Food Blogging & Negativity: Do you post recipes that you hate on your blog?

Today I'm touching on a variety of topics dealing with food blogging, but the theme between them all is negativity.

First up, Bad recipes. They happen to the best of us. We make a recipe with the best intentions and it turns out to be a total flop. What is your next step?

• Do you redo the recipe, hoping it will be better? 


• Do you post the recipe on your blog with a negative review? Is it constructive criticism or an out right attack to the blogger?


• Does it make any difference if the recipe came from a food blogger as opposed to a food celebrity, like Paula Deen or Bobby Flay? 


• Is your first instinct to blame yourself or the recipe? 

Secondly, negative opinions. You don't like the quality or type of ingredients used in a recipe. What do you do?

• Do you take inspiration from their recipe and tweak it to fit your dietary standards?


• Do you immediately dismiss it and move on?


• Do you leave a comment informing the food blogger that they are using the wrong ingredients and as a whole their recipes stink?


• Do you get on your blog and write a long rant about how anyone who ever cooks with ------ ingredients is a terrible cook and should be ashamed of themselves?

I used a cake mix. I must be a horrible person

These are all questions I wonder about frequently while I am browsing other blogs.  I try to keep my blog as uplifting and positive as possible. Even when I tell you all the things I hate about your blog, I try to do so in a hopefully light hearted way that is meant to be helpful and not snotty.

I don't come across very many hostile and mean spirited food bloggers, but they are for sure out there. Just like hostile and mean spirited comments, I don't get a ton but I know they are out there. The most frequent style of hostility that I personally come across is people who are food elitists.

Let me clarify one thing real quick. If you are not a fan of cake mixes or canned soups, that is just fine. There are from scratch alternatives for almost everything out there that is a convenience product. I am totally A-OK with the fact that you don't like them. What I am not A-OK with is when people rant on their blogs about how lazy, stupid and horrible people are who do use them. 

The food bloggers who say (I'm paraphrasing but this is what I read) that anyone who EVER uses a cake mix is a lazy, fat, horrible cook. That using a can of cream of chicken soup is literally poisoning their children and they should have their kids taken away.  I'm not exaggerating these remarks, I have run across quite a few of them the past few years. Does this kind of hostility and negativity bother anyone else?

Run for your life! Ahhh, the horror!

I recently had a young woman who pinned one of my casserole recipes onto a Pinterest board that she had titled, "This is why you are fat." I was stunned, although I probably shouldn't have been. What is stunning to me is that someone has so much free time to be so negative and spiteful. (On Pinterest of all places, which is normally so fun and inspiring. She had literally created a board of all the things she hated. Hah!)

You and I don't eat the same? Hey, that is fine by me. I'll leave you alone, how about you leave me alone too? Keep on blog browsing and don't let the door hit your butt on the way out.  What I don't get is pinning a bunch of random food blogs on Pinterest and leaving comments of, "GROSS!" "THIS IS DISGUSTING!" and the like. How awful and mean spirited is that?

All I can think is that this is a girl who has a lot of hate in her heart and she feels the need to lash out at people on the internet. It is kind of sad, but frankly it riled me up because how snotty and judgmental her comments were. We are all young bloggers at one point, and to see something like this when you are new can be a real buzz kill.

Back to the recipes, do you take the time to write up a post, take pictures, and type up the recipe when it was a dud? Do you name names, calling out the blogger who provided the recipe? Or do you just skip posting it and move on?

I am absolutely a skip posting it and move on kind of person. I don't think most food bloggers would ever intentionally post a bad recipe. I tend to question if I really followed the recipes closely, if I misread an ingredient amount, and scrutinize if it was my mistake that a recipe turned out bad. What about you?

For some reason I will admit that I am far more lenient and forgiving to food bloggers and their recipes than I am of the celebrity cooks out there. I am more likely to post a negative review on a Food Network recipe than I am to visit a blog and leave a comment. I am not saying that is right, but it is just the way I feel. I connect with fellow food bloggers and I feel a sense of solidarity between us all. I want to uplift others, not tear them down.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on the topics above. Do you get negative comments on your blog from food elitists? Or do you get blamed for a dud recipe even when it is clear the cook didn't follow your recipe closely? Please share in the comments.

Also - Inspired by eRecipecards did a thoughtful review of one of my recipes and my blog as a whole today. He poked a bit of fun at me and the things I hate about blogs. Check it out. See, I can take a joke when it is a good natured jab. :)