01
Six kinds of source
Every recipe has at least six sources, and not all of the same kind: six identical pages are one source dressed up as six. We look for people who see the dish from different sides.
1The home cookbook
The versions of people who cook it every week.
2The chef
Someone who made it their signature, in their own words: not a recipe others put their name to.
3The food press
Publications that collect it and write about it.
4History
How it used to be made, and when it changed: it tells a mistake from an older version.
5The official rules
Where they exist, they lead: the other sources fill in what they leave open.
6Science
Temperatures, timings, safety: where someone has measured them.
02
Duplicates count once
Many recipes online are the same recipe, republished. If three pages give exactly the same numbers, they aren’t three sources: they’re one, and it counts once. A number that turns up identical everywhere is a sign of copying, not of agreement; real agreement is sources reaching numbers that are close but different.
- Page A · its own numbers1
- Page B · the same numbers as A, identical0
- Page C · its own numbers, close but different1
03
The median, not the mean
First we bring the versions to the same measure: for pasta, per 100 g of dried pasta, because ‘serves four’ doesn’t mean the same thing in two recipes. Then we line them up, from the leanest to the most generous, and take the one in the middle. With the mean, one exaggerated source would be enough to shift everything; with the median, it isn’t.
- 50 g
- 62.5 g
- 62.5 g
- 70 g
- 71 g
04
Carbonara, up close
Seven sources, three points where they disagree, one time the sources state and one the plan works out.
The 7 sources
- Gambero Rosso — le 10 regole dei cuochi romanipress
- Luciano Monosilio — Identità Golosechef
- Cookistpress
- SiCucinacookbook
- Cuoco Golosocookbook
- Luca Cesari — storia della carbonara, 1960-2000history
- CREA — tabelle di composizione degli alimentifood tables
The time
The sources25min
The plan22min
3 of 7 sources state a time: all 25min.
Where they disagree
- 1
Yolks or whole eggs
Today it’s yolks only; whole eggs and cream are the carbonara of the 1960s.
- 2
Pan or bowl
Monosilio and SiCucina finish it in a steel bowl; here, in the pan off the heat.
- 3
How hot the cream gets
The sources say 62 °C, 65, or 52 in a bain-marie: here the cream is made off the heat, below 65.
05
Calories from the official tables
Calories come from food composition tables, applied to the recipe’s quantities: in Italy the CREA tables, and where needed the French, Spanish and Japanese ones (Ciqual, BEDCA, MEXT). Never from calorie websites. Where no table reaches, like the frying oil left in the pan, we make an estimate, and we say so.
06
Photos: AI-generated, and we say so
The recipe photos are generated with AI, and each one says so underneath. Before generating one we look for three real photographs of the dish, under a free licence: the image is built on them and checked against them. If there aren’t three, the dish stays without a photo.
AI-generated photo.
07
Timings, worked out on the plan
A recipe’s time is the plan’s time: every step with its own length, the waiting counted, whatever can happen at once set side by side. On the site the plan is for one cook, with one pan and two pots; in the app it’s redone for the people and cooks you choose. Where the sources state a time, we put it alongside, so you can see the difference.