Is the Cooking Club running out of steam?

Hey Sparks! I think we're full for 2015 now. Could we keep you in mind should someone drop out or not be able to do their week?

I think this forum is unusual in that there's probably a huuuge number of lurkers (like me!) who rarely/never post, but who follow the forum avidly.

I read every recipe posted here (even the ones where I know from the title I'd have no interest in trying out for myself), and I'm a BIG fan of the photos! The more the better.

Unfortunately I only occasionally get around to trying the recipes. I'm going to have a look through them now, and if there are any I tried out but didn't comment on at the time, will rectify that!

I have to admit, something I do that's probably not really in the spirit of this forum, is that I often just use it as inspiration towards a particular dish, rather than following the recipe properly. If I were to decide, "Hmmmm I think I'd like to try cooking *whatever* dish", I'd almost certainly search this forum to see if it's been done here, but I'd also look up a few online/cookbook recipes, and take elements and ingredients from all of them. And when this happens, while the recipe here may have formed the core of "my" recipe, I wouldn't feel right commenting. I mean, what would I say? "I made this and it was delicious! Except I left out this ingredient and this one and this one, added in a few other things, completely skipped that step because it seemed unnecessary, oh and I used a totally different method for that step. But yeah, great recipe!" I'm sure that happens a lot - people "use" this forum for inspiration in their cooking, but mightn't necessarily follow the recipes themselves. That's not really constructive feedback, is it? Although I will aim to try more of the recipes in future (and will leave feedback when I do!)

I strongly agree with what a couple of others posted earlier in the thread, about a trial period (maybe three months at start of 2016?) where it's a free-for-all, people can post whatever recipe they want, whenever they want. I know there's the random recipes thread, but so many great recipes get lost in there (and often I suspect it's probably because the poster didn't have the confidence to sign up for the "official" schedule.) And I think people are less likely to put effort/photos etc into posts in the random recipe thread. Also, if people are allowed start threads whenever they want, I think we're more likely to see good simple straightforward dishes - less (perceived) pressure to produce something amazing! I mean, if I took a notion some evening to photograph my preparation of my (very simple!) lemon and lime chicken, and post it up in the forum, and no one "liked" it or commented - no big deal. Whereas if I did it as part of the official cooking club schedule, and it got no comments or interest, I'd sort of feel like I'd let people down with a boring recipe. I also think, with no set schedule, we'd see a lot more small dishes like simple sides and starters, which would be great.

Sparks wrote: »

Dunno about anyone else, but the word I use for what you just described is "cooking"...

I guess what I mean is, I often use a recipe here as a basis for whatever I'm going to make, but vary it a lot, without even attempting the original version posted here.

Whereas if I were to use this forum in the way in which it's intended, I should make the dish according to the recipe posted here (or at least as closely as possible), then come back with photos of how it turned out, and any feedback/questions on the recipe.

And then I could always make my own variations in the future.



By the way, I've one more bit of feedback ... big THANK YOU to the mods for all the work that goes into the stickied threads with all recipes (including the ones in the Random Recipe thread, I only realised today!) linked according to year and category. It must be an absolute PITA job that takes up a lot of time, but I really do appreciate being able to browse the recipes in those threads, and I'm sure others appreciate it too.