Recipe deal breakers

The steps, ingredients, or equipment that turn you away

By Kim Carlson

June 6, 2008

Earlier this week, Kim Severson of the New York Times wrote about recipe deal-breakers: the steps, equipment, or ingredients in recipes that make cooks turn tail and run for the takeout menu. Think pig’s blood, “general fussiness,” or trussing.

Get comfortable: The comments are fun to read — and plentiful. And if 380 deal breakers aren’t enough, you can find more discussion over at Michael Ruhlman’s blog (he and many of his readers take a chef’s perspective), or at Serious Eats, Yum Sugar, and the kitchn.

Our favorite source in Severson’s story was Culinate blogger Cindy Burke, who gave up on a Martha Stewart cake recipe just this month that called for a unusual — and nearly impossible to find — pan.

My own personal deal breaker? I have to echo one of the Times commenters: Cheesecloth, especially if I’m out of it. Yours?