How do you find a recipe? Let us count these ways

Last update: February 20, 2008 - 2:14 PM

1. Type "beef stroganoff" into www.blogcatalog.com, a directory of social blogs. Get 47 hits.

2. Scroll past references to "cream of mushroom soup" and "beef stew seasoning mix." Pause at curious headline: "Beef Stroganoff Lens -- growing in popularity?" which leads to a blog called www.broadcasting-brain.com, in which resides the Beef Stroganoff Pantry.

3. Scroll down through links to Martha Stewart's recipe, Food Network recipes, Jackie Kennedy's recipe ("Ask butcher to cut beef into strips").

4. Consider offer for an I (heart) Beef Stroganoff T-shirt.

5. Take online poll asking how often you eat beef stroganoff.

6. Click on links to beef cookbooks, restaurants that serve it, ordering info for freeze-dried campers' meals.

7. Watch nine YouTube videos about beef stroganoff.

8. Click on the obligatory Wikipedia entry about Beef Stroganoff, which leads to -- Oh, noooooo! -- a link to Wikibooks Cookbooks, "a collection of recipes from around the world." So, type in "beef stroganoff" and what do you get? Four hits.

9. Start cooking.

The Beef Stroganoff Pantry (www.squidoo.com/beefstroganoff) is the creation of Canadian Mark Dykeman, who lives in Woodstock, New Brunswick. His motivation? "To be honest, it was an attempt to see if I could get the top ranking for the term 'beef stroganoff' during Google searches," he wrote via e-mail. "But I do love beef stroganoff!"

His site is less than two months old and gets about five hits per day, with a couple of comments. He also has two other sites: one devoted to broadcasting and communication, and another to being an introvert, all linked to one another.

KIM ODE