Who Here Actually Reads The Backstory of a Recipe?

whitepuma on 26/10/2022 - 12:41

We have all been there, we have looked online for a recipe to first have to scroll past the authors whole life story behind how they came up with their butter chicken recipe.

"The family had just moved to Texas from the cold Alaska, the stars were out and still hadn't sorted through our moving boxes……4 paragraphs later….the kids were getting rowdy, and that's how i came up with this recipe!"

Everybody i ask, tells me they hate those stories before the recipe, and find they are there purely to give you a reason to scroll past some ads.
So i pose the question, does anybody here actually read AND enjoy those little stories you get before an online recipe?

Poll Options

  • 3
    Yes, i almost always read them
  • 8
    I sometimes read them
  • 118
    No, i almost never read them.
Food & Grocery

Comments

  • Ozymandias on 26/10/2022 - 12:52
    +7

    Rarely read them, though I do appreciate the bits where they explain the pitfalls of certain steps or what you can substitute, but it's hard to skim and work out which section is which. I get why they do it, it's all about the SEO.

  • Postal Dude on 26/10/2022 - 13:07
    +8

    I think they put those in so they can fit more ads on the page.

  • DingoBilly on 26/10/2022 - 13:08
    +2

    As others have pointed out, this is just for SEO/ads.

    Waste of time and complete pain in the ass.

  • GG57 on 26/10/2022 - 13:15

    I don't need a recipe for Butter Chicken.
    When I'm online looking at recipes I'm not looking for anything specific, apart from perhaps using an ingredient or two that are in season just now. Otherwise it is for inspiration only.

  • jv on 26/10/2022 - 13:15
    +2

    their butter chicken recipe.

    link please…

  • SnowDragon on 26/10/2022 - 13:26
    +5

    Here's a handy Chrome addon to solve your problem OP.

    • brendanm on 26/10/2022 - 14:22
      +1

      They really have thought of everything.

    • whitepuma on 26/10/2022 - 14:57
      +1

      nice, i actually self host a mealie instance, a recipe manager, for my family and friends. When mealie imports a recipe it automagically filters out all the other BS. But i do appreciate the add-on! will be of a lot of use when i don't necessarily want to save a recipe, but instead want just a quick look.

      • SnowDragon on 26/10/2022 - 14:59

        I haven't heard of that before but it looks quite useful.

        Currently my recipes are stored in .txt files in my dropbox! Cheers.

        • whitepuma on 26/10/2022 - 15:01

          yeah i previously stored mine in a word doc. But then when i entered the self-hosting world i felt it would be good to take advantage of owning a server, it wasn't hard to setup mealie if you have setup other self hosting server "stuff". But i prefer it because it's easier to share recipes among family and friends.

          and…specifically for the less tech savvy like my parents, it's really easy to understand

  • Drakesy on 26/10/2022 - 13:31

    Pretty sure it's just so they can stretch out the webpage and capitalise on ad revenue.
    It's all BS really.

  • Fergy1987 on 26/10/2022 - 13:32
    +4

    Most hated thing about recipe websites - no one cares about your sob story of how the recipe has been passed down from generation to generation - just tell me how to cook my food!

  • jellykingdom on 26/10/2022 - 13:49
    +1

    I find once you get used to the layout of those recipe sites, it's pretty quick to skip past. Title, Story, Ingredients, Method, Comments. I instantly scroll down around 75% of the page because thats where the recipe usually starts haha

    But yes, def agree, they're nonsense

  • brendanm on 26/10/2022 - 14:21
    +1

    They are garbage, and annoying. Normally there is a hyperlink "go to recipe" or similar at the top. I literally just want to find the ingredients to get quickly while I'm at the shop, why must they make it so hard.

  • Benoffie on 26/10/2022 - 14:43
    +1

    After my kid working on a family recipe project this year, im a little more appreciative of heritage recipes and will take the time.

    But some wnky chef rabbiting on about that time when, no, dont care.

  • jjjaar on 26/10/2022 - 14:47
    +2

    It’s not just SEO.

    You can’t copyright a recipe, but you can copyright the story. It protects the author in the event someone just blanket copies all the information from the page and distributes it elsewhere.

  • altomic on 26/10/2022 - 15:02
    +12

    I remember the first time I saw one of the back story recipe posts. i was struggling to think of what to make for dinner for my kids, the youngest had just finished soccer and it was a cold rainy day. we arrived home and the fireplace was still warm, so I added some dried river gum that we had collected the previous weekend. the house soon warmed and reminded me of times camping with my parents as a child. my youngest came into the kitchen where I was still pondering arrangements for dinner and said that the fire reminder her of camping. it was at the moment that I decided to cook something that my mother used to cook for camping. but first I have to reply to OP post.

    • whitepuma on 26/10/2022 - 15:03
      +1

      love this recipe! thankyou for sharing!

      • BortBelcher on 26/10/2022 - 16:20
        +2

        I love this recipe but I swapped the chicken for fish, tomatoes for capsicums, salt for aquarium gravel and cheese for foot shavings.

    • Gunnar on 26/10/2022 - 18:45
      +1

      This reminds me of how I learned to make pig in a blanket. It all started when I was 12 at a Christian Brothers school…

  • MeesusEff on 27/10/2022 - 02:45

    I follow Tiffycooks on Insta and she is fairly open about her revenue. $55k usd a month! And it's mostly from her blog so yeah the longer the dribble the more $$

  • Sammy2000 on 27/10/2022 - 05:57

    Same thing with videos including most You Tube videos. Which would explain Tiktok's popularity.

  • jrvb42 on 27/10/2022 - 08:19

    Never read them, but it's hard to complain if getting free recipe, even if bored by the self important contributor.

  • A-mak on 27/10/2022 - 11:40

    If it was the actual history of the meal I would definitely read it. But since it's some stupid life story, I absolutely do not care.

    There is also the 'fake history' of how they claimed to have "come up" with the recipe but instead just use a made-up name for an older actual recipe which I find offensive. Fair enough if they state "This is my own twist on XX recipe", spreading disinformation however is a disgraceful act.

  • Nucleus Acumbens on 05/11/2022 - 18:24

    I must scroll past very fast because I didn't even realise that they came with stories.

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