Annoying recipes!

Allgaun
Allgaun Posts: 222 Member
in Recipes
I had some over ripe bananas and found this recipe on line:

https://www.thebakingchocolatess.com/perfect-banana-chocolate-chip-muffins-fluffy-moist/

Cool, I had all the ingredients and only 160 calories?

Except NO! The recipe builder says 280 per muffin!

I wish I entered the ingredients before I made them, now they are going to work for others to enjoy.

Replies

  • RCPV
    RCPV Posts: 342 Member
    Allgaun wrote: »
    I had some over ripe bananas and found this recipe on line:

    https://www.thebakingchocolatess.com/perfect-banana-chocolate-chip-muffins-fluffy-moist/

    Cool, I had all the ingredients and only 160 calories?

    Except NO! The recipe builder says 280 per muffin!

    I wish I entered the ingredients before I made them, now they are going to work for others to enjoy.

    Just cut them in half. 140 calories then. :)
  • seltzermint555
    seltzermint555 Posts: 10,740 Member
    Not the same reason... but I hate recipes that call for really expensive ingredients. Date syrup, for one. Coconut butter comes to mind as well. I don't consider myself all that cheap but for ONE simple recipe I don't like spending $12-15 for one ingredient.
  • Allgaun
    Allgaun Posts: 222 Member
    seltzermint555 wrote: »
    Not the same reason... but I hate recipes that call for really expensive ingredients. Date syrup, for one. Coconut butter comes to mind as well. I don't consider myself all that cheap but for ONE simple recipe I don't like spending $12-15 for one ingredient.

    I hate that! Some spices are very expensive and you never use them again so buying a jar is a waste of money.
  • acpgee
    acpgee Posts: 7,961 Member
    I hate poorly organized recipes that tell you to dirty 5 pans when you could have dirtied 2 if you did things in the right order, re-using the same pan. I guess some celebrity chefs (Jamie Oliver in particular) have minions to clean up after them, but I don't.
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
    I just substitute or make any ingredients I don't have (date syrup is just dates soaked in water and blended, or I could just use maple syrup, sugar syrup, molasses...etc). I also always log any recipes before I make them because I don't trust any recipe with numbers out there.

    What I personally find annoying may be a weird thing to hate about recipes. I hate recipes that use cups. I would rather weigh all the ingredients and not clean measuring cups and spoons.
  • missysippy930
    missysippy930 Posts: 2,577 Member
    edited February 2020
    amusedmonkey wrote: »
    I just substitute or make any ingredients I don't have (date syrup is just dates soaked in water and blended, or I could just use maple syrup, sugar syrup, molasses...etc). I also always log any recipes before I make them because I don't trust any recipe with numbers out there.

    What I personally find annoying may be a weird thing to hate about recipes. I hate recipes that use cups. I would rather weigh all the ingredients and not clean measuring cups and spoons.

    I have a lot of cookbooks (I’m in the US I’ve been buying them all my life) they all use measurements with measuring cups and spoons. Because of the internet, I haven’t bought any cookbooks lately, so I don’t know if it’s changing, but most sites I use, use measuring cups and spoons. I was watching an episode of America’s Test Kitchen recently, and they did weigh some things, but mainly, for US based shows, they measure using cups and spoons. Conversion of recipes, from cups to grams, for me, is more time consuming than washing a few measuring cups/spoons, and it’s hard to change lifelong (68 years) habits. I’ve been cooking/baking for over 50 years, and have never had a recipe fail because of measurements.
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
    edited February 2020
    missysippy930 wrote: »
    amusedmonkey wrote: »
    I just substitute or make any ingredients I don't have (date syrup is just dates soaked in water and blended, or I could just use maple syrup, sugar syrup, molasses...etc). I also always log any recipes before I make them because I don't trust any recipe with numbers out there.

    What I personally find annoying may be a weird thing to hate about recipes. I hate recipes that use cups. I would rather weigh all the ingredients and not clean measuring cups and spoons.

    I have a lot of cookbooks (I’m in the US I’ve been buying them all my life) they all use measurements with measuring cups and spoons. Because of the internet, I haven’t bought any cookbooks lately, so I don’t know if it’s changing, but most sites I use, use measuring cups and spoons. I was watching an episode of America’s Test Kitchen recently, and they did weigh some things, but mainly, for US based shows, they measure using cups and spoons. Conversion of recipes, from cups to grams, for me, is more time consuming than washing a few measuring cups/spoons, and it’s hard to change lifelong (68 years) habits. I’ve been cooking/baking for over 50 years, and have never had a recipe fail because of measurements.

    It's not about failure, it's about laziness on my part. I don't like washing extra dishes and performing extra steps. The cookbooks we have list ingredients in grams, so when I see a recipe in cups and spoons I need to log it for calories in a website that automatically shows weight of ingredients in order to cook it. The problem is that it's not my main food logging website, so I find myself needing to register the recipe again in my main tracker if I like it, or quick log the calories without nutrients if I don't.

    This is especially true for one pot meals. I would rather pour things directly into the pot, and not deal with cramming my chopped onions into a cup and all the mess that makes. Weighing a whole onion close enough to the weight needed, chopping it, and scraping the chopping board directly into the pot is much easier for me. When I'm done, I only need to wash the chopping board, the knife, and the mixing spoon, and the counter and the floor are mess free because I tend to make a mess with measuring cups, needing to have it filled to the top and all that.
  • helen_goldthorpe
    helen_goldthorpe Posts: 340 Member
    I hate recipes which use cups because I don't have any measuring cups. I have always used recipes in grams from books and a scale but with the internet I come across American cup based recipes more often. I then have to search the internet to find out how much a cup of whatever ingredient it is actually weighs...
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
    edited February 2020
    helen_goldthorpe wrote: »
    I hate recipes which use cups because I don't have any measuring cups. I have always used recipes in grams from books and a scale but with the internet I come across American cup based recipes more often. I then have to search the internet to find out how much a cup of whatever ingredient it is actually weighs...

    https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/eat-this-much-recipe-clip/deefcoodgkfkemnadjphindnllkcgjgp?hl=en

    You can make a free account on that website and the recipe clipper will take care of the cups to grams conversion. It doesn't always clip properly, so sometimes you need to copy and paste the ingredients manually, but it does open the "new recipe" window automatically.

    This is what the ingredient matching page looks like (much more accurate than MFP ingredient matching)
    I clipped this recipe for this screenshot: https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/23600/worlds-best-lasagna/?internalSource=hub recipe&referringId=17235&referringContentType=Recipe Hub

    You can see the first few ingredients here and the matching was accurate for quantities. The amount is shown in grams too:
    cmt5ajk0nocj.png

    You can pick another ingredient if it matches the wrong one. The beef in this case is not exactly lean, so I could pick a leaner option, but for my purposes it doesn't matter, I only need the gram conversions.
  • missysippy930
    missysippy930 Posts: 2,577 Member
    amusedmonkey wrote: »
    missysippy930 wrote: »
    amusedmonkey wrote: »
    I just substitute or make any ingredients I don't have (date syrup is just dates soaked in water and blended, or I could just use maple syrup, sugar syrup, molasses...etc). I also always log any recipes before I make them because I don't trust any recipe with numbers out there.

    What I personally find annoying may be a weird thing to hate about recipes. I hate recipes that use cups. I would rather weigh all the ingredients and not clean measuring cups and spoons.

    I have a lot of cookbooks (I’m in the US I’ve been buying them all my life) they all use measurements with measuring cups and spoons. Because of the internet, I haven’t bought any cookbooks lately, so I don’t know if it’s changing, but most sites I use, use measuring cups and spoons. I was watching an episode of America’s Test Kitchen recently, and they did weigh some things, but mainly, for US based shows, they measure using cups and spoons. Conversion of recipes, from cups to grams, for me, is more time consuming than washing a few measuring cups/spoons, and it’s hard to change lifelong (68 years) habits. I’ve been cooking/baking for over 50 years, and have never had a recipe fail because of measurements.

    This is especially true for one pot meals. I would rather pour things directly into the pot, and not deal with cramming my chopped onions into a cup and all the mess that makes. Weighing a whole onion close enough to the weight needed, chopping it, and scraping the chopping board directly into the pot is much easier for me. When I'm done, I only need to wash the chopping board, the knife, and the mixing spoon, and the counter and the floor are mess free because I tend to make a mess with measuring cups, needing to have it filled to the top and all that.

    I guess it’s more about baking, using measuring cups and spoons. Baking is more of a science, cooking an art. I’m not real exact with vegetables. I never measure them. I use the whole item, whether it weighs more or less, than the recipe calls for. I know myself, if it came down to part of a vegetable, it would probably not get used. I would never measure out a cup of chopped onion. Doesn’t matter to the outcome of the recipe. And until it becomes an issue for losing weight, which it isn’t, I’m not worried about the accuracy of the weight of vegetables in the recipes I make.
  • Allgaun
    Allgaun Posts: 222 Member

    I have a favorite cookie recipe, sometimes they come out of the oven puffy and chewy, sometimes flatter and crisp. It's about the flour I'm pretty sure, packed down it's more flour in the cup. I wish the recipe was flour by weight, it would lead to a more consistent bake
  • Allgaun
    Allgaun Posts: 222 Member
    Pipsqueak1965 wrote: »
    I hate recipes that say something like 'one potato'. Potatoes come in so many sizes!

    or 2 carrots, or one medium onion.... I recently cooked something that called for a pound of potatoes, I took out the bag and mixed and matched the spuds until I got as close as possible to a pound.

    Ahhh the joy of cooking
  • TooDamnSweet
    TooDamnSweet Posts: 63 Member
    Allgaun wrote: »
    I have a favorite cookie recipe, sometimes they come out of the oven puffy and chewy, sometimes flatter and crisp. It's about the flour I'm pretty sure, packed down it's more flour in the cup. I wish the recipe was flour by weight, it would lead to a more consistent bake

    Convert the recipe to weight and you will get consistant results. That is the reason I use weights in all my baking. You only have to do the conversion once, and you can usually find the cup to gram information on the bag of flour.

    I especially love using weight for wet ingredients like sour cream, so easy and no measuring cups to clean!
  • missysippy930
    missysippy930 Posts: 2,577 Member
    edited February 2020
    Allgaun wrote: »
    I have a favorite cookie recipe, sometimes they come out of the oven puffy and chewy, sometimes flatter and crisp. It's about the flour I'm pretty sure, packed down it's more flour in the cup. I wish the recipe was flour by weight, it would lead to a more consistent bake

    There is a way to measure flour more accurately. Never pack it down. Spoon gently into a measuring cup and level off with a straight edge spatula. It’s pretty accurate. Other things can affect the results of cookies. Humidity. Egg sizes. I bake about 15 different kinds of cookies, some years more, at Christmas.
    just_Tomek wrote: »
    I love Allrecipes.com and all the reviews that give the recipe 5*....... and those reviews start by.... I changed this, added that, replaced this with that, perfect recipe lol :)

    That’s one my issues with Allrecipes reviews. How can you give a recipe a ***** review when you change the recipe 🤷🏻‍♀️
    I like the site though. I use it more than any other recipe site.
  • puffbrat
    puffbrat Posts: 2,806 Member
    just_Tomek wrote: »
    I love Allrecipes.com and all the reviews that give the recipe 5*....... and those reviews start by.... I changed this, added that, replaced this with that, perfect recipe lol :)

    Or they haven't even made it yet but give it 5 stars because it "looks tasty".
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 10,093 Member
    When I get a recipe that lists flour or whatever dry ingredient by volume, I weigh out the equivalent based on what the package says a cup is supposed to weigh (most flour says a serving is 1/4 cup or 30 g, so I weigh out 120 g per cup of flour that the recipe calls for).
  • plythacur
    plythacur Posts: 32 Member
    edited February 2020
    Similar to the five stars for a recipe where the person changed half the ingredients, I hate it when someone reviews a recipe and only gives it one star but then admits to substituting out half the ingredients! At that point you are essentially just reviewing your own bad cooking skills, not the actual recipe.
  • earlnabby
    earlnabby Posts: 8,171 Member
    edited February 2020
    missysippy930 wrote: »
    amusedmonkey wrote: »
    I just substitute or make any ingredients I don't have (date syrup is just dates soaked in water and blended, or I could just use maple syrup, sugar syrup, molasses...etc). I also always log any recipes before I make them because I don't trust any recipe with numbers out there.

    What I personally find annoying may be a weird thing to hate about recipes. I hate recipes that use cups. I would rather weigh all the ingredients and not clean measuring cups and spoons.

    I have a lot of cookbooks (I’m in the US I’ve been buying them all my life) they all use measurements with measuring cups and spoons. Because of the internet, I haven’t bought any cookbooks lately, so I don’t know if it’s changing, but most sites I use, use measuring cups and spoons. I was watching an episode of America’s Test Kitchen recently, and they did weigh some things, but mainly, for US based shows, they measure using cups and spoons. Conversion of recipes, from cups to grams, for me, is more time consuming than washing a few measuring cups/spoons, and it’s hard to change lifelong (68 years) habits. I’ve been cooking/baking for over 50 years, and have never had a recipe fail because of measurements.

    I have cookbooks and recipes from all over and use whatever way of measuring the recipe uses: Weight, Imperial, or Metric. Measuring cups have both metric and imperial printed right on them so it is easy to switch back and forth. My food scale is always on the counter so that is easy too.

    The most annoying recipes are the ones online that start with a long rambling story that has nothing to do with how the dish is made. Give me the option to go directly to the recipe (I recently found a Chrome add-on that does exactly that).
  • Allgaun
    Allgaun Posts: 222 Member
    plythacur wrote: »
    Similar to the five stars for a recipe where the person changed half the ingredients, I hate it when someone reviews a recipe and only gives it one star but then admits to substituting out half the ingredients! At that point you are essentially just reviewing your own bad cooking skills, not the actual recipe.

    YES! You have to make the recipe at least once as posted...then change it up if you're reviewing. I have a favorite spaghetti sauce recipe I found on "Beat Bobby Flay", but I really like basil so I add that instead of parsley. It's delicious! But if it hadn't worked out it would be unfair to post a comment on an adapted recipe.

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