Monday, November 2, 2009

Rant About Allrecipes.com

Don't get me wrong.  I love Allrecipes.com.  I use them ALL the time with great success.  My rant is really about the people who leave the reviews.

The snobby, I-can-cook-your-recipe-better-than-you reviewers.  Which unfortunately seem to make up 85% of the reviewers!!  These people totally change the original recipe, go on and on about all the wonderful "improvements" they made, then they proceed to give the recipe 4 or 5 stars!  Which makes no sense AT ALL, because the recipe they ended up using is NOT THE RECIPE I AM CONSIDERING MAKING!  When I look at the reviews, I want to know how the ORIGINAL RECIPE comes out.  I could CARE LESS that YOU thought the "Grandma's Chicken Noodle Soup" was better with shiitake mushrooms, acini di pepe and a bouquet garni, cooked in your $3,000 stock pot for five days while you danced around it singing Hungarian folk songs - YOU ARE WASTING MY TIME! 

If you want to totally change the recipes you find - THAT IS FINE - but don't review it - you didn't make that recipe!

Before you can leave a review it should totally say something like, "Please leave a review only if you made the recipe as written, or made minor modifications.  If you have completely changed the recipe then you get a big 'ol gold star, but it doesn't help anyone who wants to know what the recipe as written is like, so please refrain from bragging about your culinary superiority."

It seems like these days I have to end up reading through 15 or 20 reviews, just to get a handful of people who actually made the recipe as written/close to as written!

I think someone should post one of Julia Child's recipes - just for the fun of watching these pseudo-chefs leave their reviews of how they improved upon JULIA CHILD.

Honestly, that is so great for you if you are so talented that you can improve on anyone's recipe, however, when I read the reviews of a recipe on allrecipes.com, I want to know how THAT recipe turns out.  In fact, I find it a wee bit pathetic that these people have to "show off" on a review on a website.  If you're such an amazing cook, why don't you have a dinner party where you can show off and give yourself pats on the back in person, with actual people, and leave the reviews on allrecipes.com to people who actually made THE RECIPE THAT WAS SUBMITTED.

The end.
Posted by none other than Carole K at 9:45 AM
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11 comments:

  1. Carlole,
    Your rant totally cracked me up! The mental picture of the dancing hungarian folk singer made my day. I can so identify with what you say.

    My pet peeve on recipe sites are the people who post how they substituted (for example) olive oil and soy milk in place of butter and cream, then they have the nerve to give the recipe 1 star and say it is TERRIBLE and nobody should waste their time making it. I mean, all they have done is prove that they are a horrid cook!

    Improving on Julia Child put me in mind of this... yesterday I saw an online book review of Jane Eyre--- the title of the reveiw was "A good classic, but I've seen better." Seriously!!
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  2. So funny! I loved your suggestion for putting up a Julia Child recipe. Do it! Do it!

    I don't have these kinds of problems, as I get my recipes off the back of a pasta box. That's about it. Sad, I know.
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  3. Very funny!! And oh so true. :)

    Some people just can't help "being an expert" lol
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  4. mmmmm. I get allrecipes.com emailed to me every day and I think I've read the reviews once. But the recipes I've made from there have always turned out well.
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  5. Snicker! I love allrecipes too but have noticed the same phenomenon with reviews. The funniest is when they make a totally different recipe then give the original recipe poor reviews.
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  6. I can't stand those people! And I don't even cook!
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  7. That would be really funny, EXCEPT I have the same complaint! I just gave this exact rant to my husband. I was so ticked off!!

    Why can't they just write the review about the recipe as it was done! Then if they want to write a different recipe and review that, then go right ahead.
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  8. I usually go on epicurious.com, and the changes some folks mention in the comments are actually often helpful. :) Guess it's good if all the annoying people stay at allrecipes.com...but give epicurious a try!
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  9. Thanks so much for your compiling everything for the GSPN...that was awesome.
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  10. Isn't it funny how so many people will take ANY opportunity to hear themselves talk? I always felt the same about the reviews at that site. I use it a lot too.
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  11. Thank you for posting this. It should be mandatory that Allrecipe users read this post before reviewing a recipe.

    I hate hate hate when people change the recipe! All I want to know is whether or not the recipe is good, not someone else's take on the recipe.
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I read each and every comment, and though I don't always get a chance to respond, I enjoy reading (and pondering) what you have to say. Thanks for your 2 cents! :-)

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