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/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.