That is why I never trust ratings that aren't backed by comments.

You are right OP! I was reading a recipe review a couple of days ago and go this:

I haven't made thsi recipe, but I am an Indian and both my husband and I loovveee Biryani and cook often. If you want to know the secret to fast biryani cooking, go to any Indian/Pakistani grocery store and buy "Shan" spice mix for it, its so easy adn really good. I can't say the best, but its so much easier than doing everything that Biryani recipe makes you do.

Yep, they did not even make the dish!

I don't mind if you alter one thing -- say, reduce the amount of sugar -- but when you change several things you are no longer using the recipe being reviewed.

I LOVE when that happens. It makes me laugh (b/c the OP is correct) and about 95% of the time, when I read and consider the edits I get a great recipe!

I laugh out loud at the reviews sometimes. I remember one -- for Osso Buco or something like that -- and the reviewer gave it 1 out of 5, then said "We're vegetarian so I substituted..."

Anonymous wrote:I dont mind hat you are talking about because I always read the reviews so I would find these changes helpful.

What if there are 750 reviews and there does not seem to be a general consensus in the changes? I've seen ones where everyone seems to swap out one particular ingredient or many reviewers say "I think it was even better when I doubled the spices," and that's okay, but sometimes I just want a recipe that lots of people have made AS IS and liked it AS IS! Grrr ...

I hate it when they something like "I haven't made this yet, but it looked so good on the tv show/in the magazine/etc." How can you rate the recipe if you haven't made it!!??

Agreed! It's very annoying to read "this recipe was great...I followed it just like stated ... except I added 500 other ingredients ...

I dont mind hat you are talking about because I always read the reviews so I would find these changes helpful.

I hate when recipe *reviewers* negatively rate a recipe and then mention that they changed almost everything about it.

Ah, my vent is similar. I hate when recipe reviews negatively rate a recipe and then mention that they changed almost everything about it.

Something along the lines of:

"I had high hopes for this recipe. I made it exactly according to the directions, except I didn't have any onions or beef broth. I also used sesame oil instead of olive oil and threw in some jalapenos for kick. It wasn't good and I won't be making it again. I was really disappointed in this recipe.

This drives me crazy--I look for recipes online. I find one that has several hundred reviews and averages 4.5 or even 5 stars and I think, okay, this is a recipe worth trying. But then you read some of the reviews and the reviewers seem to have always made at least one change and often the recipe is unrecognizable as the original with all the changes they made and yet, they rated it 5 stars! WTF?!?! Post your own recipe but don't rate this recipe 5 stars if you have made half a dozen (or more!) changes to it!!! Here is an example of a review for a banana bread I wanted to try. Reviewer gave the recipe 5 stars:

I did alter this quite a bit because it's such a good base for banana bread. I used whole wheat flour instead of all purpose and added about half a can of pumpkin and some spices...cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice. I also added a big spoonful of sour cream and decreased the sugar to about 3/4 of a cup. I added a splash of vanilla extract to the egg mixture. I baked these in miniature muffin tins and got about 48 mini banana muffins. You wouldn't believe how moist these came out. My kiddos would definitely prefer this over a "loaf".

Okay, vent over.