These are tools that are designed to help contributors and members better work on articles that fall under the purview of the Project. They include information on article notifications & alerts, sourcing and general guidelines for developing food and drink related articles.
An annotated list of sources for food and drink articles. The goal is to help editors find reliable sources of information on food topics. This page is intended to provide sources that are useful for multiple articles. Of course, individual articles' bibliographies should also be useful.
Cookbooks
Since Wikipedia is not a cookbook, the question is how useful cookbooks are not for recipes, but for the description and history of food. In general, they are fairly good about description, though they can be idiosyncratic and provincial, being unaware of food habits outside their authors' neighborhood. They also tend to be trendy. Cookbooks are generally very weak for history. Very rarely have the authors consulted serious sources, and they tend to repeat legends and folklore freely.
Probably the best all-round encyclopedia of food. Many articles have useful bibliographies. Especially strong on English and western European foods. Benefits from the years of articles in Petits Propos Culinaires and the Oxford Symposia on Food.
A good source for 19th and early 20th century French cooking. Very unreliable outside France. Unreliable for history (the notorious croissant legend was first published here).
Mostly traditional French recipes. No source notes. Not very useful.
Toussaint-Samat, Maguelonne (1994), History of Food, Blackwell Publishing Professional, ISBN0631194975.
A totally unreliable source, full of legends and misinformation. She doesn't footnote most of what she writes, so there's no way of verifying it. Do not use.
Journals, magazines, proceedings
Gastronomica is well-edited and a generally reliable source for food and its history.
Andrew Dalby, Siren Feasts: A History of Food and Gastronomy in Greece
An amazing summary of classical and Byzantine Greek texts on food. Scholarly, careful, comprehensive. The Ottoman and modern periods are very briefly touched on at the end.
Regina Sexton and Cathal Cowan, Ireland's Traditional Foods: An Exploration of Irish Local and Typical Foods and Drinks, Dublin: Teagasc, The National Food Centre, 1997, ISBN 978-1-901138047.
Teagasc is an Irish semi-state authority responsible for research in the agri-food sector. Regina Sexton is an Irish food historian at University College Cork.
Margaret Hickey, Ireland’s Green Larder: The Definitive History of Irish Food and Drink, London: Unbound, 2018, ISBN 978-1783525249.
This is not a very reliable source - not properly referenced/footnoted, and re-telling a lot of Bríd Mahon's work in a superficial way.
Japan
Mexico
Jeffrey M. Pilcher, Que vivan los tamales!: Food and the Making of Mexican IdentityISBN978-0826318732
Jeffrey M. Pilcher, Planet Taco: A Global History of Mexican FoodISBN978-0199740062
José Luis Juárez López, La lenta emergencia de la comida mexicana. Ambigüedades criollas, 1750-1800ISBN978-0199740062
José Luis Juárez López, Nacionalismo culinario. La cocina mexicana en el siglo XXISBN978-6075164656
José Luis Juárez López, Engranaje Culinario: La Cocina Mexicano en el Siglo XIXISBN978-6074559583
A very authentic and thorough (though sadly not illustrated) coverage of traditional recipes, including those of the former republics of the Soviet Union. Chapters for each type of meal (appetizer, soup, salad, meat by type) and holiday menus. Includes brief cultural and historical introductions.
Fabulous resources on the fish and seafood of their regions. A summary page per species including both biology and cuisine. Also a collection of recipes.
Web resources
There are many Web resources on food, many of them plagiarized from each other, with little reliable information, and rarely any source notes.
Cuisine articles deal with a specific set of cooking traditions and practices, often associated with a specific culture. Sometimes the cuisine articles will deal with cooking traditions and practices in and of a particular country, sometimes the cooking traditions and practices of a particular country will be used outside of that country. Other cuisine articles will deal with cooking traditions and practices of a culture or tradition that is not geographic - such as Vegetarian cuisine, Jewish cuisine, Byzantine cuisine and Medieval cuisine.
The guideline for country specific topics suggests that in general, country-specific articles should be named using the form: "(item) of (country)". However, the guideline has a caveat that it is important to be able to differentiate when a topic is actually country-specific. So that Belgian cuisine is an article on the cooking traditions and practices originating in the country of Belgium.
Examples
An example: Germany has over time changed its geographic borders with Poland and France. As a result there are parts of Poland and France having a German culture with a history of German cuisine, German wine and German beer. Thus German beer, the techniques and recipes used to produce it are not only confined to Germany, but are a part of France and Poland as well. A decision would need to be made as to the focus of the article and which article name would be more appropriate. An article on the history and development of beer in Germany might be more appropriately named Beer in Germany, while an article on the beer styles of Germany that have spread to countries might be named German beer styles.
This would also apply to articles such as German breads/Bakeries of Germany, German wines/Wine regions of GermanyorGerman beverages/Beverage producers of Germany.
Articles that split from the main should be X Y where "Y" is the topic, eg Burger King franchises
Naming of sub articles should be defined and standardized across the articles
Cheese task force articles
Cheese articles should be given a unique name that clearly differentiates them from other potential topics that may share the same name. This is especially important in the case of European cheeses, where cheese are frequently named after a town or region. The simplest method is to append "cheese" to the article name (e.g. Cheddar vs. Cheddar cheese). Whether you choose to append "cheese" to non-ambiguous titles (e.g. Sage Derby) is a left to individual authors. Note that the designation should not be applied where it is redundant, as in the case of "Queso blanco".
Article structure
Articles are advised to follow the general guidelines in Wikipedia:Layout and start with a lead section, and finish with the standard appendices such as "See also" and "References". In between will go the body sections which will vary from topic to topic and article to article. Common sections applicable to the majority of food and drink article would be a History section and a Production section.
Lead section:
History section: A general prose description. Lists, such as date-lines, are discouraged under embedded list guidelines.
Production section: A general prose description of the ingredients and production methods that define a product, giving variations and alternatives. Specific, detailed, individual and fixed recipes of the type that list ingredients and give precise instructions are discouraged as per: Wikipedia:NOT#Wikipedia is not a manual, guidebook, or textbook.
Reference section:
Articles on national cuisine
Cheeses task force
Lead section: A brief prose description of the cheese, including:
the nature of the milk (or substance) from which the cheese is produced (eg. goat's milk, cow's milk, ewe's milk)
a rough notion of the cheese's texture (soft, semi-soft, hard, etc.)
if applicable, the region in which the cheese is made, and/or originates
Much of this information can be conveyed concisely in the first sentence(s) of the article. Example: "Roquefort is a ewe's-milk bleu cheese from the south of France."
Body sections:
Description: This section could have a prose description of the cheese, including a description of the cheese's appearance (eg, "shot with blue veins of mold", "inedible orange rind".) Descriptions of the flavor of the cheese may be open to accusation of being subjective so would need to cite reliable source.
Production: A description of the production process
History: of the discovery/invention of the cheese - legendary histories may be included
Variations: Variants of the cheese (eg US cheddar vs. English Cheddar)
Producers: A list of producers (where applicable-- don't bother with widely produced cheeses.)
Table:
There is a table with quick facts about the cheese. A template for the table can be found at the bottom of this page. The contents are as follows:
The official full name of the cheese. If there are several official names, list all (eg. port-du-salut/entrammes).
A picture of the cheese, where available. We have not yet located a source of public-domain or copylefted cheese images. Do not grab images off the web unless you're sure they're not copyrighted!
Primary geographical production area. If the cheese has no center of production, specify "worldwide". (At some point, a map might be helpful)
The milk (or non-milk substance) from which the cheese is made. Specify whole or skim milk where appropriate.
Pasteurization: Yes/No/Occasionally/Frequently or something more descriptive.
Texture (semi-soft, soft, hard, etc.)
Average fat content (as a percentage.)
Average protein content (as a percentage.)
Size/weight of a cheese wheel (where applicable)
Affinage/aging time (specify if there are multiple stages.)
Trademarks, production guilds, etc. (egAOC for many protected French cheeses.)
Bartending
Beer
Pub task force
Mixed Drinks
Hierarchy
Parts of this Wikipedia page (those related to section) need to be updated. Please help update this Wikipedia page to reflect recent events or newly available information. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. (October 2013)
Ideally, each Project-related article should include much or all of the following information: one or more photographs representative of the drink; suggestions for when and how the drink is commonly enjoyed (e.g., special occasions, after work, at sporting events, etc.); popularity and distribution of the drink worldwide; a list of ingredients and briefly the methods used to properly prepare, mix, and serve the drinks; the origin and history of each drink, including the (sourced) creator and date of creation; the mixed drink supplies (including drinkware) used to prepare the drinks; and anything else (sourced) that enhances the reader's understanding of the drink.
Soft drinks
Coffee and Tea task force
Wine
Terminology notes
Instead of trying to establish what the most "authentic", most "original", or most "traditional" version of various recipes is, let's try to follow Wikipedia's wise neutral point of view policy, which asks us to report on all reputable positions. If the Academy of Roman Gastronomy forbids the use of cream in carbonara, report it. If the oldest known recipe uses garlic (whether it is common nowadays or not), report it. If 5 out of 15 Italian cookbooks with good reputations use cream, report that cream is used by some Italian cooks, and shunned by others (especially if you can find the suitable horrified language). If most American versions use Wisconsin cheddar, report on it. And so on.
Checklist
Lead and sections
The lead should adequately summarize the content of the article. (GA criteria)
There should not be anything in the lead not mentioned in the rest of the article. (GA criteria)
Only the first word in a section heading needs a capital letter (except in proper nouns).
Short sections and paragraphs are discouraged. (GA criteria)
Images
It is recommended not to specify the size of images. The sizes should be what readers have specified in their user preferences.
Text should not be sandwiched between two adjacent images. (GA criteria)
All fair-use images need a fair use rationale. (GA criteria)
Images need succinct captions. (GA criteria)
An image caption should only end with a full-stop if it forms a complete sentence (GA criteria). Noun phrases typically do not include periods at the end of the text.
Links
Wikilinks should only be made if they are relevant to the context. Common words do not need wikilinking.
A word only needs to be wikilinked once within each section.
Links within quotations should be avoided.
Linking dates or dates with a day and a month are currently discouraged. The same applies to dates in the footnotes.[1]
Referencing
Statements that are likely to be challenged and statistics need inline citations. (GA criteria)
Book references need the author, publishing date and page number. (GA criteria)
Book references should preferably include the publisher and ISBN.
Web references need the author, publisher, publishing date and access date. (GA criteria)
Web references should preferably include the language (if not English) and format (if not HTTP).
References should be consistently formatted, eg. consistent author format, abbreviations for "page number", etc.
Blogs and personal websites are not reliable sources, unless written by the subject of the article or by an expert on the subject. (GA criteria)
Dead web references should not be removed, unless replaced.
Inline citations belong immediately after punctuation marks. (GA criteria)
External links that are not references belong only in the External links section.
Portal links belong in the "See also" section. (GA criteria)
"Further info" links belong at the top of sections. (GA criteria)
Lists
Lists should only be included if they can't be made into prose or their own article. (GA criteria)
Lists within prose should be avoided. (GA criteria)
Punctuation and style
Logical quotation should be used, i.e. final punctuation belongs outside the quote marks, unless the punctuation is part of the quote and the quote starts a WP sentence. For example – He said, "France is a country". "Paris is a city."
Rather than hyphens, en dashes should be used for ranges, eg. 5–10 years, and unspaced em dashes or spaced en dashes should be used for punctuation, eg. The building—now disused—was built in 1820.
Page ranges in the footnotes, and sports scores should use en dashes.
" " (non-breaking space) should be typed between numbers and units, and other numerical/non-numerical components, e.g., "10 miles", "Boeing 747"
Imperial measurements should be accompanied by the metric equivalent in brackets, and vice versa. If possible, use a conversion template, eg. {{convert|5|mi|km|0}}.
Whole numbers under 10 should be spelled out as words, except when in lists, tables or infoboxes.
Sentences should not start with a numeral. The sentence should be recast or the number should be spelled out.
Ampersands (&) should not be used (except when in a name, eg., Marks & Spencer)
"Last few years" has ambiguous meaning; "past few years" is preferable in some contexts.
"Within" has a different meaning to "in". "Within" should only be used when emphasing that something is inside something, eg. "the town is in the county", "the town is within the county boundaries"
Periods and spaces are needed after initials in people's names, e.g., P. G. Wodehouse
Compound adjectives need hyphens.
A hyphen shouldn't be placed after an -ly word if it is an adverb, e,g., widely used word; except if the -ly word could be mistaken for an adjective, e.g., friendly-looking man.
"Century" doesn't need a capital, e.g., "15th century" rather than "15th Century"
"While" should only be used when emphasising that two events occur at the same time, or when emphasising contrast. It shouldn't be used as an additive link.
Using "with" as an additive link leads to wordy and awkward prose, e.g. "the town has ten councillors, with one being the district mayor" → "the town has ten councillors; one is the district mayor"
Avoid
Avoid beginning a sentence with "there", when "there" doesn't stand for anything, leads to wordy prose, e.g. There are ten houses in the village could be written more directly as The village has ten houses.
Avoid the words "current", "recent" & "to date" as they become outdated. (GA criteria)
Avoid using "not" unnecessarily, eg. "songs previously not heard" → "songs previously unheard"
Avoid contractions, such as "can’t", "he's" or "they're".
Avoid weasel words, such as "it is believed that", "is widely regarded as", "some have claimed". (GA criteria)
Avoid peacock terms, such as "beautiful", "famous", "popular", "well-known", "significant", "important" and "obvious". (GA criteria)
Avoid informal words, such as "carry out", "pub", "though", "tremendous" and "bigger".
Avoid vague words, such as "various", "many", "several", "long", "a number of", "just", "very" and "almost" - get the facts.
WikiProject Food and drink subscribes to several bots to perform redundant or time consuming tasks. Currently we employ the following bots:
AAlertBot - On a daily basis, this bot collects and posts information regarding Proposed deletions (Prods), Requests for Comment discussions (RfC), and other ongoing discussions regarding article changes. This information can be found on the Article alerts page.
JL-Bot - On a weekly basis, this bot collects and posts the information regarding project content such as Featured Articles, Did You Knows and other similar information. Its results can be found on the Recognized Content page.
WP 1.0 bot - On a daily basis, the WP 1.0 bot reports all information regarding article assessments, article classifications and changes of importance levels based upon the WikiProject Food & Drink template. This information can be found on the Assessment page.
