The Open Source Cookbook?

InspectorPraline asks: "I'm currently working on a cookbook that is intended to provide good food at a reasonable price - the kind of stuff you'd make before sitting down for a long coding session, with the occasional idea that would feed a LAN party. I've got some ideas I can put down, but the book would be quite thin, so I thought I'd put the call for submissions to Slashdot. I'm calling it 'The Open Source Cookbook,' and I'd release it under the GFDL, in PDF, ASCII text, and Word formats. Of course, I'd take submissions as comments here or via email. I'd 'publish' the book via the web once I got enough submissions to make the book at least about 40-50 pages in length or 30 recipes (whichever comes last), and as submissions came in I'd update the book. Anyway, I'm asking for submissions for the book, which could be recipes for dinners, lunches, even drinks. Two webpages that will serve as temporary homes for the project can be found here and here, and those addresses list my email as well as some submission guidelines. So, any ideas, folks?" Hey, if you ever wanted to share your favorite dishes with geeks around the world, this might be the way to do it. What great dishes have you prepared?

Comments

A cookbook in the 'toys' category?

[freeweed]

I guess no one ever told the Slashdot editors not to play with their food... :)

Tux

[akiy]

I've got this amazing penguin dish...

Obligatory Simpsons Reference

[Raul654]

Open source cookbook?.... Mmmm....tastes like burning....

Technologically inclined food

[Anonymous Coward]

Ars Technica Cookbook of Bachelor Chow. (From this slashdot story.

An MLT

[Da J Rob]

The greatest thing in the world, is a nice MLT- mutton, lettuce and tomato sandwich, when the mutton is nice and lean, and the tomato is ripe. They're so perky. I love that.

Re:An MLT

[Callamon]

Good job, sleep well. Most likely kill you in the morning...

Re:An MLT

[Fez]

Viagra, of course.

It's known for raising the mostly dead.

pdf, ascii and word?!

[edrugtrader]

why not just make a web page with a database full of the recipes... let me log in and customize what recipes i want, and then create my own pdf/ascii/doc of my CUSTOMIZED cookbook?

Re:pdf, ascii and word?!

[bugnuts]

If almost noone sold their stock, the bubble wouldn't have burst.

Potato Soup

[Callamon]

I can't really take credit for this one, as a friend showed it to me, but it's a really good and easy to make potato soup.

1 Can of campell's Cream of Potato soup (with 1 can of milk)

1 Can Chunky Baked Potato w/bacon & chives

1 Can Baxter's Potato and Leek soup

Mix it all together, and slow-cook it for about 20 minutes (boil it for at least 5), add salt/pepper to taste!

.....VODKA and RedBull.....

[Dr_Marvin_Monroe]

That's my favorite LAN party drink by far....the Red get's you up while the vodka makes the killing oooooh so easy.....

ehhh

[MisterBlister]

Aren't there like a billion cooking/recipe sites already? Untold number of geocities homepages with Aunt Maude's favorite dishes? Geeks eat pretty much the same food as everyone else (though some clearly eat more than others!).. I don't really see the need for this. Is Big Business trying to snuff out free trade of recipies? Does everything need to be equated to the Open Source movement?

Jeez.

Bachelor dishes!

[t0qer]

Before I got married I ate the following.

Tuna Mac
1 can of tuna
1 can of macaroni and cheese
1 tsp black pepper

Cook macaroni like you normally would. When done cooking drain tuna and mix with macaroni. Pepper to taste.

Dennisons Chili Chimichanga's
1 Can of dennisons chilie
3 cups of shredded cheese
6 flour tortilla's

Use equal amounts of cheese and chili and wrap the ends. Fry in a pan till golden brown.

Chili Relleno's
2 tblspoons of flour
1 egg white
1 Can of whole green chili's
Cheese cut into sticks.

Mix the flour and egg white. Stuff the chili pepper with a stick of cheese, then dip in the batter. Fry in a pan until it is brown and the cheese is melted.

Open source Salsa

Everyone brings the hottest chili's they can find. Add tomato paste and chilis to a food processor. Mix until you have a nice salsa like texture. Have a contest to see who can eat the most.

--toq

You missed one

[Raul654]

Rack of goatse.cx

Repeat story

[knodi]

Been there, done that

Not an EXACT duplicate, but the answer to his question is "rip off every recipe mentioned in this book".

Been done.

Wanna do it better? Listen to the poster who said you should make a web accessible database of recipes. Then anyone can search based on available ingredients ("what can I make with this crap in my pantry?"), dish-name ("what can I bring to a theme-potluck?"), and holiday affilation (obvious applications).

This is dangerous

[ColGraff]

The caffeine temporarily offsets the effects of the booze, but it gets metabolized faster - so you end up drinking a lot, thinking it isn't effecting you, and then the caffeine wears off. The booze hits very hard, very fast, when that happens. Not safe. And more importantly, Red Bull is vile stuff.

PostModern Casserole

[friscolr]

here's my recipe for a casserole. the name comes from a book i had lying around, couldn't think of anything else.

Here is a photo plus the recipe, in case anyone wants to link to it. It doesn't take much preparation but takes a long cooking time, so halfway through your all night coding session you'll have a good meal.

PostModern Casserole

Ingredients

1 package sobe noodles
1 green pepper
1 onion
1 measurement quinoa
2 measurements nutrional yeast
1 measurement thyme
1 quantity tempeh
1 spoonful rocoto salsa*

Preparation

Cut green pepper,onion and tempeh.
Fry the onion and tempeh on low heat in some oil.
Cook sobe noodles quite al dente.
Pour noodles and water into crock pot (you better not have too much water)
Dump pepper, onion, tempeh and quinoa into the crock pot.
Mix in thyme, rocoto and nutritional yeast.
Sprinkle layer of nutritional yeast on top of food.
Place lid on crock pot and leave on low for a few hours, or on high for less time.
It's done when the quinoa is cooked, there is no sitting water and you're hungry.

Optional
Add corn and calamata olives.

* not meant to be too hot. remember - good hot stuff is tasty first, hot second.

one more thing, it's vegan and has enough fiber for even CowboyNeal.

holy crap, that's brilliant!

[bscott]

Callamon wrote:
> but it's a really good and easy to make potato soup.
>
> 1 Can of campell's Cream of Potato soup (with 1 can of milk)
> 1 Can Chunky Baked Potato w/bacon & chives
> 1 Can Baxter's Potato and Leek soup

You can make potato soup out of nothing more than potato soup, potato soup and potato soup? Astonishing.

Pasta Pomodoro

[igomaniac]

Since only jokes have been posted so far, I'll try something else -- a real recipe that anyone can cook, in less than 15 minutes with very good results... Pasta with fresh tomatoes:

You need per person:

• 200g Spagetti or other kind of pasta
• 2-3 fresh ripe red tomatoes

Start boiling water (as this is the the task that takes longest to complete), put some salt in the water (a tablespoon).

Split the tomatoes open, get rid of all the watery goo and seeds so only the firm flesh of the tomatoes remain. Chop them as finely as you can be bothered to.

Put some oil in a frying pan, put the pan on the heat and finely chop the garlic. Put the garlic in the pan, and then before it turns brown (that is after 10 seconds) add the tomatoes.

When the water boils, add the pasta. If you don't turn down the heat very much, so the water continues to boil violently you don't have to stir very much ;-)

Keep stirring the tomatoes around until they turn soft and start looking a bit like sauce. Check if the pasta is finished by getting a strand out of the boiling water once in a while and biting it. If it doesn't have a hard core, it's finished.

Get rid of the water for the pasta. Add tomatoes to pasta, add some extra virgin olive oil and stir. Put on plates, sprinkle with grated chese and some leaves of basil if available...

There you go, one of my favourite easy dishes...

Here's another: Tuna Casserole

[Callamon]

A little more difficult than the soup.. but this one is actually my mother's recipe.

1 Box of Kraft Mac 'n Cheese

1 Can Campell's Cream of Mushroom soup

1 can of Starkist Tuna in spring water

1/4 cup butter

1/2 cup milk

Some crushed potato chips (ruffles work best)

Preheat oven to 350. Boil and drain the noodles (do not rinse).
Mix in the cheese powder, milk, butter, tuna, and soup with the noodles, and pour into a casserole dish.
Sprinkle a layer of crushed potato chips on top. Bake uncovered at 350 for 30-45 minutes.

Use more butter if you want it a little sweeter, and more milk if you want it creamier.

hot dogs

[greenrom]

In college I cooked some hot dogs by putting metal forks in each end of the hot dog and running 120V through it. Hot dogs have just enough conductivity so that this works well.

I've also cooked hot dogs using 1000W heat guns for heat-shrink tubing. Not as much fun as using 120V, but still very effective.

Re:hot dogs

[FunkyRat]

In college I cooked some hot dogs by putting metal forks in each end of the hot dog and running 120V through it. Hot dogs have just enough conductivity so that this works well.

Oddly enough, I remember in the late '60s my parents had a small appliance that did just that. It had six prongs on each side between which you would skewer your hot dogs. Then you plugged it in and the fun began. Sort of like watching a botched execution by electric chair. Come to think of it, the hot dogs smelled and tasted about the same too. Now that I reflect on it, I believe I have some unresolved traumas from the whole experience!

Cheap Yakisoba Recipe:

[zulux]

Ingredients:
Top-Ramen or other brand - Pork Flavor.
Worstishire Sauce - to taste (1 tea-spoon)
Sugar to taste (1 tea-spoon)

Prepare:
Boil noodles until tender, drain, add half of flavoring packet
Add Werstishier sauce and sugar to taste. Mix to coat and enjoy.

Cultural Note: Worstishire sauce is a western copy of Ease-Asian fish sauce. It shares the same roots as English Brown Sauce and Tomatoe Ketsup and Portuguese Fish Sauce.

Real dried Yakisoba can be purchased at most Japanese food stores - It's made by Nissin and has the English word 'BIG' written large on the package.

This recipe is primarily for those who live far from said store.

Crumbs'n'cheese

[bravehamster]

Crumbs'n'cheese

Prep Time: 2 minutes

Instructions:

Take one (1) almost empty doritos bag.
Crush all the remaining chips into a very small pieces while still in the bag
Pour the crushed contents of the bag into a cereal bowl
Add generous amounts of sharp cheddar cheese
Mix thoroughly (hand mix for best results)
Microwave on high for thirty (30) seconds.
Stir (do not hand stir, contents will be hot)
Microwave on high for an additional thirty (30) seconds.
Remove from microwave and enjoy.

This recipe is released for licence under the GRL (GNU Recipe License).

--------------

P.S. Don't let your significant other see you doing this.

A friend of a friend paid $285 for this

[God! Awful]

You can't have an open-source cookbook without the ever-famous Nieman Marcus cookie recipe:

2 cups butter
4 cups flower
2 tsp. soda
2 cups sugar
5 cups blended oatmeal**
24 oz. chocolate chips
2 cups brown sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 8oz. Hershey Bar (grated)
4 eggs
2 tsp. baking powder
3 cups chopped nuts (your choice)
2 tsp. vanilla

** measure oatmeal and blend in a blender to a fine powder. Cream the butter and both sugars. Add eggs and vanilla; mix together with flour, oatmeal, salt, baking powder, and soda. Add chocolate chips, Hershey Bar and nuts. Roll into balls and place two inches apart on a cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes at 375 degrees. Makes 112 cookies.

THIS IS A TRUE STORY!!!

-a

Commander Taco Salad

[Graff]

1 pound of ground beef
1 packet of taco seasoning
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 head of iceburg lettuce
2 ripe tomatoes
1 large onion
1 medium bottle of french dressing
1 medium bag of nacho chips (Doritos work great)
16 ounces of cheddar cheese, diced or shredded.

Brown and drain the ground beef. Add the taco seasoning and the garlic powder to the browned beef. Set aside and allow to cool.

Shread the lettuce. Dice the tomatoes and the onion and add to the lettuce.

Coarsely crush the nacho chips. Leave them in the bag until you are ready to serve the salad.

Just before serving, combine all of the ingredients in a large bowl and toss gently. Make sure to evenly distribute all ingredients.

The key is to do all the steps separately and then combine them just before you serve. This makes the salad still crunchy and that's when it tastes best

This recipe is very popular at lan parties and cookouts. It makes a large amount of taco salad, but it gets eaten quickly.

RecipeSource

[johnlenin1]

There is a great archive of recipes (more than 70,000) at RecipeSource. It's free, searchable, well-organized, and you can submit recipes too.

Re:RecipeSource

[Otter]

RecipeSource, by the way, used to be the SOAR archive at Berkeley, for those familiar with that site. One fun thing about it is that it's based heavily on old Usenet posts, so it contains recipes from a lot of old skool Internet figures. Rob Pike's cheesecake is really good.

South-of-the-Border Pizza

[cybermace5]

This is a really delicious pizza, not like anything you've tasted before. Most people eat it and ask how to make it, before even realizing it's meatless. You could probably throw some boiled, cubed chicken on there if you want to.

Here goes:

Fresh Salsa:
1 large tomato
1 can chopped green chiles (it's a small can)
1 large white onion
1 can sliced black olives
1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro (it's really cheap and available at any store)
Salt and pepper

Chop everything up and mix it in a bowl. Cover and refrigerate for as long as you can before making the pizza. A couple hours would be best, but it's still ok made right before.

Preheat oven to 400.

Pizza Crust (a good crust for any pizza, even sliced into breadsticks)
For a thick crust, double everything.
1 cup warm water
1 tbsp. yeast powder (1 packet)
1 tsp. salt
1 tbsp. sugar
1 tbsp. vegetable oil
All-purpose flour (NOT self-rising!)

Mix everything except the flour into a large bowl. Begin stirring in flour until it reaches dough consistency, it's going to be somewhere around four cups, more or less. For non-bread-makers, it's going to be squishy and sticky, kind of stretchy. Knead the dough (squish and fold on a floured surface, throw some flour on top) until you have a smooth ball of dough. Roll this out into the size of your pizza pan, fold over the edges so it doesn't hang over.

The Pizza:
Fresh Salsa (above)
Pizza Crust (above)
2 cups grated Montery Jack cheese
1 cubed avocado
Cumin

Put down the pizza crust on the pan, cover the bottom with cheese, then spread the salsa and avocados on top. Lightly dust with cumin right from the shaker. Bake the pizza for about 18-22 minutes, or as long as it takes for the crust to turn a light brown.

One of the best pizzas I have ever eaten. It's not as hard as it sounds, you really spend a total of 30 minutes in the kitchen, max.

Ramen Recipe Database

[Osty]

Perfect for college students and people who can't afford/don't want to pay for more expensive food, there's always the Ramen Recipe Database (quick link to all recipes). Over 200 recipes and counting. It's amazing what people can do with Ramen when they try. Ramen by itself may not be all that nutritious, but with a little imagination you can make a full meal out of one of those little $0.15 packages.

The Usenet Cookbook

[smartin]

A long time ago before Usenet was only useful for p0rn and warez there was the Usenet Cookbook. It was distributed in the newsgroup rec.food.recipes. The moderator put together a set of troff macros and templates and people posted recipes to the group. The moderator would edit the postings and release a couple of recipes a week (to save bandwidth).

Copies are still floating around the net this seems like a good place to start. I printed the whole thing out several years ago and it took a couple of packages of paper.

The SPAM Cookbook

[Preposterous Coward]

I can't believe nobody has suggested a variation on any of these recipes. (The originals, I assume, are copyrighted ;-)

Recipe RFP

[YeOldeGnurd]

It had to be at most a matter of minutes before this Request For Recipes would result in a creative use of RFPs (Ramen Flavor Packets).

So predictable these geeks are. Like a clone army they become.

Publish it too

[LetterJ]

If you go through iuniverse.com, you can have it set up for print-on-demand for something like $100. It goes in the Amazon and BN catalogs and can be ordered at brick n morters through Ingram. No minimum orders as all books are printed after they are ordered.