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Comment by kevinconroy | Hacker News Reader

I've found that part of the problem is that there's a very bad user experience with recipe formats. They assume that one will get all ingredients out first and will only start to follow the instructions once everything is ready. Almost no one does that all of the time.

The back and forth reading that you have to do results in errors because you lose your place, skip a step, add an ingredient in the wrong order, etc. That really impacts the results. In this vein, I've been working on a format that lets you just go top to bottom with much better results. Would love to hear your thoughts.

http://www.makebetterfood.com/recipes/

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Your format is most certainly NOT for me. I am one of those people that do get all ingredients out first. I also get all my required measuring instruments out ahead of time. I also read the entire recipe so I can plan my steps. A normal recipe format is ideal for me. Your format is confusing to me. But everyone does things differently. I'm sure your format has an audience. Good luck.

In fact, it is much better to do what you describe. My cooking life became much easier once I learned to get a proper mise-en-place going. By the time I actually turn on a burner or anything like that, everything is fully prepped and ready to go in a pre-measured container.

How can you do a mise for, e.g., one-off home baking? In the case of familiar recipes I find it easier and cleaner to use a JIT process...

I don't bake, I only cook so your specific example I don't know.

I'll also admit that when I'm dialing something in ("needs more X") that obviously that's not prepped ahead of time.

Anything else I find it easier and cleaner to just have a bowl of X ready to go. It goes in the dishwasher within minutes of using it, and my cutting board and such was already cleaned.

You should take a look at Cooking for Engineers. They've come up with an interesting diagram shorthand for recipes that, while rather reductionist, provides a nice quick reference when you're in the thick of things.

An example: http://www.cookingforengineers.com/recipe/200/Osso-Buco

That's hilarious! As soon as I saw that diagram, I knew how to read it. I write recipes I copy off the internet onto paper in a similar format. List of ingredients, along with a word or two about what to do with them, draw a line next to the whole grouping and an arrow into the next step where that result is used.

There's a fairly well established alternate format (active format) for recipes that addresses the concern you identify, which is pretty similar to your format but with the action for each step ahead of the steps ingredients; is also fairly common for standard format recipes to break into seperate pieces based on where separating prep makes sense.

I'm think of you aren't breaking on natural prep separations but just on traditional recipe steps, then the action-first approach of the active format is superior (since awareness of the actions is essential to planning prep), but for people with less kitchen experience (or that want to spend less effort analyze the recipe before executing) the standard format--possibly with explicit prep separations--is the best way to go. Failing to prep before starting execution is a common source of failure, and while separating pero can work, doing prep one action at a time rarely works well.

One thing that your recipe format helps with is timing, which is one of the things that I always found fun about cooking. Which is, how to have everything work to come out about the same time. So how do you prep and cook, and work in a special detail at the same time.

Do you have plans to incorporate full meals on the site, such as a meat dish with two sides and how to cook them all together, to come out at the same time?

I like your format very much, and it's close to how I usually transcribe recipes if transcription is necessary... poking around through the "wall of ingredients" of an unfamiliar recipe is extremely time-consuming and a great source of errors. Worst of all are the recipes that specify total quantity of an ingredient, but only in the detail advise to reserve some of it to be used in two different steps.

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