Hey everyone,

I have noticed that some recipes on the internet make no sense and have my suspicions that they may be AI slop. The ratios are off, the cook time is unlikely, the illustration is AI made… But it’s hard. And it will likely be getting harder to identify AI generated recipes in the future.

It’s come to the point that I have a hard time trusting a recipe witten after the AI craze started (let’s call it 2025). I’m so suspicious of everything, my go-to “authenticity” check is to not bother with recipes that have recent publication dates. But this isn’t exactly fair nor fool proof.

Do you have tips on how to spot an AI generated recipe?

Might have to go back to the cookbook concept of yore.

So, either buy a physical, reputable cookbook and then try the recipes in there. Or just go to known-good recipe webpages and go through their recipes.

But yeah, just thinking “I’d like to make Venezuelan vuvuzela vegetables”, then typing that into a search engine and cooking whatever’s the first result, that won’t be possible anymore…

Hey everyone,

I have noticed that some recipes on the internet make no sense and have my suspicions that they may be AI slop. The ratios are off, the cook time is unlikely, the illustration is AI made… But it’s hard. And it will likely be getting harder to identify AI generated recipes in the future.

It’s come to the point that I have a hard time trusting a recipe witten after the AI craze started (let’s call it 2025). I’m so suspicious of everything, my go-to “authenticity” check is to not bother with recipes that have recent publication dates. But this isn’t exactly fair nor fool proof.

Do you have tips on how to spot an AI generated recipe?

I’ve seen some with impossible cook times but I assume that’s just different ingredient expectations or something.

For example I want to look up a time and temperature to cook chicken breasts but the time is impossibly short. At that temperature it may take 2-3x the time. Are we already at the point of ai recipes with unnoticeable flaws or do “chicken breasts” mean something very different in different places? Or maybe it’s a flawed conversion from metric?

Hey everyone,

I have noticed that some recipes on the internet make no sense and have my suspicions that they may be AI slop. The ratios are off, the cook time is unlikely, the illustration is AI made… But it’s hard. And it will likely be getting harder to identify AI generated recipes in the future.

It’s come to the point that I have a hard time trusting a recipe witten after the AI craze started (let’s call it 2025). I’m so suspicious of everything, my go-to “authenticity” check is to not bother with recipes that have recent publication dates. But this isn’t exactly fair nor fool proof.

Do you have tips on how to spot an AI generated recipe?

I wonder if the first “AI generated” recipe was the birthday cake in Portal (actually written by humans, but recited by an AI who it’s insinuated made the recipe). This recipe includes broken glass, so you kinda know it’s not real.

At the end (not really a spoiler), they show a black forest cake, which is delicious. The recipe given obviously does not make a black forest cake, even setting aside the joke comments like the broken glass.

The problem I see is that sooner rather than later, the problems will be so small that most home cooks won’t catch the problem until it’s too late.

The bigger problem is that if experienced cooks can be taught it’s wrong (e.g. something like swapping baking soda for baking powder), why can’t the AI, assuming the AI’s goal is actually to help you. I feel like we are at a point with AI that if I ask for a recipe with very specific requirements, it should either be able to conjure up the recipe, or tell me why it can’t be done so I can change the parameters equivalent (e.g. you can’t ask for a steak to be vegan, that simply does not compute).

Hey everyone,

I have noticed that some recipes on the internet make no sense and have my suspicions that they may be AI slop. The ratios are off, the cook time is unlikely, the illustration is AI made… But it’s hard. And it will likely be getting harder to identify AI generated recipes in the future.

It’s come to the point that I have a hard time trusting a recipe witten after the AI craze started (let’s call it 2025). I’m so suspicious of everything, my go-to “authenticity” check is to not bother with recipes that have recent publication dates. But this isn’t exactly fair nor fool proof.

Do you have tips on how to spot an AI generated recipe?

I’ve mentioned this elsewhere, but it’s a drum worth beating; if you live somewhere with a public library, there is a very good chance that they have a collection of cookbooks that are available to check out for free. Alternatively, no one has ever batted an eye at me making copies of the specific recipes I want to try right there at the library. I have to pay $0.10 a copy, but it’s worth it. Especially since I know how I cook, and this keeps the library’s books out of harm’s way. My local library has stuff ranging from the latest James Beard winners, to tried and true standbys like The Joy of Cooking, as well as stuff with a local focus (either ingredients, or historical).

I’ve seen some with impossible cook times but I assume that’s just different ingredient expectations or something.

For example I want to look up a time and temperature to cook chicken breasts but the time is impossibly short. At that temperature it may take 2-3x the time. Are we already at the point of ai recipes with unnoticeable flaws or do “chicken breasts” mean something very different in different places? Or maybe it’s a flawed conversion from metric?

Hey everyone,

I have noticed that some recipes on the internet make no sense and have my suspicions that they may be AI slop. The ratios are off, the cook time is unlikely, the illustration is AI made… But it’s hard. And it will likely be getting harder to identify AI generated recipes in the future.

It’s come to the point that I have a hard time trusting a recipe witten after the AI craze started (let’s call it 2025). I’m so suspicious of everything, my go-to “authenticity” check is to not bother with recipes that have recent publication dates. But this isn’t exactly fair nor fool proof.

Do you have tips on how to spot an AI generated recipe?