fairly adept Google user and you have already Googled the name of the restaurant and the name of the dish, then please don't waste my time. I have no other source for this type of recipe than what you've already checked. Sometimes a recipe just isn't on the Internet, and sometimes it isn't available at all.
  • Please realize that searching the Internet is a big part of what I do. If you have already searched the Internet for your recipe and found recipes with the same name that weren't right,you need to tell me and tell me why they weren't right. Otherwise, I'll unknowingly just send you those same recipes.
  • I don't have any "secret source" for recipes from restaurants and bakeries that are currently in operation. If you've Googled it thoroughly, and if you've seen posts on message boards from people looking for the same recipe with no succcessful responses, then you've already covered the ground I would cover. Please don't waste my time. Time to face the fact that the place doesn't give out their recipes and no one has created a copycat. Sad, perhaps, but often true.
  • Please don't take offense if I correct your spelling. Correct spelling and/or having the correct names of dishes and ingredients and restaurants is vital to searching the Internet and recipe databases for recipes. Please don't take offense if I correct what I see as misconceptions in your e-mail.
  • If you want to prove me wrong about something, you must provide references. I research my replies, and I won't change something without a reference to back up the change.
  • If the recipe you're looking for is something that you had in a restaurant, please provide the name of the restaurant and its location so that I can try to find their menu online. Most restaurants do not freely give out their recipes, and people rarely create copycat recipes for dishes from local restaurants. I do not call restaurants and ask for their recipes, and I have no special method of obtaining restaurant recipes. If it's not on the Internet and you didn't get it when you asked the chef, then it's probably not available. If you ask for the recipe for "mussels & macaroni" from "Claude's Bistro" and I am unable to find it, do you want any recipe for "mussels & macaroni" that I find or will only Claude's do?
  • These types of recipes particularly interest me: nostalgic recipes from restaurants, hotels, amusement parks, drive-ins, etc that are no longer in operation; historical recipes; European recipes; Asian recipes; African recipes; weird and unusual foods; recipes with a story attached to them; literary recipes; traditional Southern food; traditional Northeastern food; traditional Western recipes; Caribbean recipes; Latin American recipes; haute cuisine; seafood recipes; historical puzzles; trivia and other non-recipe questions.
  • Note that most of the recipe searching that I do, whether on the Internet or in databases, makes use of "keywords". So, to find a particular recipe, I need something unique about it to use as a "keyword". If you are looking for a carrot cake recipe that is "mostly carrots", but it doesn't have a unique name or a unique ingredient or a unique combination of ingredients, then I'm not going to have any success for you. The recipe may be there somewhere, but there are thousands of carrot cake recipes, and the one you're looking for is extremely unlikely to say "mostly carrots" anywhere in it. So there's no way to sort it out from all the others. The only way you can find such a recipe is to Google and check every carrot cake recipe on the Internet.
  • Please be as specific as possible. Please don't write and ask for "some chicken recipes" or "some low fat recipes"or "some recipes with brazil nuts" or "something interesting with lark livers." That's not what I do. I search for specific recipes (and answers to questions) that you cannot find.
  • Please don't send a vague request for a common dish like "peach pie", I will find dozens of peach pie recipes, and I cannot send them all to you, nor can I send you a few at a time until you recognize the one you want. You will have to use Google and sort through them yourself. The exception is if the recipe has a unique name or unique ingredients.
  • If at all possible, give me the name of the recipe. I can't do much with nothing but a description and only one or two common ingredients. Please understand that I can't search for a recipe by a description of what the finished product looked like or how it tasted. If you've been making a particular recipe for years, but you lost it when you moved, then you've looked at that recipe dozens of times. What's the name at the top of the recipe? Visualize it.
  • Always give me all of the ingredients you can think of up front, and the cooking method. Don't let me spend time searching, and sending you recipes and then tell me "That's not it. The one I want has cinnamon." Tell me from the beginning that it has cinnamon.
  • Anything unusual about the recipe is particularly helpful, and may be the only way to distinguish that recipe from hundreds of others with similar names & ingredients.
  • If a request is interesting to me, but my search is unsuccessful, I sometimes post the request on my site anyhow. That's so other readers will have a chance to help. I often have readers send me recipes in response to requests from years ago. If I still have their e-mail address, I'll send it on to the original requester. Either way, I'll post it just below the original request. So, if you've made a request that I was unsuccessful at finding, you should check back once in a while to see if it's been answered. Recipes that usually don't make the cut on this include: Jello salad & Jello dessert recipes, recipes from magazines, recipes frome the backs of product boxes or cans, and copycat recipes for dishes from restaurants or bakeries that are currently in operation.
  • If you have the specific recipe that someone has asked me for, by all means send it to me! Please pay attention to what they asked, though. If they asked me for the ham croquette recipe from Bill Knapps, that's what they want - not just any ham croquettes recipe, no matter how good it may be, nor do they want something close that they can adapt, unless they specifically say so.
  • If you are writing from work, and you don't want to receive a reply at work, then perhaps you should wait until you get home before you send your request. I cannot promise that I won't, out of habit, automatically click send and send the reply to the address that it was sent from. I usually catch myself right after I have done so, and then I re-send it to the alternate address, but I can't retract the first one.
  • Sorry, I don't search for Jell-o desserts or salad unless you have a unique name for the dish. There are too many of them and many of them only differ by one small thing.
  • Besides recipes, I also search for hard to find ingredients. Also, for old record albums, books, videotapes, trivia answers, and just about anything else.
  • From time to time people write wanting recipes for dishes with raw eggs or recipes for home-canning meats/fish or recipes for canning things in pure olive oil or olive oil and garlic. I respect FDA warnings on these things, so I no longer pass on such recipes.
  • The content of this site is reader-driven. The purpose is to find answers to readers' requests. I also do links to recipes of different countries, mainly because I get so many requests for recipes for specific countries. I also do cookbook reviews and may post a recipe from those reviewed cookbooks as an example of what may be found in them. If someone feels that a post is an infringement of their rights, I will remove it if I'm convinced they have a valid complaint.
  • If you don't get a reply to your e-mail, then some possible reasons are: 1) You didn't give your real first name, or 2) There was something wrong with your return e-mail address on the message you sent. or 3)If you have a spam guard that bounces all e-mails except those on your "friends list", then your aren't going to get your answer unless you have put my e-mail address on that list already. Sorry, I'm not going to some website and fill out a form so you can get a reply to the e-mail request that you sent to me. After all, You wrote to me. Add me to your friends list before you write to me. 4) Finally, I have a SPAM-Guard too, and it sometimes "junks" a valid e-mail. I try to catch all of these, but I may miss one occasionally. It helps if you put something about "recipe" or "request" in the subject line.
  • You can't rely on the answer to your request being posted on the site. I don't post every one of them, only the ones that I think are interesting.
  • Notice that this is a website. Its content is made up of e-mail requests from readers and my replies to them. I won't give your full name, and I will delete your e-mail address, but your e-mail question or request may be posted on this site unless you have good reason and specifically request confidentiality. I do not give out e-mail addresses to third parties, and I do not automatically subscribe anyone to a newsletter, which I don't have anyway. Any recipe that you send me may be also placed on the website unless you specifically request that it not be.
  • Disclaimer: I have not, by any means, tried all of the recipes that I find on the Internet. Often I don't even have time to read them closely before I send them out. Many of them come from message boards, and there may occasionally be an ingredient or a step left out. Not having tried the recipes myself, I can't guarantee any of these recipes. Read the recipes through and see if they make sense before you use them and test them before you use them for an event. If you find a recipe on the site with an error or omission, please let me know.
  • Notice: Eating fatty foods or sugary foods may cause you to gain weight or to have the health problems associated with the intake of such foods. You prepare these recipes and eat these foods at your own risk, as do I. I merely locate recipes for those who ask. I am not responsible for the nutritional content of foods prepared from any recipe that I list or link to, nor for any health problems resulting from their use or from the consumption of the foods or beverages described therein.
  • Send your questions to:

    Phaedrus
    phaedrus@hungrybrowser.com

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Phaedrus