Writer's Guidelines - Share Your Ideas With Us!

Fiery-Foods & Barbecue Magazine and www.fiery-foods.com cover the entire realm of fiery-foods and barbecue, including gardening, spicy products, cooking, barbecuing, and travel. It is our goal to present the most interesting information, articles, photos and recipes about these fascinating subjects. If you’re passionate about a certain area, share your ideas with us!

Please query with ideas first. Do not send unsolicited submissions, as they will not be read or returned. All queries are to be emailed to here along with clips of recent works and contact information.

Articles should be concise (2000 words or less, though we may consider using longer articles as a multi-part series) and, more often than not, include recipes. Please state availability of photos and/or other visual material.

If contracted, send the article either in the body of the email or as an unformatted Microsoft Word document (single-spaced, flush left, with NO bold, italic, underlining, or changes of font or sizes). Detailed recipe format instructions can be found below.

Our payment rates range from $250.00 (web site only) to $350.00 (web site plus magazine). The fee will be paid within sixty days of publication. In the event that an unpublished article is determined to be unacceptable for any reason, a kill fee of twenty-five percent of the writing fee will be paid. Fiery-Foods & Barbecue Magazine and www.fiery-foods.com acquire exclusive first world-wide publication rights, as well as non-exclusive electronic rights and the right to use the article, with further payment, in any future anthology. By submitting an article, you are authorizing the editing of your work.

We strongly suggest that potential contributors browse our web site and read the Latest Articles. Also, we will be glad to send you a sample copy of the magazine upon request.

Thank you for your interest in contributing to Fiery-Foods & Barbecue Magazine and www.fiery-foods.com. We look forward to hearing from you!

When you write a recipe, do not add any formatting at all. No bold, italic, large type, underlining. Do it all in one typeface, preferably Times New Roman. Make everything flush left. Single space everything, and put a single space between the recipe elements, below.

There are 5 elements to every recipe: title, headnotes, ingredients, instructions, and yield.

Make the title interesting but not overly long. "Baked Beans" is a boring title. "Aunt Ellen’s Baked Beans for a Sunday Dinner with Family" is too long. "Baked Beans Spiced with Cayenne" is interesting.

An informal introduction to the recipe that can have any or all of the following elements:

• history or origin of the recipe

• unique or interesting ingredients

• what to serve it with or over

• any special warnings or instructions that you wish emphasized

If the recipe requires advance preparation, like marinating, or dough rising, you should mention that here. (Note: This recipe requires advance preparation.)

The length of the headnotes should be three to six sentences.

THE INGREDIENTS MUST BE LISTED IN THE EXACT ORDER THEY APPEAR IN THE INSTRUCTIONS, so you should write the instructions first, then use them as a guide to write the ingredients list. Guidelines:

• do not abbreviate: write out teaspoon, cup, and so on

• use the following form: "one tomato, peeled and chopped." Or, "one cup peeled and chopped tomato," depending on which you choose.

• use numerals: "2 cups cooked rice," not "two cups cooked rice."

• it is easier to give prep instructions in the ingredient list than telling people in the instructions to cook the rice, or peel the tomatoes, or dice the carrots.

• unless it is a key ingredient (as in baking), do not specify the amount of salt used; allow the cook to use discretion by writing "Salt to taste."

Many cooks think recipes have to be minimal, but this is not our style. Do not truncate the instructions by leaving out the articles; always use "a," "an" and "the." Write the instructions as you would write the headnotes.

Guidelines:

• describe the pan or other equipment used. Right: "In a skillet, fry the beef cubes in the oil..." Wrong: "Fry the beef cubes in the oil...." Right: " In a small bowl, beat the egg yolks with a whisk..." Wrong: "Beat the egg yolks...."

• specify temperatures when possible. "Bake in a 350 degree F. oven for...."

• specify the length of time it takes to cook the ingredients: "Simmer for 30 minutes...."

• describe how to assemble the dish for serving, as "Place the rice in a bowl, add the curry on top, and garnish with the cilantro leaves."

• remember that more information is better than too little information–we will edit and it’s easier to cut info than to have to have you explain what you left out.

The correct format for this is:

Yield: About 3 cups

   or

Yield: 6 servings

The recipe below is a sample of how to write a clear, coherent recipe.

Machaca Burritos

Common throughout the Southwest in home cooking but not so common in restaurants (who knows why?), this savory shredded meat burrito is a meal in itself. The word machaca is derived from the Spanish machacar, to pound, an apt description of the appearance of the meat. This recipe is from our late friend, Barbara Graham.

• 3-pound arm roast

• Water

• 1 1/2 cups coarsely chopped green chile

• 1 tomato, chopped

• 1/2 onion, diced

• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

• 6 to 8 flour tortillas

• Chopped tomatoes

• Shredded lettuce

• Grated cheddar cheese

• Sour cream (optional)

Place the roast in a large pan with water to cover and simmer until tender and the meat begins to fall apart, about 3 to 4 hours. Remove the roast from the pan, remove the fat and bone, and shred the meat by hand or with a fork.

Return the meat to the pan, add the green chile, tomato, onion, and garlic powder, stir well, and simmer until all the liquid has been absorbed by the meat, about ½ hour. Place the meat in a large flour tortilla with the tomato, lettuce, cheese, and sour cream, if used.

Yield: 6 to 8 servings

Heat Scale: Medium

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