I love this site but...

I rarely make a recipe exactly as written (unless I'm baking I rarely measure and use what's on hand). If I stick to the basis of the recipe then I review it (I never give a bad review unless I stuck to the recipe, but do give good reviews and say what was changed). If I completely change it then I don't bother reviewing. I think AR really needs to add the function where you can tell people your changes. Just my two cents! My hubby is from Buffalo and constantly talks about Duffs!!

AR had it right on there main page for the longest time...about taking a recipe here and making it your own. I def don't find anything wrong with it!

I love reading people's alterations to the recipe and never ever choose a recipe based on how many stars it has.

I wish that AR would do for us what they've done for people on their website in the UK. They have something called "tweaks" that post with the reviews. So when you look at a recipes reviews you can also see how many people 'tweaked' it, by whatever changes they made. Check it out...down below at the very bottom of this page..under United Kingdom & Ireland.

Thanks for the UK site tip, I didn't even know about that. I totally agree with changing recipes such as omitting stuff your family doesn't like or subbing one kind of cheese for another. It's the completely changing the recipe then reviewing it I don't get. Thanks for the support! P.S Kylee tell your hubby "Hi" from Buffalo!

I absoultely love Allrecipes due to the fact that I can read all the reviews and changes that people have made. I don't rate the recipes when I've made major changes but I like to give the recipe writer reviews as they've taken the time to post it and it has obviously inspired me in some way. Allrecipes is my favorite site due to the interaction between food folks. That's what makes it such a fun site!

Ditto Lace.

I think rating serves a function, but the "tweaks" should be a separate entity. I'll have to look at how they do it for the UK site.

They also do the tweak feature on the Australia and New Zealand site, which I find helpful.

I don't see what the problem with changing things in a recipe to suit your needs is. I actually like going through the reviews to see what changes people have made to a recipe. It's a good chance to see if a certain change works or not, and how a good recipe can be made better. For example, if a recipe calls for red wine and I don't have it, it's nice to look through the reviews to see if something may be substituted. Or if I think that a bit more/less of something would be a wise move, I can see if someone else had a similar idea and whether it worked or now. Now, I don't agree with people changing half of the ingredients or making a mistake and giving it a bad review, but sometimes that's just what people do. Just ignore it and move on.

I like seeing the review changes if it's just to "only use 1 cup of milk instead of 1 1/2"..etc. The only time I change a recipe is because of food allergies. But, I also try to choose recipes that do not have these ingredients in them and I do not review a recipe if I change it. I do agree that if you change more than 3 ingredients, don't review it. It completely changes the recipe and is not a real review of the recipe.

Hi everyone! Thanks so much for your perspectives! We are always looking for ways to improve, and reviews are definitely an area that can be controversial! We do our best to keep reviews focused on the cooking and eating experience of the recipe. Sometimes, that does include modifications, and those can be valuable as a few of you noted above. However, we do rely on our members to be fair to the original recipe and submitter (if they make changes, then we rely on the member to not review the recipe based on those changes). We know reviews are one of the reasons home cooks love Allrecipes, and we will take all your feedback into consideration!