Earlier this year Google launched a new recipe search in the UK, having guinea-pigged it in America and Japan. This proves what youve surely noticed: that more and more people are using the internet to help them decide what to cook. Blogs, aggregators of chefs recipes and online compendiums of family cooking are snatching at the apron-tails of magazines and cookbooks.
Its an exciting but bewildering time. The quality of recipes online varies wildly and blindly: from America, de facto ruler of the English-language internet, gushes a twee slew of cupcakes, anodyne renderings of international food, and “50 ways with a jar of marinara“. The situation is little better here, where literally a squillion blogs publish endless quiche recipes and where, on the same website, sensitive methods from Mike Robinson jostle with the slapdash culinary zeugmas of Ready Steady Cook. Heres my attempt to guide you through the best and worst.
Epicurious is probably the best of the main American food sites, amassing recipes from Gourmet (RIP) and Bon Appétit magazines as well as those from individual chefs, while providing a forum for discerning users to upload their own. A glance at menus for St Patricks Day reveals attractive methods for smoked haddock soup and beef and Guinness pie. Eppy claims to have over 100,000 recipes: theres plenty of diamante in the rough.
Another huge site, with over 100,000 “likes” on Facebook. Its food is mainly ordinary, midweek home cooking: cakes, pasta dishes, “delicious gluten-free pancakes”, with an occasional good idea. The difficulty with a user-submitted recipe is that it has to stand on its own: reader reviews offer some guidance but one probably needs a basic understanding of food to predict whether a dish is going to work. For the tired or unadventurous cook, though, a well-reviewed dish AllRecipe on is often a safe bet.
This bloated website, a spin-off from the TV channel, is simply a hoot. At least half of Food Networks recipes are straightforwardly revolting. A glance at the “comfort food” section throws up “meatloaf masterpiece”, “mac and cheese soup” and “red velvet bread pudding“, the red coming from food colouring. The site also hosts this fine “recipe” combining pre-sliced carrots with shop-bought dressing.
Lee is a dead-eyed Stepford robot notorious for what she styles “sem-eye homemade cooking”, a woman apparently terrified of slicing a mushroom. Food Network is a twisted joy to browse, but I wouldnt go near it when looking for dinner.
Confusingly, the BBC has two food sites: an archive of its TV chefs recipes and a spin-off of its Good Food magazine. I use the main BBC food site a lot: its beautifully designed, I like its seasonal guide, and because it tells you which programme a recipe was taken from you can normally gauge how good the dish will be.
Christ knows what James Tanner thought he was doing when he brainspawned “baked alaska with garlic and herb cream cheese and orange”, but the bulk of Saturday Kitchen recipes and those dishes from old faves Hugh and Nigel tend to be reliable, enticing and worth cooking. BBC Good Food, which has a lot of user-submitted recipes, sensibly stresses peer reviews. It has plenty of good stuff but this recipe, described no doubt with some accuracy by its owner as “breathtaking”, is one of the most emetic things Ive ever seen.
The best recipe blogs are as good as the best cookbooks – just as the best restaurant bloggers are as good as the best professional critics – and have the advantage of being free. But there are many more bad food blogs than good ones. Quality blogs, however, tend to garner readers and fame, so a blogs popularity is a rough though not indisputable guide to its worth.
Some of the best blogs specialise in a particular cuisine, such as Homesick Texan, which showcases the food of the southern US in droolworthy detail, or Appetite for China. Here are some of my other favourites:
Simply Recipes. Elise Bauer began her blog in 2003, which makes the site a stately old dame in internet years. Its recipes, such as purple potatoes with caramelised onions and shiitake or barbecued ribs with Dr Pepper sauce are homely, inviting and have a sense of humour.
101 Cookbooks is another behemoth in the food blogosphere. Its well-photographed dishes are almost intimidatingly healthy, but I do find this a rather preachy blog, at best a collection of hangover cures. Some of the recipes look good but one wonders from what red hell this dish arose.
David Lebovitz is a good American living in Paris, an old-school patissier and a first-class food writer. His method for tempering chocolate is the best Ive read anywhere, and his advice for would-be food bloggers is gold-dust. Deservedly one of the most famous blogs. Tartelette: writing what is inexplicably one of the worlds most popular food blogs, this woman can no doubt cook. But her prose is an exercise in soppy solipsism, and I find it singularly unreadable. Use the pictures as inspiration, and shield your eyes from the words.
Many WoM readers will have encountered Food Stories and Hollow Legs before. I place them together here because they exemplify some of the best of British food blogs (and both have fine links pages). Lizzie Mabbott of Hollow Legs is probably a more deft cook of Asian food, while Helen Graves is better with a camera, but both these blogs make me rush to the kitchen.
Internet marketeers trill that “content is king”, that if only you cram your website with enough Google-friendly words youll soon dominate your little corner of the internet. They may be right, but the advice is no help to a hungry person. The quality of recipes is always more important than their quantity: sites that boast of having hundreds of thousands of recipes only flaunt their indifference to their readers.
My advice: find a smattering of blogs you like, have a gander on Epicurious and the BBC and, once youre well-fed, gaze in mesmerised horror at Sandra Lees Kwanzaa cake.
10 Most Reliable Recipe Websites & BlogsThe Kitchn. Has many of my top favorite basic recipes. … Budget Bytes. … Betty Crocker. … Joy of Kosher. … Delish.com (but be sure to check reviews, because recipes vary) … Cookie + Kate. … Venison for Dinner (check her baking, it’s definitely not all game meats 😉 ) … Smitten Kitchen.
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The Kitchn. Has many of my top favorite basic recipes. …
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Budget Bytes. …
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Betty Crocker. …
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Joy of Kosher. …
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Delish.com (but be sure to check reviews, because recipes vary) …
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Cookie + Kate. …
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Venison for Dinner (check her baking, it’s definitely not all game meats 😉 ) …
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Smitten Kitchen.
David Lebovitz is a good American living in Paris, an old-school patissier and a first-class food writer. His method for tempering chocolate is the best Ive read anywhere, and his advice for would-be food bloggers is gold-dust. Deservedly one of the most famous blogs. Tartelette: writing what is inexplicably one of the worlds most popular food blogs, this woman can no doubt cook. But her prose is an exercise in soppy solipsism, and I find it singularly unreadable. Use the pictures as inspiration, and shield your eyes from the words.
Christ knows what James Tanner thought he was doing when he brainspawned “baked alaska with garlic and herb cream cheese and orange”, but the bulk of Saturday Kitchen recipes and those dishes from old faves Hugh and Nigel tend to be reliable, enticing and worth cooking. BBC Good Food, which has a lot of user-submitted recipes, sensibly stresses peer reviews. It has plenty of good stuff but this recipe, described no doubt with some accuracy by its owner as “breathtaking”, is one of the most emetic things Ive ever seen.
Earlier this year Google launched a new recipe search in the UK, having guinea-pigged it in America and Japan. This proves what youve surely noticed: that more and more people are using the internet to help them decide what to cook. Blogs, aggregators of chefs recipes and online compendiums of family cooking are snatching at the apron-tails of magazines and cookbooks.
Many WoM readers will have encountered Food Stories and Hollow Legs before. I place them together here because they exemplify some of the best of British food blogs (and both have fine links pages). Lizzie Mabbott of Hollow Legs is probably a more deft cook of Asian food, while Helen Graves is better with a camera, but both these blogs make me rush to the kitchen.
Lee is a dead-eyed Stepford robot notorious for what she styles “sem-eye homemade cooking”, a woman apparently terrified of slicing a mushroom. Food Network is a twisted joy to browse, but I wouldnt go near it when looking for dinner.
“Look for bloggers who share their own personal experiences testing and refining recipes,” advises Casey Markee, founder of MediaWyse, “as they are more likely to be committed to creating exceptional content rather than simply reposting or rehashing existing recipes.”How Did the Food Web Get This Bad?
As a food blogger myself, I am well aware that not all comments are to be taken seriously. Some reviewers have given me 1-star ratings because I “made them” click a link to make the pizza sauce in the ingredients list of a pizza recipe. Others have admittedly not made the recipe, but insist that “there’s no way this pizza dough will work,” branding the post with their indignant review.
“It’s so easy to just grab somebody else’s recipe and alter it a bit and slap it up on your own blog,” says food writer and cookbook writing coach Dianne Jacob. As you compare posts, you may discover that most of the first-page search results are based on the same original recipe. “Then,” she suggests, “you can decide what you like,” or find the original version and make that.Read the Comments (With a Grain of Salt)
A food photo is drool-worthy because the content creator put the dish in a well-lit location, styled it in an appetizing way, shot it with an expensive camera, and then adjusted the saturation, brightness, and levels in Photoshop—not because the food portrayed is actually any good (though oftentimes it is).
“I think the biggest challenge with SEO is that when it comes to recipes, there really isn’t one ‘best’ option,” says Ann Baum, cofounder of Spillt. “Google ends up showing you the recipes that are most likely to be clicked on and have time spent on their pages, but I think we all recognize that there are times when that proxy is not a perfect representation of the quality of a recipe.”
Chef John’s 25 Best Recipes | Food Wishes
FAQ
How do you know if a recipe is reliable?
What is the best recipe website?
1. Allrecipes Taking the top position is Allrecipes, a top-tier recipe website that is estimated to have over 25 million visitors each month. With an easy to navigate site and the backing of skilled and experienced culinary masters, it furnishes its visitors with thousands of delicious recipes and meal preparation videos.
What is the healthiest food that is delicious?
The combination of spices is what makes food delicious. Making healthy food by combining protein, vegetables, starch, and less oil, such as grilled dory with vegetable stir fry, can be delicious.
Is Simply Recipes a good website?
Simply Recipes has tons of home-cooked meals that bring comfort and joy. Family-friendly: A fantastic place to find really good recipes the whole family can enjoy. Detailed guidance: Each recipe comes with thorough instructions and expert tips. Beyond recipes: Simply Recipes also has a section on their site devoted to kitchen tips!
Can a recipe still be good?
“The recipe can still be good but I proceed with caution,” says Dana Velden, longtime Kitchn contributor and author of the upcoming book, Finding Yourself in the Kitchen: Kitchen Meditations and Inspired Recipes from a Mindful Cook. Look for specificity, both in the ingredients and the instructions.