We kicked off a Topic of the Week series on a few other sites, and now we're bringing it to Cooking Stack Exchange! The basic idea is to increase the content we have about hot and/or underrepresented topics. We started off with questions about deep frying (based on discussion in the introductory meta thread), but feel free to leave suggestions here for future topics.

Congratulations to yamikuronue, winner of the bacon contest!

How it works: We will designate one topic each week, and each person who asks a question relating to that topic will be eligible to win a prize.

How to enter: Ask a question relating to the topic of the week, and tag it accordingly (this week, use the salad tag). Each question you ask will get you one entry into a random drawing to win a book of your choice (under $50).

Choosing the topic of the week: Topics are chosen based on community input. If you have suggestions for next week's topic, please leave them as answers to this post.

Dates: Salad week goes from now (Tuesday 6/5/2012) until 10 AM EDT on Tuesday 6/12/2012.

Fine Print: This contest is open to all users across the globe, but the book of the winner's choice must be available for purchase online so that Stack Exchange can easily buy and ship it. The book does not have to be related to the topic of that week, but it should be related to cooking. Questions must remain open and not have a negative score in order to be eligible. You must include at least one of the designated tags for the current contest, but you may add additional tags as necessary. Each person may only win one weekly topic contest in an 8-week period.

Previous Weekly Challenge Topics & Winners:

• Jan 3 - 10: Deep frying (winner FuzzyChef)
• Jan 10 - 17: Cheese (winner rumtscho)
• Jan 17 - 31: Pastry (winner KatieK)
• Jan 31 - February 7: Soup (winner Aaronut)
• Feb 7 - 14: Chocolate (winner ElendilTheTall)
• Feb 14 - 21: Vegetarian/vegan (winner Sam Ley)
• Feb 21 - 28: Bread (winner rfusca)
• Feb 28 - March 6: Sauce (winner mfg)
• Mar 6 - 13: Middle Eastern cuisine (winner Mien)
• March 13 - April 3: Pies, cakes, cookies (winners jotyc, rumtscho, and village)
• April 3 - 10: Catering & bulk cooking (winner Sobachatina)
• April 10 - 17: French cuisine (winner BaffledCook)
• April 17 - 24: Gluten-free cooking (winner F'x)
• April 24 - May 1: Coffee (winner Jay)
• May 1 - 8: Mexican cuisine (winner ElendilTheTall)
• May 8 - 15: Condiments (winner Peter Taylor)
• May 15 - 22: Strawberries (winner Ray)
• May 22 - 29: BBQ/grilling (winner yossarian)
• May 29 - June 5: Bacon (winner yamikuronue)