The E-recipe exchange

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On Facebook, a group called "I like to cook! (Recipe Exchange). No snail mail" has 750 members and the opening line: "If you have ever tried that email recipe exchange chain letter, you may well be disappointed". But whether or not you liked chocolate bar chain letters during the Nineties, their instant e-versions are dropping into Londoners' inboxes.

The principle is the same but snail mail is replaced with email. It goes like this: "Hello fellow cooks. You're invited to take part in a recipe exchange. I thought of you specifically because you're a great cook/adventurous/a potential time-waster [delete as appropriate].

Please send one of your favourite recipes to the person in first position. Next, copy this letter into a new email, bump me up to number one and send it, Bcc'd, to 20 friends. If you cannot do this within five days, please let me know so it will be fair to those participating."

While these are loaded with the best intentions for sharing friends' greatest food secrets, the final line can only appeal to the true time-waster. "You should receive 36 recipes. Seldom does anyone drop out because we all need new ideas," it warns.

London food writer Oliver Thring agrees that in principle recipe e-chains are a friendly idea but "if people want new recipes they already know where to get them on the internet. Users of the web divide into those who think it's OK to spam people with chain mail and those who run a mile. Recipe e-chainers fall into the former category."

Camilla Grey of Moving Brands says there is a touch of Nineties nostalgia attached. "The people you're getting emails from were circulating the letters the first time round. We're at that perfect tipping point. But with emails, it feels more urgent. They've replaced the letter in importance as it sits in your inbox looking at you until you react."

Sadly, I have ruined each of my five recipe chain emails by not replying. My intentions to answer never quite materialised and, thankfully, I have now been struck off the e-lists.