19
votes
Accepted
Is this cooking-adjacent question on-topic?
For me, this is still on topic. Our help center states:
Cooking & food preparation methods
Food handling and storage
I would argue that it can even fall into both categories.
We cooks ...
StephieMod
- 58.6k
18
votes
Discussion: Should "Plant identification" questions be acceptable here?
I believe these questions should be considered off-topic if the gist of the plant identification question is "is this edible?".
Because we're food specialists and not necessarily plant ...
- 16.5k
11
votes
Can we make "electrical safety" offtopic?
Narrow definition
Currently, the community tends to close questions about damaged electrical equipment, since that would need an electrician to look at the specific piece of equipment before labeling ...
rumtschoMod
- 136k
10
votes
Why doesn't this site come with a body-positivity disclaimer?
This site is not about asking what we should and shouldn't eat, and it's certainly not about telling people what they should and shouldn't eat.
It's about, once you know something about what you want ...
CascabelMod
- 58.2k
9
votes
Question about gas grill flame issues -- on-topic?
We do equipment questions here, so I think the question you mean will be on-topic. Some equipment questions don't fare that well here, but it is mostly ones which are way too model specific for ...
rumtschoMod
- 136k
7
votes
Why doesn't this site come with a body-positivity disclaimer?
Body positivity? I am afraid that you under- and overestimate this site and its users.
Underestimate in the sense that we will always and without exception strive to be as welcoming and positive as ...
StephieMod
- 58.6k
7
votes
Are "how can I modify my recipe to achieve X" questions off-topic?
This is a good type of question, and not at all off topic. We would be happy to have it.
The one caveat is that you should know what "X" is and be able to describe it. So, question which work well ...
rumtschoMod
- 136k
6
votes
Are "how to use up a lot of [x] ingredient" questions on-topic?
My inclination here is no, we should deem these examples off-topic under the "what can I do with X" custom close reason. If no dish would normally contain large quantities of X, however, that might ...
CascabelMod
- 58.2k
6
votes
Accepted
Why was this question about Neapolitan pizza ingredients closed?
I'm glad that we have a meta question on it, since the comments on the original question seemed to go off on too many tangents.
TL;DR
The reason the question was closed that it is what we nowadays ...
rumtschoMod
- 136k
5
votes
Is this an off-topic "what to make with X" question?
The purpose of the rules is to avoid unanswerable questions. The kind that solicit opinion based answers or unending lists of equally valid answers.
In my opinion the rule of thumb is- would this ...
- 47.5k
5
votes
Are "how to use up a lot of [x] ingredient" questions on-topic?
I don't see how this is any different from the close explanation:
Questions of the form "What can I do with [ingredient]?" are off-topic because they are subjective and lead to a long list of ...
- 16.5k
5
votes
Is "when should I pick/harvest X" on topic?
I say it's a case-by-case basis: the overall category can be on topic on both sites, but some such questions belong much more on one site than the other.
For the specific questions under ...
CascabelMod
- 58.2k
4
votes
Is this question on-topic?
I'd say yes, though it could probably use editing (hint hint): it's about something potentially happening because of the actual cooking, not just a health question about eating food, and it's a ...
CascabelMod
- 58.2k
4
votes
Accepted
Scope - valid questions
One small correction: this isn't a moderator thing. We have plenty of users with enough reputation to help close questions, and the site scope was decided by users, not just moderators. We moderators ...
CascabelMod
- 58.2k
4
votes
What are our thoughts on questions asking for the laws as they relate to cooking?
I'm kind of inclined to say no, let's not take them. I don't think anyone's ever been wild about these, and food laws are very localized, so people tend to not have the expertise to answer even if ...
CascabelMod
- 58.2k
4
votes
Accepted
Are questions about food criticism on-topic?
I'd say:
Food criticism in general is not on topic, since it's not really anything to do with preparing food. We don't do recipe reviews or restaurant reviews, and food criticism is pretty much just ...
CascabelMod
- 58.2k
4
votes
Why is "leftovers" a tag-synonym for "culinary-uses" if the description for culinary uses explicitly says it's not for leftovers?
The tag synonym was created on September 3rd 2010, a couple of months after the site was launched. We one of the first nontech sites (I think the first that survived until now), and even SO was so ...
rumtschoMod
- 136k
4
votes
Is even asking whether two eatables are different in terms of nutrition off-topic?
If you ask about the differences, answers about the “nutritional benefits” - as phrased in your original question - would be off topic (as are questions, as you learned earlier).
They properties from ...
StephieMod
- 58.6k
3
votes
Can we take questions about sous vide time/temperature?
I had a quick discussion with rumtscho in chat, arguing for allowing this sort of thing. She at least partially agrees!
My overall view is that we should take questions like this, and clarify that ...
CascabelMod
- 58.2k
3
votes
Is this an off-topic "what to make with X" question?
My personal opinion: I would like to be able to take questions like this, but it would be an exception to an existing policy, so we might have to err on the side of considering them off-topic for now.
...
CascabelMod
- 58.2k
3
votes
What's the deal with open-ended questions?
It's fine, and often even good if a question can have multiple good answers. There is no rule that questions have to have a single correct answer.
Many problems in the kitchen can have multiple good ...
CascabelMod
- 58.2k
3
votes
Are questions about short-term effects of food on your body on-topic?
As an oversimplified standard, I'd suggest:
Do I need to know this in order to reasonably serve X to people without immediate, observable consequences?
The "immediate" is important - we only want ...
CascabelMod
- 58.2k
3
votes
How much science happens on this site
Links to additional resources are basically always helpful, though sometimes they may be overkill. On many questions, optimal answers would probably provide more support than average answers do, but ...
CascabelMod
- 58.2k
3
votes
Is "when should I pick/harvest X" on topic?
I'm not very active here so feel free to ignore me, but I thought I'd add my perspective of how I treat similar questions on other sites. (I partially discussed this with Jefromi already.)
My rule of ...
- 491
3
votes
Can we make "electrical safety" offtopic?
This sounds like a reasonable idea. Before we proceed, I would like us to make sure that we are on the same page about what we are declaring out of scope, as this will guide future closure behavior, ...
rumtschoMod
- 136k
3
votes
Are questions about preservatives off-topic?
Argument: they should be on-topic. They're about cooking for humans, and there is referencable, online, authoritative material recommending preservatives which can be quoted in answers.
See my answer ...
- 61.4k
3
votes
Are questions about nutrition label calculations on scope?
Yes, I would consider it on-topic. We do have other questions about nutrition labels. The reason why we have nutrition questions excluded in general is that statements of the type "X is healthy ...
rumtschoMod
- 136k
2
votes
Question about gas grill flame issues -- on-topic?
Even if it is on topic, you can also take a look at the SE home improvement site to see if there's any gas appliance knowledge there.
- 231
2
votes
Can I ask about how to use a specific ingredient? (AKA: Culinary Uses Guidelines)
I would like to point out something which is not explicitely mentioned in this answer, but which has been the way we have used this policy over the past years.
Sam Holder's answer mentions that we ...
rumtschoMod
- 136k
2
votes
Migrating questions to and from coffee.stackexchange.com
I think migration is probably good, but it would be nice if there was some kind of canonical coffee question that linked to the site such that if people search for coffee here, they find that question ...
- 1,821
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible