Does anyone else hate "Pinterest" food?

[bzzzt]

My wife likes to find recipes online and make "cute" food. While I like the fact that we share cooking duties, we have differing philosophies on how to prepare it. She likes to make food that looks nice while I am of the opinion that simplicity and taste trump however it looks.

Case in point: When I made breakfast a few weeks back, I made an egg dish with bacon, zucchini, and spinach. Today, she made and egg dish with ham, tomatos, and broccoli. Both were tasty. I did mine in a casserole dish and she in two 12ct muffin tins. The casserole dish took a couple minutes to clean while the muffin tins took 30 minutes to scrub baked egg out of every spot.

This seems to happen most of the time when she makes "Pinterest" food. Cleanup takes forever with no benefit other than how the food looks vs "one pot" meals.

Sorry for the rant, but anyone else have this 1st World problem?

[Hedge_87]

Lol yes. One time DW tried to make cinnamon waffles. Basically you take pilsburry cinnamon rolls and cook them in your waffle iron. It tasted really good but all the sugar burnt onto the waffle iron and no amount of scrubbing was going to get it clean.

[TabbyCat]

Yeah... Not everything on Pinterest is a good idea. I love the egg muffins (baked in cupcake shells) for a quick to-go breakfast or snack at work though. It is worth the fraction of a penny to use those cupcake shells.   

[MBot]

I hate that on Pinterest there is no rating or review system, just popularity.

At least on allrecipes or food.com I can see what rating it has and the most helpful modifications in the reviews.

[IllusionNW]

There's a great blog about Pinterest fails.  We tried to do these bunny dinner rolls for Easter and they turned out terrible.  Turns out they were featured on the Pinterest fail blog, which we clearly should've checked first.  I agree that it would be great if there were some sort of rating system.

[I'm a red panda]

I hate that on Pinterest there is no rating or review system, just popularity.

At least on allrecipes or food.com I can see what rating it has and the most helpful modifications in the reviews.

And the popularity is based only on how cute a picture looks. Very few people ever actually make a quarter of the stuff they "pin".

Allrecipes reviews sometimes make me laugh. Things like: "This was horrible. I didn't have white flour, so I substituted wheat, and I don't like bacon so I used raisins instead..."  No one ever reviews the actual recipe.  People can't seem to follow instructions...

[FiguringItOut]

I hate that on Pinterest there is no rating or review system, just popularity.

At least on allrecipes or food.com I can see what rating it has and the most helpful modifications in the reviews.

And the popularity is based only on how cute a picture looks. Very few people ever actually make a quarter of the stuff they "pin".

Allrecipes reviews sometimes make me laugh. Things like: "This was horrible. I didn't have white flour, so I substituted wheat, and I don't like bacon so I used raisins instead..."  No one ever reviews the actual recipe.  People can't seem to follow instructions...

Oh, you would LOVE this http://www.food.com/recipe/ice-cubes-420398 (Read all reviews)

[OSUBearCub]

Suggestion to pass along to your wife - Reynolds makes foil cupcake liners that work really well for egg and meat recipes in muffin tins.  Yes, there's an added cost (about $1.50 for a 32 count pack at Wally World) but I find that it helps with portion control.  I can stretch a meatloaf a lot further if I do the muffin tin trick and it cooks in half the time.  With the morning egg dishes, there's always something rather pricey in the ingredients.  The muffin tin allows me to distribute just the right amount of whatever the key ingredient is into each tin.

Almost every other pinterest inspiration has failed on me. :-)

[Cromacster]

Oh, you would LOVE this http://www.food.com/recipe/ice-cubes-420398 (Read all reviews)

Ah that was a good one.  Thanks for that!

[Sibley]

I do not like "gourmet" food. If the recipe came from anywhere popular, I can pretty much guarantee that I'm not going to like it. On the other hand, if it's from grandma, much better chance.

And if it makes a huge mess in the kitchen in anyway, then I'm going to be really pissed. My roommate cooks all this fancy stuff (that I don't like), then I get pissed because she fills up the pantry, fridge and freezer and leaves the kitchen dirty. Luckily, she really doesn't cook much!

[NotJen]

You know, there is no such thing as a "Pinterest" recipe - Pinterest is just a place to visually store links to other websites.

That being said, I love Pinterest for organizing my recipe ideas. I do actually make a lot of the recipes I find, and then recategorize them into ones I love, like, are okay, or hate.  I do thoroughly investigate each pin to make sure it links to an actual recipe (not just a picture!), uses ingredients I'm willing to purchase, and takes a reasonable amount of time.  It's been a great tool for me over the last few years.  Most of my pins come from Googling recipe/ingredients outside of Pinterest.

I have noticed that many of my friends seem to pin indiscriminately, though...
And leave other people's weird descriptions on pins when it doesn't apply to them...

[FatCat]

Lol yes. One time DW tried to make cinnamon waffles. Basically you take pilsburry cinnamon rolls and cook them in your waffle iron. It tasted really good but all the sugar burnt onto the waffle iron and no amount of scrubbing was going to get it clean.

Nearly every waffle iron in every hotel breakfast room is ruined by someone trying to do something creative. I think the most common is people smashing berries then dumping them into the batter to make berry waffles. This makes the waffle makers permanently sticky and it's very difficult to remove the waffles.

[celticmyst08]

I found a blog once chronicling "Pinterest fails" or something along those lines. Basically the bloggers tried to recreate recipes/crafts found on Pinterest, and posted the hilarious results. It was pretty eye opening at how unrealistic most of Pinterest is!

[Hedge_87]

Lol yes. One time DW tried to make cinnamon waffles. Basically you take pilsburry cinnamon rolls and cook them in your waffle iron. It tasted really good but all the sugar burnt onto the waffle iron and no amount of scrubbing was going to get it clean.

Nearly every waffle iron in every hotel breakfast room is ruined by someone trying to do something creative. I think the most common is people smashing berries then dumping them into the batter to make berry waffles. This makes the waffle makers permanently sticky and it's very difficult to remove the waffles.

Yep we learned the hard way. Ended up getting rid of the waffle iron. We stick with pancakes now.

[gimp]

Hi, amateur photographer here.

Here's how you make pinterst food.

Step 1: Make food, doesn't matter what kind.
Step 2: Plate it in a way to appear gourmet. Put your protein on top of your starch instead of side by side.
Step 3: Get a lighting rig... two flashes with umbrellas, and some reflectors, and put it all on the right kind of surface.
Step 4: Get a camera with a reasonably large sensor and a lens with a large aperture, use it wide open and close up.

It's not about the food, it's about the light. It's not about the taste, it's about how good the photo looks. That's stupid, you say? Sure is! Enjoy your food photos.

[trailrated]

Hi, amateur photographer here.

Here's how you make pinterst food.

Step 1: Make food, doesn't matter what kind.
Step 2: Plate it in a way to appear gourmet. Put your protein on top of your starch instead of side by side.
Step 3: Get a lighting rig... two flashes with umbrellas, and some reflectors, and put it all on the right kind of surface.
Step 4: Get a camera with a reasonably large sensor and a lens with a large aperture, use it wide open and close up.

It's not about the food, it's about the light. It's not about the taste, it's about how good the photo looks. That's stupid, you say? Sure is! Enjoy your food photos.

Do those cameras work with selfie sticks? It is important that people know I am not only next to my food but taking the picture as well ;)

[ltt]

Have her spray some "Pam" into the muffin tins and clean-up is a breeze.  Also, I love some of the recipes on Pinterest.  The last thing I made from that site was orange cinnamon roll pancakes.  They were wonderful.

[Argyle]

I think any time someone else is willing to do the cooking, then it's all good.  If she wanted you to make those things, then that would be obnoxious.  But it makes cooking fun for her?  That's a good thing.  Trying to control someone who's willing to cook for you?  A counterproductive thing.

[limeandpepper]

You know, there is no such thing as a "Pinterest" recipe - Pinterest is just a place to visually store links to other websites.

+1

Blaming Pinterest for having annoying recipes is like blaming Facebook for having annoying friends. You get to pick and choose what you pin - that includes easy, one-pot meals and whatever else you like.

A rating system would be helpful, but some users leave a review of a recipe when they pin it, so that's something to look out for. Or when you actually click on the pin and it takes you to the website, there might be reviews there. Otherwise just stick to recipe websites with an established system for ratings and reviews...

It's not about the food, it's about the light. It's not about the taste, it's about how good the photo looks. That's stupid, you say? Sure is! Enjoy your food photos.

Just because it may not be your thing, food photography is just as valid a form of photography for those who enjoy it as a hobby or do it as a job. Plus, two cookbooks being equal with exactly the same recipes, I'd prefer the one with decent photos over one without. If that makes me shallow, so be it.

[LibrarIan]

Blaming Pinterest for having annoying recipes is like blaming Facebook for having annoying friends.

Eh, yes and no. I see your point, but I liken this (get ready) to a similar phenomenon that plagued MySpace back in the day. People would post so-called MySpace photos (now we call them selfies) in which they tried to look as "adorbs" as possible to get as many friends as possible. Competing to have the most friends was a real thing (and still is to some extent on Facebook). This phenomenon seems to have been applied to Pinterest in the form of cutesy images, particularly regarding fashion, hairstyles and food. People really, really love seeing their images get repinned, and the higher that repin/linkback/comment/like count is, the better. Hence people taking some food item and photographing it just so in cute ways so that other people will pin it just because of how cute it is.

[limeandpepper]

Yes, but it's still up to the user on how they choose to use Pinterest. You can omit all that extraneous social stuff simply by not engaging with it. I actually rarely use it, but if I come across an online recipe that I think is worth saving, I put it in a Pinterest board, effectively using it as kind of a bookmark tool rather than just going with the popularity flow and pinning whatever is cute and trendy. But other people may like the social aspect and have a soft spot for adorable things and if so, that's their call. Additionally, online recipes should always be taken with a grain of salt anyway unless it is a tried-and-true one with good reviews and ratings... and even so, there are always some cooks that still manage to mess up the best recipes. ;)

[galliver]

Soak your muffin tin! I actually have an easier time washing that than my casserole dish, because it fits in the sink.

[bzzzt]

Thanks for the tips on the muffin cups. I ran it by her today and her response was "Oh yeah, that would work good. We already have them and they're in the baking cabinet."

I think any time someone else is willing to do the cooking, then it's all good.  If she wanted you to make those things, then that would be obnoxious.  But it makes cooking fun for her?  That's a good thing.  Trying to control someone who's willing to cook for you?  A counterproductive thing.

That's why I'm on here venting to the forum. I'm not of fan of biting the hand that feeds me. ;)

Soak your muffin tin! I actually have an easier time washing that than my casserole dish, because it fits in the sink.

Haha, I have the opposite problem! That's one of my reasons for loving whatever I can throw in the casserole dish.

[limeandpepper]

If you are not opposed to using bendy flexible silicone bakeware, that's another option. They don't produce as nice a crust for the baked goods, but the debris comes off so easily. Or you can come to some kind of negotiation where you both cook the same number of meals (this is important to make it fair) and whoever does the cooking also does the washing, so there is incentive for the cook to make something simple, but if not they are only hurting themselves. :p

[Mississippi Mudstache]

Haha. At one point, it got so bad that whenever my wife would make a bad recipe, I would just ask "So...Did you find this recipe on Pinterest?" and she would hang her in feigned shame. She would always get sucked in by the cutesy pictures that were attached to terrible recipes. She finally gave up and now sticks to recipe sites that have ratings and helpful comments.

[No-stache]

I *love* Pinterest. I really do. BUT...most of my recipes are from healthy living sites, etc. I actually have a separate, "Recipes I've tried and liked" board where I write what I changed, etc. I should really have a "Recipes that were shit" board. There have been several of those.

It's a handy way to organize stuff I'd like to try, etc. I've also learned MANY frugal things as well.

OTOH...I totally get what you mean about "Pinterest Food."

[galliver]

So I took a look at the pinterest fail site...seems like most of the cooking-related fails were totally preventable. People list things like cooking the thing too long, or not chilling sugar-cookie dough (!). The bunny rolls clearly needed snipped before baking, and they did them after... Mostly really stupid errors! I have some sympathy for one user whose oven clearly had different characteristics than the author's (and not taking that into account or including a warning that the recipe is sensitive is pretty bad recipe authorship).

Some of the artsy ones (including icing things) seems like people overestimated their talent. If you can't paint it on paper, why do you think you can on a cookie!? But also some of the instructions clearly failed at mentioning important factors: e.g. there are plastics that hardly any glues stick to.

Allrecipes reviews sometimes make me laugh. Things like: "This was horrible. I didn't have white flour, so I substituted wheat, and I don't like bacon so I used raisins instead..."  No one ever reviews the actual recipe.  People can't seem to follow instructions...

I meant to respond to this earlier: I love to laugh at those, too. I think I'm more amused by the "I give it 5 stars but I changed every single ingredient and method of preparation" ones. Both the high and low ones kind of aggravate me, though. It's like, I want to know how *this* recipe turns out, or at least something close to it (fine to change a proportion or ingredient, within reason). I saw one the other day that gave 3 stars because "I like the idea, but that is NOT how you cook fish...[instructions on cooking fish]" It made me unjustifiably happy that they knew how to do reviews!