Cooksunited.co.uk: Help & FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions)

Before submitting a recipe please make sure that there is not already the exact same one a very similar recipe in the database. We advise you to have a look at the recipes in our database to get a feel for how they are written and how units and amounts are being entered. Please find a name for your recipe that can easily be found via our search functions. In other words: Decide on a simple name for the title, the next line does provide you with a more specialised description.

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The amounts are being entered with the decimal system: e.g. 0.5 for ½, 0.25 for ¼ etc. In order to convert those numbers for different amount of people, the system automatically writes 3 x 000 behind a 1. e.g. You entered: 1. The system writes: 1.000. For you the numbers in front of the point are important.

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Please only use the metric units as much as you can. Do not use both, e.g. g and cups within the same recipe.

From Wikipedia: The Metric system was officially adopted in the UK, for most purposes some decades ago and both taught in schools and used in books. It is now mandatory for the sale of food and almost all new cookery books are in metric only, as well as cookery programmes using metric exclusively.

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Please use one line for each item/ingredient! This enables the person who would like to use your recipe a very clear overview of all ingredients. Please always write the ingredient first followed by a more precise description: e.g. sugar, granulated. Cheese, grated. Olives, green. Please do not use any abbreviations! This may lead to confusion when trying to cook!

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In every line you can add the following information for a better understanding of the recipe: For the Dressing:, For the Filling:, For the Marinade:, For the Sauce:, then please add the actual ingredients and amounts in the lines below.

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Please describe your preparation methods as clearly and logically as possible including any important notes that are necessary for what happens at the end before serving. It is also important to enter cooking/baking/cooling time. So please don’t forget! Please check that you have entered all units, amounts and ingredients correctly and that it its use and purpose is easy to follow. Finally also check your Grammar! Therefore also use as little abbreviations as possible and try to organise your text in neat paragraphs. Thank you!

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The editing process can last up to one month or longer depending on how many recipes have been submitted within one period. We try to work as hard and as quickly as possible to get all your recipes online as soon as we can. Please be patient! Every day we get a lot of recipes sent to us and they all have to be checked by our Editorial team. If you have any questions please send a message or an email to an administrator.

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If a recipe has not been accepted by our Editorial team, the user usually gets an email or message sent explaining the reason or reasons. However, if the recipe does exist more or less in the same shape and form in our database, no notification will be sent. Every user is able to check whether the recipe he or she would like to enter already exists in our database. Therefore it should be clear from the beginning as to why a recipe has been accepted or rejected. We will also reject a recipe if grammar rules have been entirely disregarded and it would therefore be too much to correct everything.

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Only registered users are allowed to participate in the voting system. Therefore a lot of recipes have to "live" with only one vote. If the recipe then receives 5 stars ((1x5)/1 = 5) it will rank on first place (if recipes are sorted by votes), even though there are other recies, maybe better ones with a lot more votes, which do not reflect an entirely unique voting system. (e.g. 5 x 5 stars and 1 x 4 star = (5x5)+(1x4)/ 6 = 4,83~). These recipes rank much lower, even if it is not exactly truthful.

Solution: The voting system is not exactly the fastest...every recipe automatically gets 2 votes right from the start, an invisible vote of 2.5 stars. If a recipe gets a voting with 5 stars, it ranks better within the search function ((2 x 2,5)+(1x5)= 3,33~).

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All ingredients are saved automatically. You can always go back to this list when logging back in.

In order not to forget any ingredients, it is a good idea to always refer back to the entire list. With the help of this list it may be easier to find the exact ingredients that you need. This process only lasts about 10-15 minutes, but therefore you don’t forget an ingredient and your list is always complete.

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No, this is not possible. If you notice that something is missing in your recipe or that you have entered something in the wrong way then please get in touch with an administrator via email or message.

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You don’t have to finish a recipe submission the minute you started it. It is possible to interrupt the process by clicking "quit recipe submission". This way the recipe stays saved within your page and you can go back to the submission process whenever you want. But remember to always click "save changes" before clicking the "quit recipe submission" button to save all of your most recent changes. All recipes that you see inside your own submission page have not been sent off to our database yet. Once you click "submit recipe" the recipe disappears and has been sent to our editors who will then check it before releasing it into our database.

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Change the number of people in the box above the recipe and click "enter" on your keyboard. The system calculates everything for you automatically.

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The date of a user comment is older than the release date: This can be the case if the recipe was edited again, therefore gets a new date when released again. Hence, it looks like as if a comment has been made about a recipe that didn’t even existed. Every recipe gets a new date when being re-edited and re-released.

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Tags are a way of categorizing. They are used for articles, pictures, and recipes for examples. Instead of the traditional categories, tags allow you to create categories as go along. They are then grouped together in a tag cloud, with the most popular tags in a larger font, which then appear on the main page to create a “ranking” to see what other users have used for their recipes. Using tags for your own recipes:

• Tags give you a lot of freedom but choosing the right tags can sometimes be a little more difficult.
• The golden rule: keep it simple but be original (using parenthesis keeps two words as one!)
• Do not use more than 6 tags per recipe but do use more than 2.
• Do not punctuation characters (e.g., . ? ! ( ) " _ : ;) in your tags.

Be consistent. For the same type of recipes, use the same tags. Example: Minestrone Soup Tags: Italian vegetables easy cooking soup (winter warmer) Happy tagging!

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When commenting on a recipe please avoid comments like „yummy“, „this tasted really good“, „I will cook this next time I have guests“, „Thank you fort his recipe, I saved it in my collection”. Even though one might appreciate a new comment, these kind of comments do not help new users, the recipe sender, or other users who would expect further advice in order to cook this recipe as well. If these unnecessary comments happen to show up in a great amount under a lot of recipes they will be deleted and gained points deducted from the user who posted the comment. Comments that do not relate to the recipe at all will be deleted as well, i.e. “I don’t have enough flour at the moment to cook this recipe....”, “It’s my mother’s birthday tomorrow so I might cook this recipe”.

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