online culinary wiki

[johnmitsch]

egulleters,

I am starting an online culinary wiki that instead of focusing on individual recipies, focuses on the technique and skill of cooking, much like this forum. I need your help in choosing the categories of this wiki so far i have

Basic knife skills and cuts

-proper grip

-sharpening

-chopping an onion

-basic knife cuts

How to Cook...

-Proteins

-Vegetables

-Starches

-Stocks and Sauces

Under the how to cook section its going to be more detailed down to the cut of meat or type of veggie.

The main thing i want to achieve in the beginning stages is someone gets a thing of ny strip steak and some onions, and there staring at it wanting to get a little creative, they can go on this wiki and look at how to cook both, and the different ways to, and create something on thier own.

any suggestions are welcome, i really need some input here. should i create a section for marinades and spices? i mean i know the possibilities are endless here, but i would like to set up a central index that people can expand on thier own, and i want to keep it simple and general at first until more and more people use it and it can break into the very detailed of culinary arts. since this is a wiki the structure of it is most important to me in the beginning stages, rather than the actual information.

[Shalmanese]

How is this different from the Wikibooks Cookbook?

[johnmitsch]

you bring up a good point.. in fact im very happy you showed this to me because i had no idea about this site. From what i can tell wikimedia cookbooks has its main focus on recipies, and technique is to accompany the recipies and seems pretty basic. If i were to continue on with this website, i would need to have it focus purely on technique. more or less of a complete culinary school education online.

any input or suggestions would be helpful, but if you ask me there is a need for an open website that is purely on technique, not all about recipies.

[Shalmanese]

Why not just work on making Wiki Cookbooks better?

[Lisa Shock]

Why not just work on making Wiki Cookbooks better?

Agreed.

And, I'd like to point out that recipes are often just techniques with fancy names. -At least if you follow the classics as laid out by Careme, Escoffier, etc. Filet de Boeuf Montlhèry is one way to cook a filet of beef and Filet de Boeuf Tallyrand is another.

Most of what you have listed as your project are the introductory chapters to any good comprehensive cookbook. If Wiki Cookbooks is missing something you are qualified to write, then I don't see why you don't just go ahead and write it.