How We Choose GRIT Reader Recipes

By Jean Teller and Senior Associate Editor
Published on March 1, 2007
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Photo: Fotolia/Julija Sapic
We explain how we choose GRIT reader recipes for the Recipe Box column.

Learn about the process of choosing GRIT reader recipes for our Recipe Box column.

We love hearing from our readers, and especially when it comes to conversations about food. A variety of recipe requests find their way to Recipe Box, and sometimes it’s a challenge to determine which of the many wonderful responses to print.

Our decision might depend on the number of responses: If there are quite a few, it’s time to print one or two. If there aren’t many, we wait a while longer, hoping more readers respond. And if it’s been several months or more since the request was printed, then it’s definitely time to go into our archives and let you see a recipe on these pages.

It’s not a science, to be sure. We attempt to provide a variety of recipes from our archives, and to be a sort of “recipe broker” among our readers, who collectively form a vast storehouse of culinary knowledge. Some of these recipes go back decades, so if you’ve ever wished for a recipe for that special coleslaw your Great Aunt Margaret made, or wondered how to create the world’s best fried chicken, Recipe Box is the place to be.

Recipe Box depends heavily on our readers: Without you this column wouldn’t be here. The requests are yours; the responses are yours. Eventually, all of your responses are sent to the person who made the original request. We always enjoy reading the notes that accompany readers’ recipe responses, and we’re sure the requester spends a lot of time perusing the packet, reading each recipe and note, chuckling over comments, nodding in agreement when one strikes a chord. Many of those who receive such a packet take the time to send thank-you notes, although many are unable to because of time, money or other limitations. When individual notes are impossible, the lucky recipient of a recipe packet might send a thank-you note to our offices, and they are heartfelt notes.

Some people have suggested that we make Recipe Box solely an interactive feature on our Web site. But we don’t want to limit this resource to the Internet because some of our readers don’t use computers that much, and they’re often the ones with the best old-timey recipes.

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