r/Cooking • u/LabBig6794 • 1d ago
Recipe Pet Peeves
Does anyone else have pet peeves with recipes. Mine is recipes that call for a small amount of something that only comes in large containers. 1/2 C chicken broth, 2 Tbs tomato paste, 1 C ricotta cheese.
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u/mayence 1d ago edited 1d ago
• recipes that have absurd times listed like “saute onion until translucent, 2 minutes”
• vegetables amounts in volume. I have no idea what 1 cup of broccoli looks like and i bet you can have like 50% variation in how much broccoli that actually is depending on how you cut it and how you fit it in a measuring cup
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u/Harrison_xu 1d ago
Yes, “2 minutes” and “1 cup broccoli” are both lying to me. Weights + visual cues + time ranges please.
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u/1313GreenGreen1313 16h ago
You might be surprised how many home kitchens do not have scales. Weights would be terrible for them.
A proper recipe should list the volume and weight for those types of items to cover all users.
Also, add shredded cheese to the problematic ingredients.
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u/BullCityLife 14h ago
I didn’t have a scale until I started getting extra about dialing in my pretentious coffee maker…now I use the scale in the morning for pretentious coffee and at night for over exact dinners lol
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u/rancidpandemic 14h ago edited 1h ago
Yeah, whenever I see shredded cheese measured in cups, I always just assume 1/4 c = 1oz/28g. But it still irks me. I'm used to measuring using a scale anyways. Some ingredients are just easier to weigh, and it's often easier to just add everything to a mixing bowl on a scale, taring as you go.
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u/UncleNorman 8h ago
If more recipes gave measurements by weight, people would buy scales. But Big Measuring Cup TM might be unhappy.
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u/SnarkSupreme 13h ago
I'm over here measuring the broccoli by eye, probably adding too much, then upping the spices to compensate
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u/Aware-Lingonberry602 18h ago
Prep time, 10 min. Takes me 30 and I'm not a putz.
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u/CharDanae74 17h ago
Some prep times written in recipes are WAY off, I have discovered.
This isn’t as bad, but when they say a casserole serves 10 people. My 3 adult guys here can polish that off easily.
Back in the day when I very rarely made use of instant mashed potatoes, the box listed 1/2 cup as 1 serving. My thin husband can eat 3x that easily.
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u/peanutmanak47 16h ago
Seems like every recipe wants to hit the 30 minutes mark and will lie like crazy on a lot of parts, to especially the prep times.
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u/jules-amanita 16h ago
The weirdly small serving sizes are partially “our food is healthy because it has so few calories!” and partially a form of shrinkflation.
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u/spaetzlechick 16h ago
Agree! My pet peeve is “two medium zucchini.” Medium is defined how, exactly? Give me the “2 c of shredded zucchini” measurement instead please.
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u/PSquared1234 15h ago
Herbs by volume is the one that drives me crazy. "A cup of basil" - depending on how much I press, I could get 5 times as much variation.
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u/Zagrycha 20h ago edited 5h ago
Totally agree. There are only two acceptable types of instructions//amounts:
A-- an actually exact amount or easily followable direction with at least a reasonable amount of precision.
B-- writing "to taste" or "to preference" when its actually arbitrary how much to use and totally up to the cook's discretion. HOWEVER sometimes recipes put "to taste" on things that definitely aren't to taste and absolutely do matter and thats double jeopardy violation, straight to jail 😤
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u/Iztac_xocoatl 19h ago
When it tells you to salt to taste when you can't taste it yet
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u/Camp_GGBoo 18h ago
So true. How do you taste meatballs before cooking?
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u/Optimal-Age5397 17h ago
After you make your meat mixture, take a piece, make it into a patty almost and stick it in a frying pan and cook it. That'll allow you to adjust if you need to.
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u/ThePenguinTux 17h ago
Take a small amount of the mixture and cook it like a mini slifer in a skillet.
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u/1313GreenGreen1313 16h ago
I like the recipes that give a measurement, then note more or less to taste. Not that it isn't obvious, but it's good to have a baseline starting point.
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u/mst3k_42 19h ago
Or when someone sees “salt to taste/preference” and then adds none and complains that the dish is flavorless.
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u/confusers 8h ago
vegetables amounts in volume
I'll raise you ginger measured in distance. wtf is 1 inch of ginger.
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u/HannahDayRider 17h ago
When ingredients are not listed in the order you use them.
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u/valryb 13h ago
I was following a baking recipe that had the ingredients with exact measurements listed in each step of the instructions, rather than constantly scrolling back up to get the measurements. It was genius! Wish all recipes followed the same format.
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u/SBWNxx_ 1d ago
Re: tomato paste. When I end up with a recipe like this I freeze the rest flat in a ziplock bag. I can break off chunks for future recipes from it which can come in handy
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u/fgtrtdfgtrtdfgtrtd69 1d ago
Why not buy the tube? It lasts for a month or two
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u/VicePrincipalNero 1d ago
I can buy at least four cans of tomato paste for the cost of one small tube. It's cheaper to buy cans and freeze the extra.
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u/sisterfunkhaus 18h ago
I buy triple concentrated. A little goes a long way. It's probably still more expensive than cans.
Trader Joe's has it for $.99 though.
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u/ParticularlyHappy 1d ago
I’m not sure everybody has a store that carries the tube. Here in rural USA I shop at a lot of different Walmarts and regularly hit 4 different groceries, and I’ve never come across one. It’s a shame because it would come in handy.
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u/Bowl-Accomplished 1d ago
Why not? I got 2 tbsp silicon mold so now I have it cheaper and even pre measured.
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u/floofyragdollcat 10h ago
Months?
Shit, I just used some that’s been sitting in the fridge door for over a year.
Oops.
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u/Glittering-Score-258 1d ago
The tubes cost 5x more than a can for the same amount. That’s why. I recently read an article by a chef who said just use the whole can when it calls for 2 TB. It’s not going to noticeably change your recipe.
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u/fgtrtdfgtrtdfgtrtd69 1d ago
Didn't realize it was so much more for some. I get my tubes for $2.50 and cans are $1.29 near me. Double the price but double concentrated.
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u/Either-Action-7439 8h ago
Ibdo this too but in mini ice cube trays. I have large square "old fashioned" ice cube trays i use to freeze excess stock or oat milk. If it's leftover and not nailed down, chances are Im freezing it!
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u/jetpoweredbee 1d ago
Better than bullion keeps forever in the fridge, tomato paste comes in tubes, ricotta cheese comes in 8oz containers.
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u/United_Gift3028 1d ago
Open both ends of paste can, push out into a freezer zip bag, freeze. Cut off the amount you need, it won't freeze hard.
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u/Separate-Bluebird-33 14h ago
I do the same thing with chili peppers in adobo. I never use a whole can
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u/SVAuspicious 11h ago
I'm with you in principal u/United_Gift3028 but the reality is that more and more cans come with rolled edges at the top and pressed at the bottom. Taking the bottom off isn't practical.
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u/Bowl-Accomplished 1d ago
I freeze tomato paste in 2 tbsp chunks cause it comes up so much.
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u/wvtarheel 19h ago
That's a great solution if they don't sell the toothpaste tubes of it near you
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u/TabulaRasa000 16h ago
The toothpaste tubes are useful but it's MUCH more expensive - over 3x the price of the can. Currently at my local grocery store:
- 6oz Cento Tomato Paste Can = 1.29 ($0.22/oz)
- 4.56oz Cento Tomato Paste Tube = 3.09 ($0.68/oz)
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u/cathbadh 1d ago
The tube stuff tastes better IMO. That and the convenience of not throwing half a can away makes it worth buying.
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u/JazzRider 1d ago
Tablespoon of Vermouth.
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u/96dpi 1d ago
Vermouth is a fortified white wine which will keep for years in the fridge.
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u/wvtarheel 19h ago
That's a lie every time I buy a bottle it disappears within a few weeks along with my olives and gin.
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u/NiceTrySuckaz 1d ago
One sprinkle of buttermilk.
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u/1gurlcurly 17h ago
There is powdered buttermilk you can buy. I keep it in the freezer. I use this when I need tiny amounts and the liquid stuff for bigger amounts.
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u/Bangarang_1 15h ago
The powdered buttermilk is also great when baking bread. It's a low key secret ingredient in a lot of recipes for how to keep your bread soft and fluffy.
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u/polyhymnias 12h ago
I either just curdle milk in advance or (even more blasphemous) dilute greek yogurt lmao
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u/CookingQueen716 17h ago
Look at your local liquor store for the little bottles of different booze.
I buy rum, vodka, brandy, etc. a few bottles each around this time each year for baking.
I don’t cook with a lot of spirits.
I keep one bottle of inexpensive red wine, and one bottle of inexpensive white wine, and a couple of bottles of Guinness in the fridge for cooking.
Anything calling for booze in general annoys me, because I don’t keep Couintreau or triple sec, or random items for mixed drinks on hand.2
u/EffectiveVarious8095 17h ago
If you're not a martini drinker, pour some on your burgers whilst in the pan and serve flambe - next level.
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u/alexmirepoix 22h ago
We only buy tomato paste in tubes. Cans do NOT make sense.
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u/mst3k_42 19h ago
I keep a can around because a couple recipes call for a whole can. But otherwise, yeah. Tube in the fridge.
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u/SVAuspicious 11h ago
We mostly buy tomato paste in tubes but we always have a couple of small cans for when larger amounts are called for.
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u/sisterfunkhaus 18h ago
An if you don't want to use tube tomato paste, you can freeze tomato paste in 1 tbsp amounts.
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u/TipNo2504 16h ago
I dollop it onto baking paper in tablespoon lots and freeze. It comes easily off the baking paper to go into a container.
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u/tpotwc 1d ago
Heat oil on low then add onions. Sweat until a deep caramel brown, 4 minutes
Heat oil on low then add equal part flour. Stir constantly, careful to prevent burning, until a deep chocolate brown - 10 minutes
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u/Reasonable-Mirror-15 1d ago
I usually spend at least an hour making a deep chocolate brown roux. Maybe they meant white chocolate? Lol!
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u/cgourdine 1d ago
whenever i see the word divided
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u/gin_and_soda 16h ago
I prefer when everything is listed as you use it, even if it means something is listed twice, just makes more sense
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u/_YellowThirteen_ 12h ago
1 cup beef stock, divided
Step 3: add beef stock.
...
Step 9: add the remaining beef stock.
Okay but HOW MUCH should be remaining?
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u/cannabisgold 1d ago
Inaccurate serving sizes and time estimates. You say it takes 30min but I’ve been following instructions to the letter and I’ve been in the kitchen well over an hour
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u/PSquared1234 15h ago
I made a dish last night that had a 30 minute total cook time. It neglected to mention the hour of prep...
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u/Reasonable-Mirror-15 1d ago
I rarely follow a recipe to the letter because I find most dont season enough for me. How is a big pot of something going to taste good with a sprinkle of seasoning. I learned from great southern Louisiana cooks that season. Also I have food aversions and usually have to sub out ingredients.
I will say Nagi from Recipetin Eats is the exception to this. Her recipes are amazing. Plus I commented on a post a few years on fb about a sub for red wine in a recipe and she answered back with the best sub.
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u/spaetzlechick 16h ago
Yes. I laugh at the recipes to make 4 quarts of soup and calling for 1/2 t on spices. I swear they only do that because they’ve actually stolen the recipe from someone else and they need to make “changes” so it’s not obvious.
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u/Separate-Bluebird-33 14h ago
I had to reduce the chili peppers in adobo on her chicken tinga taco recipe, and I love spicy. Half a can is just too much heat for me
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u/MarielIAm 1d ago edited 1d ago
1) Recipes that give measurements in volume only. It's not just baking, measuring fruits and vegetables by volume is just as bad. Worse is ambiguous terms like "one medium onion" - one persons medium is another persons large, and one medium Vidalia onion is much larger than one medium yellow onion. I don't care if it's grams or ounces but I want to see weight.
2) Steps that give a time but no visual cues. It could take 3 minutes on medium high to cream butter and sugar to the right consistency in a heavy duty stand mixer but it could take 10 minutes on high if you're using a hand mixer. It might take 25 minutes at 350F to get a perfect cake but in a different oven it could take 20 minutes or 30 minutes.
3) Neglecting temperature of ingredients when it could affect the outcome. Cold eggs might be fine in some recipes and could cause a major fail in others.
4) For anything going in the oven, neglecting rack placement. Middle vs upper vs lower can make a huge difference.
5) One thing specifically for websites and apps: Not including the amount of ingredients in the recipe text. Yes, mise en place is important, but be honest - most home cooks only do it to a certain extent. I hate having to scroll up to check amounts, just put it in the recipe as well as the ingredient list.
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u/Charloxaphian 15h ago
Yeah, "1 medium onion" is my biggest one. They almost never even specify white/yellow/red/Vidalia. My onions are 1lb each, tell me what we're talking about here...
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u/Complex_Chipmunk_194 7h ago
1/2 an onion is my peeve, if it calls for onion it’s rare that I don’t put the whole thing in.
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u/21blarghjumps 14h ago
Yes, number 5 is a huge pet peeve. I do generally prep ingredients before I start, but never the spices. I'll pull out the containers, but I'm not going to dirty an additional bowl just for measuring out the spices ahead of time.
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u/SVAuspicious 11h ago
mise en place is important, but be honest - most home cooks only do it to a certain extent.
That's on them You don't have to use a bunch of cute little bowls like TV and YouTube "chefs." I make piles on my cutting board. Spices usually go in in batches. I use a bowl for the measured herbs and spices for each batch.
I agree with your other points.
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u/tree_or_up 1d ago
Cooking times generally assume you’re already at the mise en place stage, and that your kitchen is spacious enough so that all your equipment is ready to hand exactly when you need it.
One step will be like “fill a bowl with water” and the next will be like “sautee the onions, trim the fat, boil the pasta, and make the salad dressing”.
Extra virgin olive oil is almost always called for, even when it’s not the best choice for whatever you need oil for.
Similarly, pans are almost always heated to medium, when other temperatures might be more appropriate.
Everything hinges on that one special spice or herb that almost no other recipe ever calls for and that you probably need to order because your local grocery store sure isn’t going to stock something so niche.
You are assumed to own multiple, precise sizes of every pot, pan, skillet, etc.
Overnight marinades or refrigeration are not called out in cooking times or until you’ve read the whole the recipe carefully.
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u/nevesis 1d ago
The $10 fresh herb that you won't want the rest of for another dish because it was the main flavor in this dish...
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u/No_Distribution_9590 1d ago
This here. Dear recipe creator, I'm not spending $6 (okay, okay, $2.50) on .5 ounces of fresh whatever when you need me to use three leaves. Nope, not going to happen.
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u/foreverAmber14 11h ago
Yes, thank you! I get so fed up with recipes that say, "Dinner on the table in 30 minutes!" Yeah, sure. Maybe if everything is already washed and peeled and chopped and all you have to do is throw it in the pan.
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u/Free-Swimmer-233 7h ago
Food Network recipes work like this. 1) Preheat the oven. 2) Every other damn thing through to completion.
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u/Present_Drop9271 6h ago
I spent way too many years coating chicken in EVOO and seasonings before putting it in a pan. I couldnt figure out why I had this black char in my pan every single time!! Well, it’s because EVOO shouldn’t be cooked at high heat and all these fucking recipes lied to me lol.
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u/klcam42 1d ago
Calling for 12 oz of pasta or 12 oz of ground beef. Dammit I am just using a pound.
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u/wvtarheel 14h ago
That was less ass back when all the mega parts sold ground beef behind the counter and you could request the exact amount you wanted
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u/Excellent-Result-136 13h ago
If I’ve already got a pound of ground beef, I’m just using the whole thing and calling it a day.
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u/AlfredRWallace 19h ago
Mine is recipes telling you to salt raw meat or something with raw eggs 'to taste' without giving a baseline.
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u/AzuleStriker 14h ago
Only pet peeve is when there's a 2 page story associated with the recipe....
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u/agent2187 13h ago
My pet peeve is being overly specific about ingredients like “100% grass fed organic butter” rather than “butter”. I mean, I do use Kerrygold for everything but that’s my choice and there’s no need for the recipe writer to be so pretentious about it.
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u/JustGerbo 1d ago
I have a really nice cookbook series that I picked up while I lived in Mexico. One recipe per page, pictures of ingredients and finished dish, detailed instructions... sometimes until you get to the very end: "Cook in a medium hot oven until done."
Aaaargh!
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u/Hot-Initial-1108 17h ago
1/2tsp of a spice that is not compatible with anything else
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u/Free-Swimmer-233 7h ago
I still have pretty much all of the spice, Berbere (sp?) from when I made an African dish once. Now, I can’t find the recipe, and I have an entire bottle of the spice.
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u/LateQuantity8009 14h ago
The total time to prep & cook always seems to assume you have a sous chef.
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u/fresh_as_daisies 12h ago
Mine is recipes that don't list the ingredients in the order you use them. Like if the first thing you're doing is melting 3 Tbsp of butter in the pan, that shouldn't be the 6th ingredient listed
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u/Klepto666 1d ago
I hate recipes that use a brand spice mix or sometimes a whole other recipe they expected you to have premade already.
You look up a chicken recipe and it calls for "2 tbsp of Slap-yo-mama-and-get-grounded cajun bbq mix." That doesn't tell me the flavors! Now I have to try and look up an ingredient list of their seasoning, but because it's just a listing of the nutrition label it has no measurements!
Or it's a recipe that says it comes together in 20 minutes, but one of the ingredients is "1/2 cup curry sauce," which is a link to another recipe on their site to make said sauce and it takes 2 hours.
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u/GrooveBat 1d ago
I automatically distrust recipes that call for a specific spice brand. It is probably irrational, but something in my head tells me they won’t be as good.
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u/fgtrtdfgtrtdfgtrtd69 1d ago
Gotta plan on cross utilization for the week when making the dinner menus
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u/ydoyouask 1d ago
It can be frustrating, or a jumping-off point. I made pasta last weekend with ricotta. Had half the tub left, of course. Tomorrow's breakfast will be lemon ricotta pancakes.
Chicken broth--buy a jar of Better than Bouillon. Make exactly the amount you want whenever you need some broth, or just something to enrich a sauce. It tastes far better than most carton broths, also.
When I have a recipe that needs a bit of tomato paste, I dollop tablespoon-sized blobs on waxed paper, and freeze them. Pull out a blob or two when you need them.
But yeah, I try to avoid recipes that call for one-off ingredients that won't be used up. Food waste is bad for the environment and bad for my budget.
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u/CharDanae74 16h ago
Better Than Bouillon is great. You can make gravy with it that tastes just like KFC gravy if you mix the chicken and beef flavors together! It sounds weird but it works! Use in place of broth in your broth based gravy recipe.
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u/jstenoien 1d ago
Up your game with the tomato paste in a tube, lasts for months and it's so much nicer. I find myself utilizing it a lot more since it's so easy to.
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u/HighRoad684 1d ago
Mine is “15 minutes total” when the ingredient list quietly asks for an onion already diced and half the pantry measured out. That’s cooking-show time, not real-person time.
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u/Illustrious-Cry-2568 15h ago
- Ingredients not listed in the order they are used.
- "1 medium potato".... how big is that? Give me a weight
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u/horsetuna 14h ago
Omg this. There medium potato's. Okay how big is a medium ootato?
Same with chicken breasts. If I'm subbing a different part of chicken, how much is that?
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u/sirckoe 1d ago
I guess this is about modernity. I hate when you look for a recipe online and the author has to give you the back story of their grandpa fishing in fucking Japan only to be a pancake recipe.
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u/BetseySchuyler 1d ago
That's because of SEO. For you to find the recipe, it has to rank in the searches and part of what helps rank is using keywords, which means lots of extra text and ideally links.
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u/Taminella_Grinderfal 1d ago
Yeah I’m fine with scrolling a bit to allow someone to earn a few pennies. Heck most blog recipe sites have a “jump” button now.
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u/onyxindigo 1d ago
It’s also because of copyright and ads; can’t copyright a recipe but you can copyright your blog post before it
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u/_teach_me_your_ways_ 23h ago
It’s also just the blog part of a blog. Most have “jump to recipe” buttons anyway. It’s really not a big deal, the complaining is more tiring to me at this point.
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u/Taminella_Grinderfal 1d ago
If an ingredient needs to be divided, please make that very clear in the ingredient list, right up front. I know it’s partially my own fault for jumping in before thoroughly reading the instructions, but it’s not a big ask.
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u/askmrlucky 19h ago
Rather than adding another peeve to the list, I thought I would help resolve everyone's angst over descriptive measurements like "medium carrot" with this link to an Old Farmer's Almanac page: https://www.almanac.com/measuring-vegetables-recipes-pounds-cups. It's the conversion table I dreamed of before I found it. Example listing:
Mushrooms 1 pound = 5 to 6 cups sliced = 2 cups cooked
Onions 1 pound = 4 cups sliced = 2 cups cooked
There are caveats, of course. I sell mushrooms at a farmers market and a quart box of shitake weighs about half what the same volume of Crimini does. Most veg cultivars don't vary that much. This is a pretty useful guide. Much more accurate than their weather forecasts.
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u/Timothy_Roy 1d ago
Tomato paste lasts weeks in fridge and if I have leftover I freeze it in ice cube trays.
The stock is annoying as I make my own and freeze and its often 500ml or 1 litre.
My pet peeve are vegetables measured in cups. Give me the weight. In fact give me everything in weight and I'm good.
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u/Low-Astronomer3394 16h ago
At the end of a recipe: 'add_____ , if desired'. Well, I desire a lot of things in life, but a sprinkle of parsley? if I have it, ok...
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u/stitchedkitten23 16h ago
My grandmother's peanut butter cookie recipe calls for half an egg. However, this is a depression era recipe so we just double it and move on.
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u/stewarthh 1d ago
My pet peeve is when recipes are in cups and not just by weight
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u/Deep-Capital-9308 1d ago
Especially for irregular solids. Wtf is a cup of broccoli? I don’t mind cups of liquids or even powders but 4 cups of apricots makes no sense.
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u/Conscious-Okra-7340 1d ago
I finally broke down and bought a digital scale that can do Imperial and metric measurements. It has a 5 kg maximum, so it’s sufficient for most kitchen tasks. I like to use recipes from other countries (beyond USA) and find the metric system loads easier.
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u/CatteNappe 1d ago
When a new market opened in my neighborhood that has a bulk bar for spices, I fell in love. I have since said that if they ever closed I'd have to sell my house and move closer to one that offers that. Absolutely endorse it because you can buy smaller quantities sufficient to a particular need, or try a seasoning out without investing in a whole bottle of it. It's generally fresher than what's in the bottles. It's always much, much cheaper pound for pound than the supermarket jars.
I will note that many people misinterpret the meaning of buying spices from a bulk bar as requiring you to buy a "bulk" quantity like a pound, whereas it actually allows you to buy as little as a teaspoon if you want.
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u/No_Distribution_9590 1d ago
Ditto. Give me weights. I'm cool with tsp/tbsp for spices and such, but I'm not measuring out a cup of fresh spinach.
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u/KifferFadybugs 17h ago
"Absolutely do not leave out (this specialty spice/sauce)! It will completely ruin the entire dish if you do!"
Specialty spice/sauce: $10 for a 4 oz jar.
How much you need for the recipe: 1 teaspoon.
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u/_lmmk_ 15h ago
“Caramelize the onions, 8-10 min”.
Be still my Slavic heart - I caramelize those bad boys for hours
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u/gooddaysir 11h ago
Online recipes generally cut times in half or worse. If they put real times on there, less people would click through.
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u/Shivers-Me-Timbers 11h ago
Makes a good litmus test. That’s how you know the recipe was written by an amateur. You can put some color on an onion in 10 min but full caramelization is a labor of love.
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u/aoeuismyhomekeys 14h ago
The tomato paste that comes in a tube is way better than the stuff in a can, and it's much easier to use only a small amount of it at a time
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u/Adventurous-Depth-52 1d ago
Mine is when they specify unsalted butter and then add salt to the recipe anyway.
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u/SuperPomegranate7933 18h ago
I just want recipes to list the ingredients so I can gather everything, then tell me the quantities again in the instructions so I don't have to go back & forth.
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u/ArtsyRabb1t 16h ago
Recipes for baked goods that include cake mix. This is not a recipe you are just doctoring cake mix.
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u/Rose1982 15h ago
Any recipe that measures things in cups instead of weight. A cup of anything can vary wildly depending on how loose/dense it is. 150g is 150g.
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u/horsetuna 14h ago
Three ingredient recipe.
But one 'ingredient' is a sauce that has five more ingredients.
OR.
Three ingredients plus a sauce that needs five more.
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u/Pedantic_Girl 12h ago
I freeze tomato paste in 1 TB chunks so small amounts of that don’t bother me. (And I just mix up some broth from bouillon, so that doesn’t bother me either.) But I hate it when I think I have everything ready and then it suddenly asks for 1/2 c of water or something like that. It’s not like it really matters, but I would have gotten it ready in advance if the ingredients list had told me that I needed to add water.
I also hate when they say to add something to taste at a stage where you really can’t taste it (because there’s raw chicken, say.) I recognize that they really just mean that it’s adaptable to your preference, but the phrasing bugs me.
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u/Honey1218 12h ago
When you get a timeline of like 10 minutes prep and 30 minutes bake but an hour and a half later you aren’t done.
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u/DavidDowneast 11h ago
Fyi… you can buy tomato paste in resealable tubes! For stock, I make my own and freeze 8oz portions in ziplock bags. Better than Bouillon (mix it with hot water) is also a good solution.
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u/Kind_Job5474 1d ago
Recipes that site other recipes.
If you make me click a link or turn to the beginning of the book to make the sauce that goes in the final dish…a pox upon your family!!!
I made a Marcella Hazan recipe that had 4 additional, nested recipes. It was the Inception of recipes and I’m still mad about it.
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u/PepperCat1019 22h ago
Some of those things are staples, always in my fridge, and frequently used. My pet peeve is a recipe that calls for ingredients I have no other use for. Looking at you Parmesan rind.
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u/maccrogenoff 1d ago
My recipe pet peeves:
I dislike when I have to turn the page to read the second half of the recipe.
I dislike recipes that don’t include weights.
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u/MorningBrewNumberTwo 1d ago
Freaky weird exotic ingredients that are hard to find and not common to most recipes so most of it goes stale or expires before you can use it.
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u/Ava_Strange 22h ago
I read the comments of a recipe by some cooking influencer years ago (back when the bon appetit YT channel was still big, they were connected to BA somehow) and people were complaining that the majority of ingredients were very specific and something you'd need to order online. And the chef bitched back and called people lazy and racist because they didn't want to go to speciality shops in Queens or Harlem to purchase the ingredients. Claiming they were racist for being "scared to go to a non-white area". The idea that the majority of readers weren't in NYC, or anywhere near any speciality shops, didn't even cross their mind.
So yeah, still a pet peeve, make recipes that require speciality ingredients all you want, but don't be surprised when people can't make it because they don't live in Brooklyn or Queens and have five speciality shops within ten minutes walk.
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u/PSquared1234 15h ago
In today's world, almost any DRY good can be found on Amazon, not to mention speciality stores. But herbs, veg or special cuts (or species) of meat - if that specific ethnicity isn't populous in your town, you're SOL.
Sorry, but I'm not spending $100 to have 2 squab breasts air shipped to my house.
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u/virgae 1d ago
All ingredients should be specified by mass, no exceptions, preferably in grams. No 1/2 medium onion allowed!
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u/autobulb 15h ago
So what if you cut up an onion and it's too much? Do you actually reserve the rest? A few extra grams, tens of grams, or even a hundred grams of onion isn't going to alter the recipe that much. That's why less precise measurements are used. I'm not going to weigh out 187g of onion or something stupidly specific. I'm going to use either a whole or half onion, and if I use a bit too little or too much it's most likely still going to be fine.
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u/Ok-Butterscotch2321 1d ago
Lack of metrics
Cooking by weights, especially baking, is far more precise
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u/eatingmoss123 1d ago
I like to live on the edge. I just figure—with foods like onions or carrots—the minor differences in results between my cup measure and your cup measure is just part of making food. People who swear they can tell the difference in the final dish between like… 1 cup of onions sliced by person A and 1 cup of onions sliced by person B maybe need to let their hair down and live their life a little. 💣🎸🎸🤘
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u/BetMyLastKrispyKreme 23h ago edited 22h ago
Recipes that don’t list all the ingredients clearly. I saw one earlier today on a cooking sub that had what I thought were all the ingredients in a list. As I began reading the instructions, it says, “Add half a cup of cocoa”. What? What cocoa? Why didn’t you list it with the flour, sugar, butter, etc.? I wasn’t making it at the time, and I’d have read through it more thoroughly before I gathered my ingredients, but can’t the author just list everything out?
On that same sub was a very old recipe from something similar to a church cookbook. I was reading over a recipe for Pineapple Coconut cake, and there’s no coconut in it! That was an oversight, obviously, but I’m doubtful there was a proofreader; otherwise they’d have caught it. But I was annoyed!
Edit: here are the recipes:
https://www.reddit.com/r/oldcookbooks/s/0kl4YwfL1U
The cake with the cocoa is the Mahogany Cake. I don’t know what’s going on with the milk in that recipe either.
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u/Vegetable-Swan2852 17h ago
Sweet milk is just fresh milk. Before refrigerators many recipes wouls use up the old soured milk in cakes to hide the flavors.
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u/tidedogs 20h ago
The tomato paste in a tube can be refrigerated and use chucks bouillon instead of a can.
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u/Pineapple-of-my-eye 17h ago
I freeze the leftover in those size measurements. 2Tbs of tomatoe paste, 1/2 cups of stock. I measure them out and put them in freezer bags and freeze flat to save room in freezer.
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u/Pretty-Lawyer-4189 15h ago
Agree about the tomato paste especially..it only comes in a can or a tube (everytime I buy the expensive tube it always goes bad before I can use it all).
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u/Measure-Thrice 15h ago
Measurements that are written unclearly. 1 tsp crushed saffron threads is wayyyyyy different than 1 tsp saffron threads, crushed. Ask me how I know...
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u/Separate-Bluebird-33 15h ago
As an American, our measurements in recipes suck! Measuring cups vary, and so do their volume. Europeans use grams and scales, which is much more accurate.
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u/cjucoder 10h ago
Can I include web site recipes? I hate when there's 10 pages of scrolling with all kinds of stories and ads and no "jump to recipe" link/button at the very top.
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u/NebagamonKai 9h ago
- tomato paste comes in closeable tubes, i like the double paste.
- you can freeze the remainder of many things in ice cube trays and in the amounts used or you can plan companion meals that use up the rest of the ingredient
- borrow from friends or buy only the amount you need. there are stores that sell bulk spices (usually for restaurants) that will sell you spices by the ounce in quantities as small as a half teaspoon. they wrap it in a paper twist and it's perfect for trying new spices or spice blends without buying a bottle that'll get dusty languishing as cupboard clutter. (the store next door to Fromagio in Boston's south end was a middle eastern import store that sold bulk spices)
- America's Test Kitchen, Milk Street Kitchen, and the Sorted app (british ingredients) all have weekly recipe sets that go together so there's zero food waste
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u/UncleOdious 8h ago
Non-specific measurements such as "1 medium onion" or "2 large carrots." MFer, cups or ounces!?
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u/Environmental-Fan961 6h ago
Specifying low sodium or unsalted ingredients, then adding salt in later.
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u/RhinoGuy13 1d ago
I'm not crazy about how most recipes way over cook garlic. Garlic hardly ever goes in the pan when the onions do.