Ok I just need to express my annoyance with recipes on the internet asI have found a few now that are useless to me because of this problem...

People keep listing amounts in boxes, bags and cans of something

"a box of raisins" or "a bag of coconut" or "a can of condensed milk"

All of these come in different sized bags, boxes and cans. Here in my part of Canada icing sugar coms only in a bag (and in 2 different sizes), yet I keep seeing people post about boxes of icing sugar...no way for me to know how much that is. A box could be anything from a cup to 4 cups or more.

Anyways, just needed to vent in hopes that somebody would understand my frustration.

omg, I'm with ya on that one, sista!!!

I've "edited" some cookbooks .... they were very amateur; it was a company thing where the employees brought in their recipes and we put together a Company Cookbook (moral booster thing). Anyway, I screened the recipes for just this kind of thing. I have a low tolerance for the mindset that works in the "Well, *I* know what it means so then everyone else must know, too! No reason for me to actually explain it!"

How much IS a "capful"?

What I also find irritating is when they use brand names of products instead of the product. "1 cup of Jiffy" ..... to the recipe writer, that could mean peanut butter. When I used this example in another thread, one of our CC'er in another country laughed and said "Jiffy" in her country is a toilet cleaner!! Not all products are available in all parts of the country. Not all products survive a lifetime. Saw one recipe that listed a name-brand item and I had no idea if it was syrup or hot taco sauce!

one thing that I found that "annoys" me about some recipes I have tried in the past is that fact that the recipe will say how much of something to use but that i can NEVER find that in the store. The "size" is either too much or too little.

That really does annoy me. I just started cooking
(yeah, dad always cooked, moved out, dad not there to cook for me any more) So I have no idea what i'm doing, and when people put 1 can of this or that, you go to the store and they have two different size cans. I generally can guess but one time I did guess wrong and it was a disaster.

I like knowing the exact amount using a measuring cup or spoon. That way I know I am not going to fudge it up.

My gripe with internet recipe sites, isn't always the recipes, but the comments and rating systems. I love when someone rates a recipes with 4 or 5 stars but then their comment goes something like "This recipe was great, but instead of the 'this' we used 'that' and I doubled 'this', and left out 'that'."

It's like hello you are not rating the recipe, but instead one you made up yourself. Of course then there are those that change a bunch of stuff then give the recipes a low rating cause it didn't come out good. Makes you go "Hmmmm...."

Me and my friend were recently talking about recipes online because she doesn't know how to cook. Well she does, but very little. She doesn't have the back ground experince I got for cooking. She was saying that she wishes she could find real recipes that real people make that call for things you can actually find and know what they are.

I wish there would be reviews for the recipes here.

When I first started cooking several years ago I inherited some old church cookbooks. Nothin' beats good tried and true recipes from Grandma, how can you go wrong?! But I kept getting frustrated because so many of the recipes called for "Oleo" and I couldn't find it anywhere! Months and months went by while I struggled to get dinner on the table without the elusive "Oleo". I finally confessed to my mom that I couldn't find the stuff, and she lovingly explained to me what "Oleo" was....DOH!

indydebi - just read the part about "Jiffy" as a toilet cleaner. Oh my thanks for the laugh tonight! Had to LOL!
cupcakeshoppe - I totally agree. I always look at comments on recipes on other sites and combine all the great comments to really make the recipe super crazy good.

I love using allrecipes.com because they use the rating system. I have had good luck with every recipe I have tried there...but then I only try ones that have a 5 star rating and a lot of reviews.

Oleo?? Am going to google it right now, and Jiffy in Australia is a harsh chemical cleaner like Indy said. Whew, glad I didn't come across those recipes but understand the problem.

I'm so glad this was posted. I posted something similar a month or so ago but it didn't get too many views.

I would also love to see a place where people can leave comments about the recipes on this website. If you're voting only 1 star...why? Is it too dry, tasteless, etc. On other websites where there are reviews, that's what I usually go off of. It will determine whether or not I make the recipe.

Two thumbs up for a place to leave comments!

Ok one more thing...I love allrecipes. I'm on there all the time!! However I HATE when people rate a recipe before trying it. As in "I haven't made this, but...." Ughh!! If you haven't made it, why are you reviewing it?

Great topic! I just looked at a recipe on here about 2 weeks ago and it just listed the ingredients....NOT HOW MUCH I NEEDED OF EACH ONE!!!! What, am I psychic now? I know whoever, expected me to "eyeball" it but come on!!!

And I'm with the rest of ya...a recipe review system. And if you are going to select a "star" you HAVE to put why it's that rating in order to submit it! No "2 star" but we don't know why it's that way!!!

My recipe pet peeve? When an ingredient is listed, but then not mentioned in the instructions at all. Um - is it just for my viewing pleasure than? Maybe the author wants to make sure I just have it on hand for some recipe I may use in the future

Another recipe omission that is irritating: I found a "low fat" recipe on CC but it had no info how many calories, fat content, carb listings, etc. I was looking for a diabetic customer so I HAD to know this info. I am not permitted to sell something as fat free or sugar free unless I have the nutritional values.

I think if a recipe is going to be listed as "low fat", then the nutritional values MUST be a part of the recipe, or it shouldn't be allowed to be listed. What's low fat or fat-free, or sugar free to one can be a killer to some diabetics.

I hate it when cake recipes don't say what size cake pan to use

I can not say enough good things about COOKS ILLUSTRATED magazine/website!!!!!!!!!!! it's put out by the tv show "america's test kitchen", so i watch the show, am subscribed to the internet version, order the hardbound books, and subscribe to the bimonthly magazine. they take ordinary recipes from various cookbooks, and then test them to tell you why they don't or do work, how to make them better, etc...

for example, the other night i found a "high roast crisp skin chicken" in one of my hardbounds. when i read the article that went along with it, on how they came to the final result, it said that they had cooked over 40 pounds of chicken to get those perfect results. the chicken was so amazing that my very pickey husband swore it was the best chicken he'd ever had...and the potatoes i cooked under the chicken...freaking out of this world, oh my goodness, make you wanna slap your momma GOOOOOOOD!!!!!!!!!!

i really recommend this magazine/show for those of you who want to polish your skills. my friends think i'm the best cook ever, and i just grin, because all of my things come straight out of those books! the articles are informative, but extremely down to earth and not boring at all.

GET YA SOME!!!!!!!!

starla