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@Adam: You're afraid of peeling celery?

I'm with aharste. If there's more than one recipe in a recipe...it's too much for me.

Peeling celery is easy. As long as I can figure out Muslim appropriate substitutes for ingredients I'm fine, but sometimes you just need some kind of alcohol and I won't do those...

I'm with Raphael and Robyn - specialized equipment is the worst. Ice cream machines, deep fryers, grills (not allowed to grill on our balcony in NYC), crock pots, pressure cookers, etc.

Luckily, I have a food processor and a stand mixer and I think those are pretty common items to have in your kitchen, assuming you don't live in New York and have a postage-stamp-sized kitchen.

Recipes that require you to buy obscure/rare ingredients like Indian Cress or Hollyhock.

I have a postage stamp kitchen. I have a stand mixer but not a food processor. Have been resisting the processor because I don't know if I'd use it enough, and I hate doing dishes. Without a dishwasher, I don't know if I want the hassle of trying to clean the thing.

Wow.
I guess there really aren't any for me.
I mean, sometimes I have to put down a recipe on a certain day due to time or space or equipment I currently own etc...but that does not mean I would never make it when I would be able to.

I (and the DH) have almost no foods we CAN'T eat, and only a few we (mostly I) WON'T eat, so unless a recipe simply cannot have a substitution made for whatever the offending ingredient is, it is still in 'play' to be made.

I guess since cooking/baking has almost always been my way of making a living and I love it, there is almost nothing I won't attempt at least once. I consider myself decent at making necessary substitutions/omissions or skipped/added steps (the day I peel celery is the day I have died and descended to hell ;)) and so most stuff is fair game when looked at that way.

If a recipe is using one of the things I won't eat as the main focus, and there is just no substitute, then I guess that would be a deal breaker.
Cilantro (if I cannot sub another herb), certain meats and fish I choose not to eat and a very, very few other things.

Any recipe that has more than 5 spices or more than 2 fresh herbs, especially when they all call for one spring of something. I don't need to buy a container of mustard and corriander seeds to use once and I dont need to buy a whole bunch of fresh thyme to use one spring and then find the rest of the bunch 3 weeks later in the bottom of my fridge, black and slimey.

A lot of the things listed above will move a recipe from the "dinner" category straight over into the "weekend adventure cooking" category for me. Multi-recipe recipes, overnight marinades, smoking, all-day cooking...

I'd guess that the more a person sees food preparation as an adventure/hobby, the more willing they are to do whatever it takes.

That said, I still skip peeling carrots and asparagus stems most of the time, and I'll usually leave the skins on instead of blanching and skinning my tomatoes and peaches. I'm just not that picky about the fibrous bits.

I really can't think of an ingredient I'd call a deal breaker, mostly because I figure there is almost always something I can substitute to get a decent result (this comes from having food allergies to a lot of really common ingredients, like peanuts and bananas and lentils). In terms of technique, deep frying is usually a deal breaker, partially for health reasons, partially because of the inevitable mess during and after, partially because of the inherent difficulty and danger involved in actually doing it right. If a recipe calls for some complicated technique to make something that's essentially a garnish or whoe result is entirely aesthetic (ie not crucial to the taste of the dish) I'll generally skip it, but it won't stop me from making the recipe. Anything that requires tools I don't have (a pressure cooker, meat grinder, or a food processor larger than 2 cups, for example) has the definite possibility of being tossed, if I can't think of a way to fake it manually.

All things considered it takes a lot for me to shy away from a recipe - I like to think I'm pretty adaptable in the kitchen and do a decent job of winging it.

Ohhh cheating Cathy... =P I guess I don't think outside the box enough... in that case, I wouldn't consider myself making *that* particular recipe... I'm just making my bastardization of that (which I do quite often, actually). In that case... yea I don't really have deal breakers cuz if I like the concept of osmething or really want to make it, I just switch out what I don't want or can't use...

Anything that requires a stand mixer, since I still haven't bought one, as I can't decide on what colour I want.. So anything that requires multiple stand-mixer settings and prolonged beating? Back-burnered until I'm in someone else's kitchen, or I shell out for my KitchenAid ;}

Or recipes calling for a pressure cooker... *shudder*

Have to agree with ESNY1077 - can't grocery stores sell mini-bunches of herbs? Who needs that much parsley? There should be a "singles" section at the supermarket with single-serve portions of things (and for people who live alone). Or we can all shop at Japanese supermarkets where everything is smaller ; )

Anything that requires an ice cream maker. I know they are only cheap but I cant trust myself!
Mostly its to do with ingredients. I refuse to use crisco, or deep fry anything. I did find some coconut oil though, so I can replace crisco with that.

I would love to make Jeff Varsano's pizza recipe, but he loses me here:

"So I clipped off the lock [of my oven] using garden shears so I could run it on the cleaning cycle...As I prep, the oven will get up to 800 (floor). 900+ tops. "

That scares the *%^*&% out of me.

http://slice.seriouseats.com/jvpizza/

Anything that requires a food processor and doesn't give directions for how to do it without one is out. I have a tiny kitchen with very little counter space. The precious space is occupied by a coffee grinder and maker, things I use everyday. I do have a Kitchen Aid stand mixer because I love baking, especially dense cheesecakes. I have a blender but it's light enough I keep it on the shelf under the kitchen cart that holds my microwave and toaster oven...which is in the dining area since it won't fit in the kitchen.

If a thermometer is required, then I'm outta there!

I would have said anchovies is a deal-breaker, but I went ahead and made something with anchovies a couple of weks ago. And it didn't suck!

Fish cheeks? Are they real fish cheeks?

Clarified butter. I refuse to do anything to my butter other than melt it.

I have the worst oven in the world(we rent, so not much I can do about it), so anything that involves starting the baking at one temp and then turning the oven down.
Also, deep frying. I have to really really believe that the finished product is going to be worth figuring out how to dispose of all that oil.

I don't have deal-breakers as much as there are things I do my own way in spite of what the recipe says. I read the entire recipe, and then re-interpret depending on my time/the purpose of the meal (i.e. dinner for 2 after a long work day, or an occasion). James Peterson and Thomas Keller both provide lengthy, specific recipes; I definitely caramelize my onions for as long as Keller says (which takes longer than the hours he indicates to get them to be the color he describes).

I agree with the "recipe inside a recipe" people. I will do two recipes ( like a sauce or homemade mayo or other dressing within a recipe) but more than 2 (like almost ALL of emeril's recipes) and I am done.

Anything that involves setting something aflame is usually out (unless it's small flames, like for a creme brulee). Also, anything that requires precise temperatures/gradations of cooking. And obscure instruments (like epices6's foam canister and gas cartridges). We have a stand-up mixer, a blender, a mandoline and a pressure cooker (thank you Alton Brown for not making me afraid of them), but there's still a hefty chunk of things that we don't own, so finding substitutes or workarounds is critical.

I still read Cooking Light magazine, and they drive me slap-ass-batty with some of their fake ingredients. If a recipe calls for egg substitute, I slam the mag shut and walk away. Doesn't matter that I could actually substitute real eggs for egg substitute. The concept is too blasted annoying. I just move on.

When the recipe begins with "Pre-heat the oven to.." I immediately go onto something else.

Deep frying. Using all that oil just seems like a waste. Anything calling for an appliance or tool I don't have, where the substitution wouldn't be easy. I'm not particularly fond of dealing with egg whites. Firm, glossy, not dry - those definitions don't compute for me. Major (and even some minor) ingredients impossible to find in a rural area.

I don't do yeast. I could, but I don't. Psychological. I used to help my dad make Polish bread at Christmastime, and he always got all nervous and jerky when it came to the yeast. He was the only one to handle it, he would always buy 10 times more than he needed, and he'd get all anxious every time we baked the bread. It always came out great, but his stress levels put me off yeast for life.

I love deep frying, though.

I won't peel tomatoes...it just seems too fussy, and I don't mind the skins. I got over my fear of making caramel and candy, but I still won't deep fry. Luckily my husband seems to be a natural at it.

Don't be scared of ice cream makers, people! Homemade ice cream is the best. The simplest Donvier and Cuisinart ice cream makers will earn their keep within a year.

anything with the use of the term "veggies", if someone can't spell "vegetables" i have no desire to read their recipe since they probably don't have enough sense to put a good meal on the table.

I'm a single woman, so anytime I see a recipe that has a 'yield 48' unless it can be easily cut down (some sites allow you to do that) I'm not going to make it--yes, I know 'you can freeze things' but c'mon, who likes any one dish enough to have enough for 6 months of the same thing?

Heavy cream, more than 1 cup of oil in a small batch, unclear technique directions without illustrations, and gelatin.

Oh, I just saw one on Slashfood--'this easy bread starter only requires you to wait 14 hours'

I think it's funny that so many of the reasons listed in the original post are recipes that are avoided because of not owning enough appliances. There are always ways around not having every appliance imaginable. David Lebovitz has instructions for making ice cream when you don't have an ice cream maker, most things that require a stand mixer can be done by hand with a teeny bit more elbow grease, similar to most things that require a food processor. All of these things were made long before most kitchens had a million appliances and gadgets. I say give it a try!

Anything that requires me to visit more than 2 grocery stores is out. I'll make substitutes where I can, but I have a one-year old - time is a luxury I'd rather not spend grocery shopping.