Cooking from a recipe takes practice; reading recipes takes experience and a level of processing skill that is not necessarily everyone's strength. My mom used to be asked to share her recipes, usually for baked goods. And invariably, she'd get a call -- "its not turning out the same!" so she'd head over and go through making the recipe with them...and it would be something such as not measuring accurately, or substituting ingredients willy-nilly. A lot of people find that cooking "is a lot of work" -- and it might be because they view it as a chore and don't enjoy it, but they could also struggle with the functions needed to cook with ease -- the ability to read and grasp details, and to follow a recipe, to get organized with ingredients, dishes, etc. You're exactly right -- they can't think, or lack the executive processing skills to follow the recipe. Clearly a lot of people on these forums have an interest in kitchens, in cooking -- their spaces are probably organized well for cooking. People who don't have the space; don't know how to organize or arrange spaces to make it easy to access ingredients, cookware, etc. -- it can make it a lot more complicated.

I think there are a lot of people who think they can cook because they had a Summer job at McDonald's in high school, but without the machine telling them what to do when they're more clueless than someone starting out knowing he doesn't know.

I write up long perorations for friends because I know there's a vast lack of cooking knowledge and I try to give every bit of information they need. Then someone who cooks asks for the recipe, so I e-mail what I have, and I get back the "I didn't ask for a novel" kind of response. :)

As to the comments, I skim, only, and skip any that don't seem apropos. I'm looking for the ones that say things like "it took five minutes less than stated to be done" or "I subbed parsley for cilantro and it was very good" or "it worked fine with low fat milk". Through reading the comments on the Martha Stewart gluten free pie crust (which my friend adored) I learned that it absolutely was a mess unless worked between sheets of plastic wrap, and that it had to be covered with the pie plate and turned as a whole, and pressed in, before peeling the bottom layer. That made it easy rather than impossible, and made my GF quiche succeed. So reading the comments is good. But the stupid ones? Well, I doubt those people actually cook anyway...

HB, you remind me of the Bridget Jones blue yarn soup!

The answer to that dilemma is to read the recipe again, more carefully and THINK while you're reading it. I get peeved at people who complain about a major ingredient - perhaps garlic - that is clearly listed in the recipe. If you don't like garlic, then either omit it or keep looking for a recipe that suits your tastes better. And, of course, there are the complaints after changing 3-4 major ingredients and subbing with things that don't work. Or the comments from those who haven't even made the recipe.

Oh my! Most of my recipe cards only have ingredients listed, then maybe oven temp and suggested cook time! I agree that if people don't cook regularly and just skim they think the instructions are missing. If you got one of my recipes, the instructions would definitely be missing. It is normally kind of intuitive how it goes together. (To me).

My pet peeve is the reviewer who hasn't tried a recipe and isn't going to, but has to remark that it's too fattening, too unhealthy, has too much sugar/fat/salt/whatever, and how could anyone possibly eat anything so disgusting. I don't know why they even looked at that recipe in the first place, go find a recipe that fits within the parameters of your diet and never mind. It makes me want to be one of those reviewers that olychick hates, that says "It sounds delicious, I'm making it tonight", LOL.

Annie

A lot of recipes I've copied from other sources are like Cooper's, just a list of ingredients and "the usual method ". I was given a recipe by a restaurant chef on our first trip to Bali which is just a list of ingredients and no proportions. He obviously assumed if I was asking for the recipe, I could cook :-)

jasdip, it definitely makes a difference which site you get your recipes from! I recently read some *very* poorly written recipes on an 'open' recipe forum -- the kind of site where anyone can post a recipe in their own words, even when those words don't make any sense. lol!

Cooking and baking comes naturally to me... I feel sorry for people who don't know how to cook or bake! especially if they feel intimidated or confused when they read a recipe. :(

How about snide comments in the recipe? When a recipe from a reputable cooking site starts out:

"Preparation
Now we are ready to begin. Read
the recipe two times. Skin the chicken (the fat is bad for you)..."

It makes me want to leave the site!!! It really says that. I'm not kidding even one little bit. Grr! How condescending.

rob333, I'm happy to say that I've never seen a recipe with interior comments like that!

My own recipes are written w/ ingredients and minimal instructions. I must admit that when I give a recipe to someone else, I will frequently note options or recommendations on the ingredients list. For example, I have a recipe from an on-line source that says "1/2 c. favorite nuts"... when I give the recipe to someone else, I'll note that it works great with sliced almonds. How do you feel about comments like that?

Love comments like those party!

It was a cooking site that had that comment, written by one of their writers. What? Do they think all cooks are that dumb? Read the recipe again? Really? And the lecture on fat? Really?! One doesn't make Poulet a l'estragon (heavy cream, brandy, and veg oil in it for example) expecting it to be low cal, do they? HA! I had to laugh and shake my head.

I don't like reading reviews where the person has made so many substitutions and method changes that it's no longer the same recipe, and yet they feel like it's still fair to rate it like it was the original.

Colleen, that's what our family recipes are like. Just ingredient. That's pretty much a standard way to do it in the Old West, and they were called "receipts", pronounced "recipe", still going into my youth. :)

Though, re the substitutions, I've made the spicy chicken and dumplings recipe posted by PKramer (attributed to Cuisine at Home) a couple of times. Once, I followed the recipe. Once I improvised with the quantities and vegetables I had. I substituted a yellow carrot and a couple of radishes for the parsnip, for example, used more chicken and less stock, added peas, etc. It's a REALLY good recipe and beautifully balanced. The improvised version wasn't so perfect, but it tasted substantially the same. Certainly close enough to recognize it as the same basic recipe. And while it might have been really good rather than REALLY good, it was really good! I think if you make substitutions and it fails you can't blame the recipe, but when you make all kinds of substitutions and it still comes out tasting similar and really good, the credit goes to the recipe. :)

i must be only one who follows recipes with out trying to substitute anything. except being bit lighter on the spices then most recipes call for.

I think the comments from non-cooks are kind of funny. But if I'm going to try a recipe I find online I usually do read the comments to see if anyone has made a change that worked out well. I try to keep it low carb so I find it strange that people on a low carb website will ask if regular flour can be subsituted for coconut flour lol

Cookebook, your comment about non-cooks leaving comments reminded me of a hilarious one I read quite a while ago. It was a slow-cooker recipe, and the woman panicked because the lid was all steamed up and water was dripping down into the food. She set the lid ajar and it worked out fine. LOL

Ha!

ROTFL!!!

I do read comments for dishes/recipes that I haven't tried before to see if something needs to be tweaked or if it's worth giving a try. I can often tell if a recipe is going to be good or not just by the list of ingredients, but sometimes I'm surprised one way or another.

For example, the recipes I see in the Penzey's catalogs read (to me) to be very bland, but when I've tried a few of them just for giggles, I'm often pleasantly surprised and they are keepers. Another example, the recipes I see in many Simple Living/Martha Stewart magazines read (to me) to be very interesting, but when I've made them, very few were actually good or worth making again.

I just don't understand, or have the patience for people who complain
that there are too many ingredients, or it took far more time than they
thought with all of the chopping.

I saw a lot of that when I was looking for new ways to cook lots of fresh vegetables. Please! If you're going to make a vegetable dish, you have to actually prepare them. Remember when recipes called for a can of condensed soup, a can of vegetables, a can of something else? The 50s and 60s maybe? Some of these people need to go back to those recipes.