Does anyone actually enjoy the waffle that comes with online recipes?

[BerryTwister]

Just googling a chocolate cake recipe, and got the usual load of websites showing recipes. But of course, they don’t just list the ingredients and method. You have to scroll through pages and pages of waffle about the history of cake, the small Italian village where the chef first tried this cake, how much their children love the cake, how moist the cake is - along with photos of cake, and adverts of course. Most of the time I get bored and give up before I’ve got to the actual list of ingredients! (I do, of course, have some cookery books, but I go to the internet for variety.)
Does anyone actually want to see all this crap?!!

No, absolutely not.
I just scroll straight past it to the recipe.

It's a nope from me!

It’s there for SEO purposes, so I get whey they do it, and I’ve even written a few myself, but I hate it, too.

I've finally stopped rolling my eyes at them and just cut straight to the recipe. I used to feel a bit guilty because they've made an effort and I'm benefitting from it. That has diminished.

I think it’s purely done for the purposes of Search Engine Optimisation. Basically reams of drivel loaded with keywords that perform well in Google.

It's also because scrapers just steal their recipes and pass them off as their own. IP theft is real

No I go straight to the recipe

Don’t think I’ve ever read the huge essays . I always just skip to the recipe and ingredients.

Hell no.

The only person whose verbiage around a recipie I really want to read is Elizabeth David, because I enjoy how she assures you that this omelette is absolutely delicious and all you need for a perfect weekday lunch with a crisp green salad and a large glass of perfectly chilled Chablis ... and then basically assumes you know how to make an omelette so she won't bother with the recipe. (And after the large glass of Chablis you're not going to care, are you?)

Online recipes are generally written by people considerably less talented than E. D., so I don't bother.

Usually there’s a button at the top to jump straight to the recipe.
But I do tend to start my search on the bbc because they don’t do this

and it usually turns out to be a Victoria Sponge anyway with just a bit of added flavouring.

American recipes drive me mad.

"This is my grandma's recipe. She used to make it in our log cabin in the Wisconsin woods. My grandpa built that cabin with his bare hands whilst fending off bears, coyotes ......"

Blah blah blah.

Sometimes - with websites like Smitten Kitchen and Serious Eats I find the headnotes add useful context about why the method is a certain way, or what substitutions work well. But generally I prefer printed recipe books for both reading for fun and to cook from.

I don't like the waffle either.

Here is the chocolate cake recipe we have been using in our family since the 1960s. It's yum. Best served covered in Smarties.

www.lavenderandlovage.com/recipe/be-ro-milk-chocolate-cake

www.lavenderandlovage.com/recipe/be-ro-milk-chocolate-icing

No, I enjoy the ‘jump to recipe’ button.

I tried being a food blogger, about 15 years ago, but couldn’t be assed with coming up with a story for every recipe. Something to do with the SEO and being found. Guess there’s no point doing it if people aren’t going to find you, and the articles help with that.

I’m glad it’s not just me. And it was worth starting this thread because I didn’t know about the “jump to recipe” button, which I’ll look out for from now on!

I still find it amazing that this is a significant flaw with the Internet and no one has managed to fix it. It must be deliberate that it hasn't been fixed by the likes of Google.