How should we tag questions about specific techniques?

Question

We had an earlier meta question about this, but (a) it didn't get a lot of attention, and (b) I don't think it really asked the right question.

Right now I'm seeing a lot of inconsistency in the tags. We have:

• [technique] and [cooking-techniques]
• [baking] and [baking-techniques] (and a lone [baking-technique])
• [best-practices], which has been used primarily for technique-related questions
• A host of narrower tags such as grilling, frying, etc.
• ...and so on.

These are adding a lot of noise and confusion to the tag system.

Shall we settle on a "system" for tagging questions about techniques?

Answer 1

My recommendation is the following:

• Use the -ing verb of the specific technique being asked about.

  Examples: [baking], [frying], [caramelizing], [broiling], [kneading]

  Don't use: [baking-techniques].

• Equipment-related questions should describe the action being performed on or with the utensil, if possible.

  Examples: [chopping], [mincing], [cleaning], [sharpening]

  Don't use: [skillet], [knife-care], [spatula-technique]. (Note that some of these tags are fine, but should be used for other kinds of questions, like selection or maintenance)

• Eliminate the [technique] and [cooking-techniques] tags.

  This one may be controversial, but after first posting about this several days ago, I still don't see them being particularly useful. Remember that the primary purpose of tags is to make it easy for people to find questions they can answer. The aforementioned tags are too general to be of any use in that.

  What's more, the tags were used heavily in the private beta when there were very few questions, but now that real sub-areas are starting to emerge, people are using them less frequently. I think that if the community naturally starts to lean away from a particularly vague tag in favour of more specific tags, that's a good sign that the tag is... too vague.

I am not married to this system (I've tried to pick one that seems consistent with the way most of the community is already doing it), and if somebody has a better one then feel free to contribute. The important thing is that we're consistent!