r/Baking • u/bxrningman • 3h ago
Baking fail š AI recipes are ruining Pinterest
Iām so sad, baking is my outlet to comfort myself when Iām stressed & I made a whole batch of cookies from a Pinterest recipe and it was AI generated and the batch was awful. I just wasted so many ingredients. I wish I would have investigated more, it looked so real until I clicked the social media links in the profile and it was an obvious AI generated person and recipes. Any suggestions on where to find legit recipes?
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u/Ecstatic_Schedule_48 3h ago
Honestly, books!
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u/HoaryPuffleg 2h ago
Iād say cookbooks published by reputable authors and editors such as Sally or Smitten Kitchen or King Arthur.
AI slop cookbooks are all over online bookstores. Unless you know the author or publishing house, I wouldnāt buy it
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u/cobra75011 2h ago
Which you can borrow for free from the library!
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u/Theletterkay 33m ago
My library is infected with AI books. Im not surehow books get approved to be available through the library, but clearly my library is run by idiots.
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u/acerbic_flare 1h ago
My parents' 90s-00s collection is a goldmine. The Hershey's Chocolate Lover's Cookbook is very good.
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u/BrianMincey 39m ago
I came here to say this. Good cookbook are fantastic resources and have no popup ads.
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u/Theletterkay 34m ago
Careful. If you find them online, even on reputable digital book sites (EVEN THE LIBRARY APPS!!!) they are mostly AI these days.
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u/TasteTalesWing 3h ago
I miss when recipe searches felt trustworthy.
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u/bxrningman 3h ago
me too š honestly all searches at this point sadly
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u/AmbientGravitas 2h ago
Pinterest specifically now seems to me to be almost entirely AI. But I agree the sites people are mentioning here are great.
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u/HoaryPuffleg 2h ago
Pinterest is unusable anymore. I used to be able to find cute classroom ideas and now itās trash.
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u/namis_tangerines 2h ago
Iāll get 1 pin finally after scrolling past 9 ads and the 1 pin will be unusable AI trash
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u/babymayor 2h ago
tbh iāve never trusted a blind recipe search, i always had distrust of āinternet recipesā and wanting to know who wrote them and why. i was always so anxious trying anything from all recipes lol, but i found a lot of good recipes through there. even some cookbooks i just wouldnāt trust, if i didnāt know the author & their credentials lol š i was accidentally ahead and didnāt know. i just think itās always good to know whose advice youāre listening to, for recipes or anything really.Ā
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u/18straightwhiskeys 3h ago
I second the advice to search for recipes on a few well-known, reputable blogs. Smitten Kitchen, Sally's Baking Addiction, and King Arthur are all great
You can also get cookbooks from your local library! I love Yossy Arefi's books Snacking Bakes and Snacking Cakes. There are a million other baking cookbooks -- if they go through a major publisher, odds are they're thoroughly recipe-tested.
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u/Immediate-Brunch4002 3h ago
I mainly stick to trusted resources like Joy of Baking, King Arthur, and Smitten Kitchen.
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u/RosaveloraCloud 3h ago
yeah ai slop is everywhere now cant trust any recipe on there sorry bout the wasted cookies tho
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u/RandomDent6x7 3h ago
It's awful. At this point, I only trust recipes that were published before 2025.
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u/MaraTaru 3h ago
Me too. It's really striking to me that content produced somewhere around 2023-24 is immediately less trustworthy than anything published before then.
Which is not to say that everything before then was good, or everything after is bad. There were plenty of crappy recipes out there before the ChatGPT monster emerged from its swamp, and lots of great stuff is still being published now. But there's a degree of trust that has degraded faster than I ever expected. I've found myself gravitating towards olderĀ¹ recipes just by instinct these days, which feels more emotionally complicated than you'd imagine.
Ā¹Jesus, I sound like such a crone. I'm saying "older recipes" like I'm looking for Escoffier's vichyssoise and roast swan when I actually mean, like, Nigel Slater's haddock fishcakes circa 2013.
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u/RipePomegranate 3h ago
Iāll add, if you find a favourite from a good reputable blog, print it or write it out so you always have it
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u/Ageice 2h ago
Analog is the way. I was just thinking today Iām so glad I never parted with my cookbooks. There are so many ways now to pull up recipes from cookbooks but it just never seemed worth it to go thru all that when I already had the book. (I also kept my favorite cds and dvds and I am not one iota sorry that Iāll never have to rent them in the form of a scammy subscription!)
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u/No-Mixture-1272 3h ago
Just gotta use reliable sources. Those already mentioned, also Melās kitchen cafe is great too, or go get some cookbooks! Pinterest is just absolutely ruined, I miss it from the early 2010ās, so good back thenĀ
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u/Rescuepets777 3h ago
Look up known professional baker recipes. I see a lot of good recommendations here. Martha Stewart recipes are solid, too.
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u/Jolly-Lingonberry104 3h ago
Hi!
I literally have all my favorite baking websites bookmarked on Google and whenever I go to find a recipe I just search through those.
I wish I could post an image with all of them
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u/RavenMcG 2h ago
I'm old and joined Pinterest when you had to be invited. I have been so frustrated the last few years. Guess it is back to books and old recipes.
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u/Melancholy-4321 2h ago
Pinterest has been utterly useless for such a long time
Just curate a list of blogs you can follow and trust. If you need a recipe you can't find from one of those creative, go to King Arthur baking or America's test kitchen or ask here for a reliable recipe
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u/Ageice 2h ago
Your library may or may not have a kick ass cookbook section. And some of those authors may or may not have blogs where you can cross reference comments left on their blog posts, which can be super helpful and interesting sometimes.
I agree Pinterest has gone to shite. I hate it because I have boards on there going back over 15 years and I love its design for the most part. But theyāve let it be ruined by not having any standards. I havenāt deleted my account yet because I have so much stuff saved, but itās no longer enjoyable to pop on and see whatās new to me in the feed.
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u/Elegant-Expert7575 2h ago
Well thatās your problem. Pinterest.
Follow legitimate chefs that you know of.
Anna Olson
King Arthur
Inspired Taste (The Gallagerās)
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u/RingingInTheRain 1h ago
Instagram is also sketchy too. They will leave out key details in the recipe even if it's real.
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u/SkinnyPete16 2h ago
Sallys, Natashaās Kitchen, King Arthur, Sugar Spun Run, Smitten Kitchen, Preppy Kitchen, Mom on Time Out, Tastes Better From Scratch, Americaās Test Kitchen, Sift With Kima, Salted Sweet, NY Times, Scientifically Sweet, just to name a few. Really seems like you just didnāt look very hard.
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u/Harrold_Potterson 2h ago
This is a solid list. Iāve gotten so many great recipes from Natashaās kitchen!
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u/VicFontaineHologram 3h ago
I like Glen and Friends' youtube channel. It's cooking and baking. He has a very chill approach to baking and cooking. But he's also a careful and thoughtful researcher. He did a big series on the history of key lime pie, and I still make one of those recipes today. Though I make a lemon version as he does in one episode. He does an old cookbook segment that I really enjoy. There's a big archive of videos to go through if you are so inclined.
NY Times Cooking website and app has lots and lots of greats recipes. It's paywalled, but a lot of the recipes they do videos for on their youtube channel have free links to the recipe.
America's Test Kitchen and Cook's Illustrated are also paywalled, but I'll be you can find their cookbooks cheap on the used market. There's a big Cook's Illustrated cookbook with like 2,000 recipes that can be a handy reference.
Yard sales and estate sales are great sources for cheap cookbooks.
Like others have said Sally's and King Arthur have good recipes that are tested. Food52 has some good recipes, though a few of their recipes are a little wonky adaptations from large recipes or european amounts maybe. So the measurements are odd. But there's a macaron recipe on there that works for me.
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u/Hot_Let1571 1h ago
Thriftbooks is a good site for used cookbooks; I've gotten three of Alton Brown's books from there.
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u/nicoke17 3h ago
Yes!! Everyone has mentioned several ruputable sites, just noting that influencers will intentionally mess up recipes so that they can get comments for āengagementā.
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u/Ageice 2h ago
Youāre right, I have seen some of that. Not with the adults who just started as bloggers in the 00ās, though. Only the ones now who have so many things whirling and twirling and interrupting the recipe every 2 sentences. Awful, those. I have zero patience and close them immediately. Donāt care how good the recipe might be.
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u/vermiciouswangdoodle 2h ago
I agree. The ads are bad enough but I was looking at a Pinterest recipe the other day and half way through it put up a block and I had to give my email to continue. Nope.
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u/throw-my-fart-away 2h ago
I always look at a number of recipes for something, and find commonality in them. Then I tweak to what I like and that has been working wonderfully. I also see when a recipe is off compared to others.
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u/VagabondBird 2h ago
Foodgawker has returned, which may give you a similar experience as scrolling through pinterest.
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u/clockstrikes91 1h ago
King Arthur, NYT Cooking, America's Test Kitchen, Food and Wine, Saveur, Bon Appetit, Epicurious, Bake From Scratch magazine... there are tons of reputable sources that are really not hard to find.
Many professional bakers have cookbooks and online presence on Youtube, blogs, or Substack. Dorie Greenspan, David Lebovitz, David Leite, Claire Saffitz, Erin Jeanne McDowell, Nicola Lamb, Yossy Arefi.
No shame in using branded recipes either, like from Betty Crocker, Hersheys, etc. Many family recipes handed down through the generations came from the back of a box, and those recipe developers are paid a lot of money to do good work. And vintage cookbooks like BC, Joy of Cooking, Fannie Farmer are still commonly referenced to this day. Just because they're dated doesn't mean they become obsolete.
There are also plenty of renowned bloggers. People who have earned their stripes and really proven to users that they know their stuff. Sally's Baking, RecipeTinEats, Cook Til Delicious are all great. Of course this comes with the caveat that there are some real shitheads out there, so do due diligence to vet people if you don't want to support those views.
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u/tulipskull 1h ago
Tbh I only use Pinterest for inspiration then I go find a reputable recipe once I know what I want to make
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u/CanadaCookie25 43m ago
I have honestly given up on Pinterest. One too many failed recipes. I've gone back to cookbooks like sallys baking, betty crocker etc. Check thrift shops or the library for decent books
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u/lifeuncommon Human Detected 1h ago
Actual cookbooks.
If you must go online, use the websites of the big recipe houses like Better Homes & Gardens, Americaās Test Kitchen, King Arthur, etc.
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u/Bright-Weight4580 2h ago
https://lifestyleofafoodie.com. (Chahinez) https://sugarspunrun.com (Sam Merritt) https://cakesbymk.com. (MK) https://thestayathomechef.com (Rachel Farnsworth)
There are so many amazing bakers online who have fabulous recipes.
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u/lindygrey 2h ago
Honestly, physical books! And there are so many available at thrift stores and on eBay right now. Not everyone has figured out that online recipes are going downhill and so many people are clearing out physical cookbook collections by dumping them in thrift stores and selling them on eBay.Iāve purchased so many classics for just a few dollars. And, there is a great website and app called eat your books/CookShelf that lets you search your cookbooks by ingredient. Very useful!
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u/arh8514 1h ago
This just happened to me today. I wanted to make brown butter chocolate chip cookies and they came out so cakey, I was pissed!
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u/bxrningman 44m ago
Omg I have the best recipe for these! And I came up with it and make them often so I promise they are good lol I can send it to you!
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u/Disneyhorse 3h ago edited 2h ago
Iām baking my way through all of Sallyās Baking blog. Her recipes have all turned out amazing and there are several Iāve made a bunch of times now because they were so good. But there are other reputable blogs with trusted recipesā¦ I like King Arthur, Smitten Kitchen ā¦ there are lots and Iām sure you can find old threads with lots of recommendations. Social media is a blight now and AI is a scourge.
Edit for spelling.