Polenta for the Clueless Cook

Polenta in some of its many forms

One of our staffers ran across an early eHow.com contributor not long ago and was, to be honest, gobsmacked by her work. At first, she thought the problem was the author's choice of topics (geometry), but a bit of research turned up a topic supposedly in her wheelhouse. It was just as bad... So, meet today's DotD nominee, Julie Richards, and her answer to the eternal question,"What Is Polenta?"¹ at the mother site.

Quick: what is polenta? Most dictionaries will tell you that it is an Italian dish made from yellow cornmeal and, sometimes, the cornmeal itself. Whichever definition you prefer, however, Richards never actually says what polenta is. We expected to find that information in her introduction, but noooo....

"Polenta is one of the basic food staples of Northern Italy. Widely believed that pasta was the main food in Italian cuisine, polenta has often been over looked [sic]. There are many interesting recipes and creative ways to add this dish to any dinner table."

Gee: she somehow managed to sneak that whoppin' sentence fragment past one of the crack "content editors" at eHow! Julie goes on to churn out almost 500 words on the topic of polenta, with sections titled "History," "Geography," "Features," "Benefits," and "Potential" – holy cow, she forgot "Considerations"! – while, frankly, saying almost nothing.
Richards does mention that polenta wasn't originally all corn ("maize," our Brit friends call it), but she doesn't seem to know that the corn used for polenta isn't the same corn that's used for corn meal here in the States. In what appears to be an attempt to write a generalized restaurant review, Julie also opines that

"Polenta is widely used in many European countries as a regular staple at the dinner table. Northern Italy has predominantly been the main area where polenta is used. Now, this versatile dish is served in even the most up-scale [sic] restaurants all around the world."

Well, maybe when she wrote this in 2009, but that fad has flown – just like kale, we hope! Whatever the case, Richards never actually says what polenta is, not to mention that she never mentions those nifty precooked tubes of polenta you can buy at the grocery. We think she blew it, and as a reward. we're giving Julie one of our famous Dumbass of the Day awards.

¹ The original has been deleted by Leaf Group, but can still be accessed using the Wayback machine at archive.org. Its URL was   ehow.com/about_4572319_what-is-polenta.html

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