Editorial Policy
How we write, test and maintain what you read here.
Cook Max is an independent recipe and cooking-companion site. The content on this site — recipes, methods, guides and notes — is written and maintained by the Cook Max team. This page explains how we work, so you know what to expect when you cook from a Cook Max recipe or read one of our guides.
Who writes Cook Max
Cook Max is built and edited by a small team of home cooks and food writers. We are not chefs in white jackets, and we do not pretend to be. The dishes we publish are home-cook recipes designed for ordinary domestic kitchens, ordinary equipment and ingredients you can realistically buy at a normal supermarket.
Where the recipes come from
Recipes on Cook Max are drawn from three sources. First, classic dishes from established culinary traditions — these are documented techniques refined over generations, and we present them in the form that works most reliably in a domestic kitchen. Second, adaptations from our own cooking notebooks, tested at home with regular pans, regular ovens and regular ingredients. Third, reader-submitted recipes that we cook at least twice in our own kitchen before publishing.
We never publish a recipe we have not cooked ourselves. That is a hard rule.
How we test
Every recipe is cooked at least twice before it goes live, by different people where possible. We use standard domestic equipment — a regular stove, a regular oven, an inexpensive set of pans. If a recipe only works with restaurant-grade equipment, we either rewrite the method until it works at home or we do not publish it.
Cook times, quantities and nutrition figures are conservative estimates from the actual cooks we have done. Real kitchens vary; a ten-minute fry in our pan might be eight or twelve in yours. We always describe the visual cue (golden, translucent, crisp) so you can trust your eyes over the clock.
Use of AI
We use software to help with formatting, copy-editing and surfacing related recipes. Some helper text on individual recipe pages (the introduction paragraph, the ingredient notes, the substitution suggestions and the frequently-asked questions) is generated automatically from each recipe’s own metadata using rules we wrote and maintain. The underlying recipe — the ingredients, quantities and method — is always written by a human, tested in a real kitchen and reviewed by an editor before publishing. We do not auto-publish recipes generated by a language model.
Nutrition information
Per-serving nutrition figures shown on Cook Max are estimates. They are calculated from standard ingredient databases and rounded to whole numbers. Real-world figures will vary based on brands, exact quantities, and how the dish is prepared. Cook Max nutrition information is not a substitute for advice from a qualified dietitian and should not be used as the basis for medical decisions.
Corrections and updates
If you spot a mistake — a misnamed ingredient, a missing step, an unclear instruction — please tell us via the Contact page. We read every message and fix genuine errors quickly. When we substantially change a recipe after publication, the page is updated and the modified date in the page’s structured data is refreshed so search engines know the page has been revised.
Advertising and affiliate links
Cook Max may show advertising and may include affiliate links to products we have used and recommend. Advertising is clearly labelled and never influences which recipes we publish or how we describe them. We refuse to recommend a product we have not tested in our own kitchen. See our Affiliate Disclosure for the full picture.
Reader feedback
We get better as readers tell us what works and what does not. If a recipe took longer than the time we listed, if a step was confusing, or if you found a brilliant substitution — we want to hear about it. Email us through the contact page and your feedback will reach the person who wrote the recipe.