Recipeasly promised to ‘fix’ online recipes. After critics called it theft, the site shut down. - The Washington Post

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Recipeasly promised to ‘fix’ online recipes. After critics called it theft, the site shut down. - The Washington Post

Recipeasly promised to ‘fix’ online recipes. After critics called it theft, the site shut down. - The Washington Post

Posted: 02 Mar 2021 08:21 AM PST

"I can see why you want to bookmark all of them in one place," Lin said during a phone call from her home in Sacramento. "I wouldn't go and create a [website] that mines all of that content and puts it into a new thing for people to access for free. There's just so much copyright infringement on there. So I just don't understand why that kind of process didn't go through the developers' minds."

After a presumably lengthy development period, the Canada-based Recipeasly announced a relaunch on Sunday in tweets from at least two of its creators, Tom Redman and Jack Read. Redman trumpeted that Recipeasly would "fix online recipes" by removing the clutter. Both men said the site would give users access to their favorite recipes "without the ads or life stories." They asked for feedback and retweets.

They got a lot of the former, most of it critical of a site that's built on the backs of recipe developers and bloggers, many of them people of color who rely on their own websites for income and to provide intimate cultural and culinary information in the "life stories." In the Recipeasly model — based on conversations with food writers who tested the site before the founders took it offline — users can paste in a URL, and the site will strip the recipe of ads, long intros and everything else, save for the information found in the "recipe card" section of a coded webpage, which usually includes a photo, ingredients list and cooking directions.

The resulting Recipeasly page doesn't even include a mention of the recipe developer's name, just a small link button back to the original recipe. Numerous critics were labeling this outright theft of intellectual property, although copyright protections for recipes are not so clear-cut.

Neither Redman nor Read responded to emails or tweets from The Washington Post seeking comment. But Redman spent a fair amount of time on Sunday trying to explain the business model for Recipeasly as the criticism mounted. He apologized to "content creators" and said the site's founders had "nothing but respect and admiration for the time, money, effort and years that going [sic] into creating great recipes & websites."

Redman also noted that "imported recipes are only visible to the user who imported them — similar to if a user had printed the recipe or copied it into a doc." He added that Recipeasly and its creators "do not make any money off of this. There is *no* revenue, much less profit." Redman even suggested that the site was built for bloggers and recipe developers to monetize their work.

The comments fell mostly on deaf ears. Some bloggers, for instance, screen-captured pages from Recipeasly. One page clearly indicated that users can make their recipe collections private or public.

If the scraped recipes are public, they have the potential to hurt the very people who created them, said Lin, the founder of Healthy Nibbles. For starters, should Recipeasly build a large and loyal user base, the recipes on its platform could rank higher in Google search results than those on websites where the recipes were originally published. That could diminish traffic to the original sites and therefore hurt ad sales. Right now, Lin said, she lives off the ad sales from her site. She declined to say how much money her site generates but said it's in the six figures, annually.

Just as troublesome for bloggers, if Recipeasly built a loyal following, its creators could use the site to sell products, ingredients and tools to home cooks, thereby creating revenue streams for the founders. An active user base, uploading thousands of recipes a month, could generate data that could be of value to outside marketers and businesses. All of this value, food bloggers note, would be based on recipes that Recipeasly's founders did not create.

According to the U.S. Copyright Office, recipe developers cannot copyright a mere list of ingredients. But they might have a copyright protection claim, the department's website notes, when "a recipe or formula is accompanied by substantial literary expression in the form of an explanation or directions, or when there is a collection of recipes as in a cookbook."

For food writers, the issue is whether their recipes qualify as an original or "literary" expression. This is where it gets murky with copyright law. Even though the final dish may be original and unique to the writer, or to the writer's family, the building-block language used to compose that recipe doesn't usually qualify for copyright protection.

"You have to remember that it is an exclusive right because copyright, like a patent, it's a monopoly," said Kandis M. Koustenis, a Washington attorney who focuses on intellectual property and copyright law. "You're granting someone the exclusive right. So you cannot tie other creators and authors and recipe writers from the ability to use these basic building blocks. And that comes up in fashion and that comes up architecture."

Recipeasly is not the first website and/or app to come under criticism for scraping recipes from food bloggers, online magazines, newspapers and the like. In 2019, Apple removed Copy Me That from its App Store after recipe developers complained to the tech giant. Copy Me That offers premium memberships for $12.99 a year (or $24.99 for a lifetime membership), which, among other things, allows users to scale recipes they've saved or create customized shopping lists.

"The app removal was instigated by a handful of website owners who filed complaints with Apple. They say it infringes on their copyrights when you save their recipes into your own private recipe box," Copy Me That said in a statement at the time.

"Of course, bloggers, photographers and recipe creators deserve to make money from their hard work," the statement continued. "This is why the Community recipes encourage people to visit the original websites, why even private recipes have a link back, and why you have to visit the original website in order to create your own copy of a recipe."

One look at the Apple App Store finds numerous other tools that help consumers scrape outside sources for recipes. They go by names such as Cook'n, Recipe Keeper, RecipeBox and the like.

They're all designed to collect a user's favorite recipes in one location, a convenience for those who don't want to comb the web or a library of cookbooks for their go-to dishes. But the apps and websites have increasingly become a source of tension between those who just want recipes without the stories and advertisements and food bloggers who rely, in part, on the stories to generate web traffic, which in turn generates revenue. Stories, bloggers will tell you, contain keywords, demonstrate authority and generally appease the Google algorithm gods in a way that can place these blogs higher in search results.

But it's even more complex than that. The stories are personal. They're cultural. They're often told from the perspective of women, immigrants and people of color who have created and invested in a platform to share their stories. The recipe aggregator sites, bloggers note, basically tell the creators that their stories have no value. It's the same message America has told immigrants and women for centuries, now just in electronic form.

"Guys, if I'm sharing something like a bolo bao (pineapple bun) recipe, you're damn right I'm going to mention that bolo bao was a childhood staple and how my mom used to buy these for me from Chinatown," Lin wrote in an Instagram story, the words superimposed over Recipeasly's homepage, which read "Your favourite recipes without the ads or life stories."

"I want you to know why this recipe matters to me as a Chinese America[n] and why creating the recipe brought back memories," Lin continued.

Hours after Recipeasly relaunched, it was back down, its creators seemingly crushed by the negative response. It wasn't clear whether the site would return. In a tweet late Sunday, Redman said there will be changes to the site, "if we come back."

RECIPES: Small-batch baking is having a delicious moment - Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Posted: 03 Mar 2021 12:10 AM PST

When Mike Johnson made tiny batches of baked goods in early 2020, he did so to minimize the use of yeast and flour, which was hard to find in the early stages of the pandemic.

"It was a way for me to ration," said Johnson, 28, the author of "Even Better Brownies: 50 Standout Bar Recipes for Every Occasion" (Page Street, 2020) and the writer of the blog Mike Bakes NYC.

"I kept it up because for a lot of people, myself included, small-batch baking just makes sense," he said.

Johnson further simplified some of his recipes by eliminating equipment that might be necessary for the original recipe. His cinnamon roll recipe, for example, which makes just four, is done entirely by hand.

All said, 2020 may have been the year that got more people baking, but it was also the beginning of a mini trend: small-batch baking. Spurred on by necessity, then by requests from readers and Instagram followers, cookbook authors started creating scaled-down versions of recipes like biscuits, cake and cookies, perfect for those who want a baking project but don't want a big batch.

Michelle Lopez, 33, the author of "Weeknight Baking: Recipes to Fit Your Schedule" (Simon & Schuster, 2019) and the writer of the blog Hummingbird High, first found herself trimming recipes to suit her two-person household.

"I started sharing the recipes on my Instagram and blog," Lopez said. "They blew up."

Her small-batch blueberry muffin recipe, inspired by the oversize muffins at Levain Bakery in New York, makes four. Her baked ube mochi doughnut recipe yields six, and her loaf-pan Funfetti cake serves two to four depending on how you slice it (and how much you like cake).

I love to bake, but I live with just my husband. Last year, small-batch baking became a creative outlet to make things I wanted without being bogged down by leftovers. I have a few small-batch recipes that I've been baking for years, but the most-baked recipe in our house is for buttermilk biscuits, which makes just four (though admittedly huge) ones, which I usually slather in butter or drown in gravy.

Before you head to the kitchen to scale down Great-Aunt Emma's chocolate cake recipe, keep in mind that small-batch baking can sometimes mean more than cutting a recipe's ingredients in half. It can include finding solutions to tricky questions like how to halve an egg (use one egg yolk), how to adjust rising and cooking times (check early and frequently) and what size pan to use (check dimensions and experiment). And sometimes, it requires reformulating a recipe entirely. If this isn't your kind of project, don't worry! Recipe developers and cookbook authors have done a lot of the work for you; there are so many tried-and-true small-batch recipes online.

Small-batch baking may have emerged as a trend in 2020, but beyond the pandemic, it may make a lot of sense for a lot of people. And there's really nothing cuter than a tiny cake.

Small-Batch Buttermilk Biscuits

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 6 tablespoons cold butter, cut into ½-inch cubes, plus room-temperature butter for greasing the pan
  • ¾ cup cold buttermilk, plus more as needed
  • 1 egg

In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder and salt to combine. Add the cold cubed butter, and toss until each cube is well-coated with flour. Using your hands or a pastry cutter, mix the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles a coarse meal.

Make a well in the center of the bowl, and pour in the buttermilk. Use your hands or a silicone spatula to mix the ingredients until they form a homogenous dough. (It will look quite shaggy.) If the dough is not coming together, add more buttermilk by the tablespoon.

Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Toward the end of chilling, heat the oven to 400 degrees.

Butter a 9-inch square baking pan, a 9-inch round cake pan, an oven-safe skillet or a baking sheet.

On a lightly floured surface and using floured hands, pat the dough into a rectangle ½-inch thick. Fold the dough in quarters. Using floured hands, pat the dough out again to a square about 1¼ inches thick.

Cut the square of biscuit dough into four even pieces. Transfer the biscuits to the prepared pan in a cluster, with about ½ inch of space between each biscuit.

In a small bowl, whisk the egg with 1 tablespoon water. Brush the egg wash over the surface of the biscuits, and bake until deeply golden brown on top, 25 to 30 minutes. Cool at least 10 minutes before carefully separating and serving.

Makes 4 large biscuits.

Small-Batch Blueberry Muffins (The New York Times/Julia Gartland)
Small-Batch Blueberry Muffins (The New York Times/Julia Gartland)

To keep these muffins from sticking to the pan, be sure to coat the muffin pan and its edges generously with nonstick cooking spray. When the muffins come out of the oven, immediately use a small offset spatula to gently release their edges from the pan, then let them cool completely before removing them. You can use frozen blueberries instead of fresh, but be sure to thaw and drain them, then let them come to room temperature before adding them to the batter.

Small-Batch Blueberry Muffins

  • 1¼ cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
  • 4 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
  • ½ cup PLUS 4 teaspoons sugar, divided use
  • 1 egg, at room temperature
  • ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
  • ¼ cup whole milk, at room temperature
  • 1¼ cups fresh blueberries, at room temperature
  • Nonstick cooking spray

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and ½ cup sugar on medium-high until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the egg and vanilla, then mix on low speed until fully incorporated, about 1 minute.

With the mixer on low, add the dry ingredients in 3 additions, alternating with the milk. Mix until just combined, scrape down the sides of the bowl, then mix for 30 seconds more. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Using clean hands, mash ¾ cup blueberries while adding them to the batter. Beat on low speed until they are just incorporated. Add the remaining whole berries, mixing until incorporated.

At this point, the muffin batter can be covered and allowed to rest at room temperature for up to 1 hour. If not resting the batter, heat the oven to 400 degrees.

Generously coat the corner 4 cavities of a muffin pan (preferably nonstick) with nonstick cooking spray. (Make sure to spray around the top edges of those cavities, too, since the tops spread.) Evenly divide the batter among the prepared cavities. (They will appear very full.) Sprinkle each muffin with 1 teaspoon sugar.

Bake the muffins until the tops are domed and golden brown at the edges and a skewer inserted into the center comes out with a few moist crumbs, 22 to 24 minutes.

When the muffins come out of the oven, immediately run a small offset spatula very gently under the edges of the muffin top, being careful not to separate it from the bottom. Allow the muffins to cool completely, about 1 hour, before unmolding the muffins by placing a wire rack or platter on top of the muffins, holding the muffin tin and rack together, and flipping it over. Store the muffins in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days.

Makes 4 muffins.

Healthful. but comforting dishes to make - The Providence Journal

Posted: 02 Mar 2021 03:05 PM PST

Gail Ciampa   | The Providence Journal

Southern New England American Heart Association board chair Renee Aloisio recently shared a salmon recipe for healthy meal prep online at easternstates.heart.org/sne/ and I thought that could be the theme for this week's recipes.

Call them healthful recipes that are still comforting. 

A Cioppino recipe comes from "Outwit Your Weight," by Cathy Nonas of the New York Obesity Research Center at St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital (Rodale Press).

Spaghetti Primavera  is among the "Healthy Pasta" choices in the Random House cookbook by Joseph Bastianich and Tanya Bastinianich Manuali.

CIOPPINO

1 small onion, chopped

4 scallions, sliced

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 1/2 cups fat-free, reduced-sodium chicken broth

2 canned plum tomatoes (with juice), chopped

1/4 cup finely chopped parsley

1 bay leaf

1/8 teaspoon dried thyme

Pinch of dried rosemary, ground red pepper, ground black pepper

1/2 pound medium shrimp, peeled and deveined

8 littleneck clams, scrubbed

1/2 pound haddock fillets, cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces

Spray a large saucepan with cooking spray and place over medium heat. Add onion, scallions and garlic. Cook over medium heat for 3 minutes.

Add broth, tomatoes, parsley, bay leaf, thyme, rosemary and peppers. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 30 minutes.

Add shrimp, clams and haddock. Cover and bring just to a boil, then reduce the heat. Gently simmer for 5 minutes, or until the shrimp turn pink, the clams open and the fish flakes easily.

Remove and discard the bay leaf and any unopened clams.

Serves 4: 238 calories per serving

More: 10 places to get your fish and chips fix for Lent

SPAGHETTI PRIMAVERA

10 asparagus spears, peeled halfway down, cut into 2-inch lengths

 1 1⁄2 cups trimmed and halved green beans

1 cup frozen peas

1 pound spaghetti

 Reserved pasta water

 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

 2 cups sliced mixed mushrooms (see note)

 1 cup diced zucchini

 2 plum tomatoes, seeded and diced (1 1⁄2 cups)

 2 garlic cloves, chopped

 Kosher salt

 Crushed red pepper flakes

 1/4 cup heavy cream

 1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, chopped

 1/2 cup freshly grated Grana Padano

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Put the asparagus, green beans and peas in a strainer and blanch in the hot water until crisp-tender, about 3 minutes. Remove and cool in an ice bath. Drain and pat dry.

Add the spaghetti to the pot of boiling water. When it is al dente, remove the pasta with tongs to a bowl. Reserve the pasta water.

In a large skillet over medium-high heat, add the olive oil. When the oil is hot, add the mushrooms and zucchini and cook without stirring until browned on the underside, about 2 minutes. Stir and brown the other side. When the mushrooms are browned and no liquid remains in the pan, add the tomatoes and garlic and cook until the garlic is fragrant and the tomatoes begin to release their juices, about 3 minutes. Season with salt and red pepper flakes. Add the cream and 1 cup pasta water and simmer unti the zucchini is tender and the mixture is saucy, about 5 minutes. Add the blanched vegetables and return to a simmer for a few minutes.

Add the pasta to the sauce. Add the basil and toss to coat the pasta with the sauce, adding a splash of pasta water if the pasta seems dry. Remove the skillet from the heat, sprinkle with the grated Grana Padano, toss and serve.

Note: Mushroom mix can include button, cremini, shitake, oyster, chanterelle or porcini.

Serves 6. Calories per serving: 421.

More: Divine fish dishes to make at home

TWO LEMON-GARLIC SALMON FOIL PACKS

1 pound new potatoes (halved, thinly sliced)

2 teaspoons garlic (minced)

1 pound green beans (ends trimmed)

2 tablespoons canola oil

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

4 skinless salmon filets

1 to 2 lemons (sliced into wheels)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Make 4 sheets of aluminum foil about 30 inches long. Fold the foil in half widthwise (into almost a square) so it's extra sturdy.

Cut each potato into half lengthwise. Thinly cut each half into ⅛-inch slices and place into a heatproof container.

Stir in the minced garlic, cover, and cook the potatoes in the microwave until halfway tender, around 90 seconds to 3 minutes, depending on microwave's power.

Transfer mixture to a bowl, along with green beans, oil, salt, and pepper.

Mix to combine.

Divide potato mixture into 4 equal portions into the center of each foil square. If possible, nudge green beans to face the same direction.

Top each portion with salmon fillet in the same direction as green beans for easier folding.

Sprinkle garlic powder onto each salmon piece; top with 2 lemon wheels.

Securely seal the top and sides of each foil packet. Place each foil packet onto a large baking sheet and bake into the preheated oven.

Cook until salmon is cooked through, about 20 minutes.

Remove from oven and place each foil packet onto a plate. Carefully open each packet to serve.

Serves 4: 394 calories per serving

More: After all these years, Providence is still contending for the best food city with the best chefs

MUSHROOM AND CHEESE BURRITOS

1 1⁄2 pounds portobello mushrooms (about 6 medium to large)

3 tablespoons fresh lime juice, plus lime wedges for garnish

2 teaspoons ground cumin

3 garlic cloves, 2 left unpeeled and 1 minced

Kosher salt

1⁄4 cup plus 1 tablespoon vegetable oil plus extra for oiling the poblano

1 large poblano (3 1⁄2-4 ounces) or half a 4 1⁄2-ounce can green chiles

3⁄4 pound large cherry tomatoes

1 medium onion, sliced 1⁄2-inch thick, and the slices separated

6 ounces coarsely grated sharp cheddar cheese

Six 8-inch flour tortillas

1 firm ripe avocado, cut into cubes

1⁄2 cup fresh cilantro leaves

1⁄2 cup sour cream whisked together with 3 tablespoons water

Hot sauce

Place an oven rack in the top third of the oven and preheat the broiler. Clean the mushrooms; remove and discard the stems (or save them for another use such as vegetable stock); scrape out the gills with a spoon and discard them. Slice the caps in half and then slice them crosswise into 1⁄2-inch strips.

In a large shallow bowl whisk together the lime juice, cumin, minced garlic and 1⁄4 teaspoon salt until the salt is dissolved; whisk in 1⁄4 cup of the vegetable oil. Add the mushrooms and stir well, making sure the marinade is well distributed. Set the mushrooms aside, stirring occasionally.

On a rimmed sheet lined with foil place the poblano, rubbed with oil, and broil it on the shelf in the top third of the oven, turning it often, until it is lightly browned on all sides, 6 to 8 minutes. Transfer it to a bowl, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set it aside while you broil the other vegetables.

On the sheet pan toss the tomatoes, onion slices and 2 unpeeled garlic cloves with the remaining tablespoon oil and a hefty pinch of salt. Spread the vegetables out in one layer. Set the pan on the shelf in the top third of the oven and broil the vegetables, turning them often, until the garlic is tender and the vegetables are browned around the edges, about 8 to 10 minutes. Transfer the tomatoes and onion to a food processor. Peel the garlic and add it to the processor.

Add the mushrooms to the sheet pan and spread them out in one layer. Broil them, turning several times, until they are golden and tender, about 8 to 10 minutes. While the mushrooms are cooking, peel and seed the poblano and coarsely chop it. Add it to the processor and pulse the vegetables in the processor until they are medium-chopped. When the mushrooms are cooked, add the chopped vegetables to the mushrooms and stir well (Note: if you are using the canned chiles in place of the poblano, add them at this point. Add salt to taste. Reduce the oven to 350 degrees.

Arrange the tortillas on a cutting board, and working with one at a time sprinkle one-sixth of the cheese in a line from one edge of the tortilla to the other just below the center of the tortilla, spoon one-sixth of the filling on top of the cheese, spreading it evenly and roll up the tortilla tightly to enclose the filling. Repeat with the remaining tortillas, cheese and filling. Arrange the filled tortillas, seam side down on the rimmed sheet pan, lined with a fresh piece of foil and bake them on the middle shelf of the oven for 8 to 10 minutes or until heated through. Cut the tortillas in half crosswise and transfer 2 halves to each of 6 plates. Serve with the avocado, cilantro, sour cream, lime wedges, and hot sauce for garnish.

6 servings: 483 calories

From chef Sara Moulton, Associated Press, 2017

Site offered to 'fix' online recipes, but 'ads and life stories' matter - The Daily Progress

Posted: 02 Mar 2021 03:00 PM PST

food-blogger

Food blogger and Healthy Nibbles founder Lisa Lin, right, and her mother prepare black sesame rice dumplings.

Nick Otto for The Washington Post

Lisa Lin can understand why home cooks might be interested in Recipeasly. The website allows users to collect their favorite recipes from around the Internet in one convenient location, sort of like an online recipe box.

But as the founder of Healthy Nibbles, a seven-year-old website featuring hundreds of recipes, Lin doesn't like how Recipeasly has marketed itself or how it developed a product without any apparent buy-in from the food bloggers and recipe developers who could be most affected by it.

"I can see why you want to bookmark all of them in one place," Lin said during a phone call from her home in Sacramento. "I wouldn't go and create a [website] that mines all of that content and puts it into a new thing for people to access for free. There's just so much copyright infringement on there. So I just don't understand why that kind of process didn't go through the developers' minds."

After a presumably lengthy development period, the Canada-based Recipeasly announced a relaunch on Sunday in tweets from at least two of its creators, Tom Redman and Jack Read. Redman trumpeted that Recipeasly would "fix online recipes" by removing the clutter. Both men said the site would give users access to their favorite recipes "without the ads or life stories." They asked for feedback and retweets.

They got a lot of the former, most of it critical of a site that's built on the backs of recipe developers and bloggers, many of them people of color who rely on their own websites for income and to provide intimate cultural and culinary information in the "life stories."

In the Recipeasly model — based on conversations with food writers who tested the site before the founders took it offline — users can paste in a URL, and the site will strip the recipe of ads, long intros and everything else, save for the information found in the "recipe card" section of a coded webpage, which usually includes a photo, ingredients list and cooking directions.

The resulting Recipeasly page doesn't even include a mention of the recipe developer's name, just a small link button back to the original recipe. Numerous critics were labeling this outright theft of intellectual property, although copyright protections for recipes are not so clear-cut.

Neither Redman nor Read responded to emails or tweets from The Washington Post seeking comment. But Redman spent a fair amount of time on Sunday trying to explain the business model for Recipeasly as the criticism mounted. He apologized to "content creators" and said the site's founders had "nothing but respect and admiration for the time, money, effort and years that going [sic] into creating great recipes & websites."

Redman also noted that "imported recipes are only visible to the user who imported them — similar to if a user had printed the recipe or copied it into a doc." He added that Recipeasly and its creators "do not make any money off of this. There is *no* revenue, much less profit." Redman even suggested that the site was built for bloggers and recipe developers to monetize their work.

The comments fell mostly on deaf ears. Some bloggers, for instance, screen-captured pages from Recipeasly. One page clearly indicated that users can make their recipe collections private or public.

If the scraped recipes are public, they have the potential to hurt the very people who created them, said Lin, the founder of Healthy Nibbles. For starters, should Recipeasly build a large and loyal user base, the recipes on its platform could rank higher in Google search results than those on websites where the recipes were originally published. That could diminish traffic to the original sites and therefore hurt ad sales. Right now, Lin said, she lives off the ad sales from her site. She declined to say how much money her site generates but said it's in the six figures annually.

Just as troublesome for bloggers, if Recipeasly built a loyal following, its creators could use the site to sell products, ingredients and tools to home cooks, thereby creating revenue streams for the founders. An active user base, uploading thousands of recipes a month, could generate data that could be of value to outside marketers and businesses. All of this value, food bloggers note, would be based on recipes that Recipeasly's founders did not create.

According to the U.S. Copyright Office, recipe developers cannot copyright a mere list of ingredients. But they might have a copyright protection claim, the department's website notes, when "a recipe or formula is accompanied by substantial literary expression in the form of an explanation or directions, or when there is a collection of recipes as in a cookbook." A food blogger's website could, in this sense, constitute a "collection of recipes."

Recipeasly is not the first website and/or app to come under criticism for scraping recipes from food bloggers, online magazines, newspapers and the like. In 2019, Apple removed Copy Me That from its App Store after recipe developers complained to the tech giant. Copy Me That offers premium memberships for $12.99 a year (or $24.99 for a lifetime membership), which, among other things, allows users to scale recipes they've saved or create customized shopping lists.

"The app removal was instigated by a handful of website owners who filed complaints with Apple. They say it infringes on their copyrights when you save their recipes into your own private recipe box," Copy Me That said in a statement at the time.

"Of course, bloggers, photographers and recipe creators deserve to make money from their hard work," the statement continued. "This is why the Community recipes encourage people to visit the original websites, why even private recipes have a link back, and why you have to visit the original website in order to create your own copy of a recipe."

One look at the Apple App Store finds numerous other tools that help consumers scrape outside sources for recipes. They go by names such as Cook'n, Recipe Keeper, RecipeBox and the like.

They're all designed to collect a user's favorite recipes in one location, a convenience for those who don't want to comb the web or a library of cookbooks for their go-to dishes. But the apps and websites have increasingly become a source of tension between those who just want recipes without the stories and advertisements and food bloggers who rely, in part, on the stories to generate web traffic, which in turn generates revenue. Stories, bloggers will tell you, contain keywords, demonstrate authority and generally appease the Google algorithm gods in a way that can place these blogs higher in search results.

But it's even more complex than that. The stories are personal. They're cultural. They're often told from the perspective of women, immigrants and people of color who have created and invested in a platform to share their stories. The recipe aggregator sites, bloggers note, basically tell the creators that their stories have no value. It's the same message America has told immigrants and women for centuries, now just in electronic form.

"Guys, if I'm sharing something like a bolo bao [pineapple bun] recipe, you're damn right I'm going to mention that bolo bao was a childhood staple and how my mom used to buy these for me from Chinatown," Lin wrote in an Instagram story, the words superimposed over Recipeasly's homepage, which read "Your favourite recipes without the ads or life stories."

"I want you to know why this recipe matters to me as a Chinese America[n] and why creating the recipe brought back memories," Lin continued.

Hours after Recipeasly relaunched, it was back down, its creators seemingly crushed by the negative response. It wasn't even clear whether the site would return. In a tweet late Sunday, Redman said there will be changes to the site, "if we come back."

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How to understand and use feta, star of TikTok’s viral pasta recipe - The Washington Post

Posted: 02 Mar 2021 07:00 AM PST

"People think of feta as one cheese, but feta is a multitude of cheeses," Keenan says. "Cheddar is not one thing. It's a style, and so is feta. Think of it as a category of cheese."

What is feta, and how is it made?

Feta as we know it has been around since the 12th century. It gets its name from the Italian word "fetta," meaning slice. It falls into the category of fresh cheeses and is simply prepared. Traditionally, milk is heated, mixed with probiotic cultures and rennet to coagulate, drained of its whey, sprinkled with salt, brined and then aged in barrels, tins or baskets for at least two months.

"Any attempt to trace feta's origins leads a researcher straight into quicksand," Janet Fletcher wrote in the San Francisco Chronicle. "In the Balkans, every country makes this chalk-white cheese, and every country thinks it invented it."

According to Keenan, "Feta is like hummus: It's a regional food that transcends borders, even though the Greeks would claim that's not true."

Greek mythology holds that Aristaeus, son of Apollo, was sent to teach humans the art of cheesemaking. Homer's "Odyssey," written in the 8th century B.C., tells of one of the Cyclopes, Polyphemus, who made cheese that is said to be the predecessor to feta. Feta and Greece seemingly go hand-in-hand, but similar cheeses made traditionally elsewhere in the region were also labeled "feta," and Greece didn't like that. "It's a huge export for Greece, and it's in their interest to have it be this one identity of Greek feta," Keenan says.

To maintain a stronghold on the cheese, Greece successfully petitioned the European Union to have its identity protected. Per the BBC, the cheese "must adhere to certain requirements in order to be called feta, including a minimum 70 percent sheep's milk that must come from local breeds of sheep and goats traditionally raised on local pastures and from designated parts of Greece." So within the E.U., those made from other countries or with different types of milk are labeled "feta-style" cheeses. But these rules don't apply in the United States, meaning that you need to carefully read the label to determine what kind of feta you're purchasing.

Types of feta

If your only idea of feta is the dry crumbles you sprinkle on salad, that is just one form. It can also be soft and creamy, in a range of flavors and potencies. The main differences in styles come down to milk type and country of origin. Sheep, goat and/or cow's milk are all used, and major producers include Greece, France, Bulgaria and Israel.

Sheep's milk: Feta made from the traditional, highest-fat option "tends to be very creamy and really rich," Keenan says. It can also be somewhat gamey, which might be too overpowering for some. "But for me, the essence and soul of feta is that animally, lanolin-esque, wet, intense, creamy cheese" that comes from sheep's milk.

Goat's milk: Keenan finds it "a little too austere for feta." However, goat milk used in combination with sheep's milk can produce a milder flavor for anyone who finds 100 percent sheep's milk too gamey. Additionally, a higher proportion of goat milk makes for a more crumbly cheese.

Cow's milk: "What most people in this country probably eat for feta is industrially produced cow's milk feta," Keenan says. "It's on the drier side, and I think that's more the result of needing to be sold in supermarkets." Per Cooking Light, "It can also become slightly sour, but tends to have a milder flavor than other feta varieties." American feta is often saltier than others, a play to make up for the lack of flavor in cow's milk.

Feta's flavor intensifies with age. But with Greek feta in particular, terroir — particularly what the animals have eaten in the designated regions — also comes into play. Cook's Illustrated says the flavor that diet imparts really "makes Greek fetas stand out." Greek producers say more complex flavors come from an additional step in the cheesemaking process, where the cheese is salted and then sits for a day or two before being placed in brine.

"I feel like the French have really cornered the goat's milk feta market," Keenan says, but they also make cheese from sheep's milk, sometimes using any excess from Roquefort production. "French feta is more austere and a little bit drier" compared to Greek feta. Bulgarian feta is made from sheep's milk and lies on the other end of the creaminess spectrum. "The Israelis also make some pretty great feta in that creamier style," Keenan says.

Buying and cooking with feta

Bulgarian feta is Keenan's go-to style. Beyond that, it's all about milk type and country of origin. "My advice is to figure out what you're cooking and then decide how dry and how salty you want to go, and usually dry and salty have a parallel relationship," Keenan says. For example, you might not want a very creamy feta to make spanakopita, as the moisture would hinder the phyllo from getting crispy. But "for that TikTok pasta, you want the creamiest feta you can find, which unfortunately I'm sure is not what people are using." And different milk types also behave differently when heated, as "goat's milk doesn't melt the same way that cow's milk and sheep's milk does."

When shopping, remember that feta packed in brine lasts longer, won't dry out and even tastes better. So whether perusing the cheese aisle (the feta at my local grocery store is with the other fancy meats and cheeses you would put on a charcuterie board) or looking at the huge blocks in the deli case, stay away from dry prepackaged cheeses and make sure your cheesemonger fills your container with brine after cutting off a portion. (And don't throw out that brine! You can use it a number of ways, such as to marinate chicken or cook beans.)

Keenan often buys her cheese from the bulk bins without any brands listed — only the milk type and country of origin — but if you're looking for a specific recommendation, "The Israeli feta at Trader Joe's is really good."

"People need to understand that feta is a condiment in a lot of places," she says. "Think of feta, in some ways, as the way Italians use Parmigiano-Reggiano. It's not something that you have to eat a whole block of. You use it as an accent to finish dishes."

With all of the different ways the cheese can be made, there's a feta to suit just about everyone's tastes. But if you still are not a fan and want a substitution, ricotta has a similar flavor but a different texture, cotija can stand in for the crumbles in a salad, and a fresh goat cheese has a comparable brightness and creaminess. While I'm always a firm believer that it's your kitchen and you are free to do what you want, I urge you to give feta another chance if you have yet to explore all that it can offer.

"Everyone's making a similar recipe, but they're using different milks, they're using different brine recipes, using different amounts of aging and different amounts of brining time. Even though it's all the 'same cheese,' it's all really different," Keenan says. "I'm proud of feta because it has resisted homogenization, not of the milk, but of the category."


from What to Cook https://ift.tt/2MJV7xy
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