Recipes that require you to hire a private eye just to track down some of the ingredients. If you don’t have it or will need it again, then please don’t list it. What the heck is tamarind water?!

Any recipe that calls for “activated” anything. Where does one find such ingredients and how do you activate it? Help!

When you’re following the recipe and have done everything then read the last line which says ‘Rest for 5 hours’… but you’re hungry now. Why wasn’t there a warning at the start?!

Anything that results in food wastage such as a recipe that instructs you to scrape the icing out of a biscuit, when you could have just bought plain biscuits.

Any time you’re asked to include “just a pinch” of an exotic herb. We don’t want to have to buy the whole pot/bunch for “just a pinch” (well, unless you own a herb garden then no problem, but most of us don’t)! The only thing we own in bulk is sugar or salt.

Whenever the word “sift” comes before dry ingredients. Who has the time these days, name yourselves.

When you’re finished, but it looks nothing like the recipe picture and not because of your cooking ability, because it’s clearly a photo from a similar recipe (those garnishes on the top give it away every time).

When the recipe says to dry-roast spices. Wait, don’t they already come roasted? How does one roast a spice?

The proportion sizes do not account for varying size of hunger so now what “serves four” has been gobbled up by the two ravenous men in your household.

When the steps are out of order and now you’re left doing some sort of culinary sudoku just to get fed on time.