Preparing supper should be fairly straightforward, but a few days ago, it became an exercise in frustration.
It was a cool autumn evening, an ideal time for a warm, hearty stew.
I did an online search and found a recipe I could make quickly in a pressure cooker. That part was simple enough. However, once I opened the web page, my heart sank.
Before I could get to the recipe, I had to scroll past multiple pictures and a video showing me how to make this meal. After that was a description of the meal, along with the author鈥檚 comments about how good it tasted. Then there was a list of links for related recipes, followed by even more pictures.
I still hadn鈥檛 reached the recipe.
Next, there was a list of ingredients, some more pictures, a step-by-step guide to preparing this stew and a second list of links to recipes I should check.
Finally, after all that, I reached the recipe. The scroll bar showed I was three-quarters of the way down the page.
It shouldn鈥檛 have been like this. The recipe was easy to follow and didn鈥檛 require any complicated kitchen techniques. A list of ingredients and a few paragraphs of instructions would have been enough. Instead, I had to go past a lot of information I didn鈥檛 want before I finally reached what I needed. This was annoying.
Why wasn鈥檛 the recipe near the top of the page, with the video and step-by-step instructions following, and the related links closer to the end?
If this had been an isolated incident, I wouldn鈥檛 have cared too much. But this is something I鈥檝e seen far too often on recipe pages.
It鈥檚 a waste of time to scroll through an overabundance of pictures and related links before finally reaching the recipe I want. And when it鈥檚 getting close to supper time, I just want to get on with cooking. Some recipe pages have a button near the top, allowing me to skip the additional content and go directly to the recipe. It鈥檚 an improvement, but I still wonder why the recipe isn鈥檛 listed first. It is the most important information on the page.
This trend seems to be unique to the world of online recipes.
If I need to do household improvements and basic maintenance projects, I have no problem finding clear, concise instructions online. And when I鈥檝e needed other how-to information, I have no problem finding something accurate and understandable, without having to wade through a lot of extra content.
Later that evening, I wondered if there was a simpler way to find the cooking information I wanted.
I tried using an AI software service, asking for a recipe, using the same main ingredients as I had used in my stew. Within seconds, I had a recipe I could follow, presented with no distractions. I asked for a second recipe, and I got that just as quickly. I鈥檓 not sure I鈥檒l use this method, as AI-generated answers are not always reliable.
Then I realized there鈥檚 an even simpler method. Cookbooks, recipe cards and sheets of paper with family recipes are low-tech methods for sharing information on food preparation. I don鈥檛 have any cookbooks for using a pressure cooker, but a quick trip to the public library or a bookstore would have saved me a lot of frustration.
Oh well. At least the stew was good. I鈥檝e copied out the recipe and saved it for the next time I want a warm meal for a cool night, without a lot of online content I don鈥檛 want or need.
John Arendt is the editor of the Summerland Review.
