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Unfortunately, I'm a very spontaneous and impatient person, so that translates into my cooking style a LOT. Unless I plan ahead and really really want something? There's no WAY I'm cooking something that takes over 2 hours to cook (meatloaf is a stretch).

I rarely follow a recipe as written but one deal-breaker that makes me turn away entirely is when brand-names are specified in the ingredient list.

It's not always in three-ingredient casserole-cookery books one finds this, either. It can be found in more aspirational tomes where the author wishes to specify a certain brand of high-end chocolate or any thing, really.

The information is useful, yes. For sometimes things simply won't come out right unless a certain quality of base ingredient is used. But to me these advisements belong in a side-bar as addendum, not smack-dab in the recipe as insistence.

:)
Yeah.

Deep-frying.

Cream of "anything" soup.

Good quesition CookiePie--I love looking at recipes, But I will never make them if I know that it has a certain ingredient in it (especially one that cannot be substituted).

For me, I like to eat healthy--so I look for healthy recipes, or ones that can be made lower in fat or sugar. Particularly, I stay away from recipes with tons of butter--I prefer making cakes that use oil and can substitute some for applesauce. I also recently got over my phobia of melting chocolate over a double broiler, and now I prefer brownies using more melted chocolate than sticks of butter (though, I'm not sure if this really makes it better nutritionally...somehow though, I just feel better about not adding two sticks of PURE fat to something I will be eating.And, chocolate is my weakness...)

I also stay away from creamy dishes and soups, or substitute 1% milks for cream bases, etc...

Yeast kind of scares me, though I would desperately love to make all my own bread. I think the time to let it rise,and my impatience intimidate me!

Don't do the eccentric meats--chicken and ground beef are pretty standard, but then again I don't even really cook meat for myself, just my family.

Wow, the list goes on and on--didn't realize how picky I actually was :)

Five spice powder.

I have a recipe pet peeve. It doesn't make me banish a recipe from my potential repertoire but here it is: when a recipe says "Allow to cool" or "Allow to boil." I understand the intent behind the directions, but just "cool" or "boil" would suffice. Is the pudding waiting for me to say the word that it's okay to cool now? Pudding says to soup:" I'm going to hold off on cooling until I'm allowed."

I stay away from deep frying-for obvious reasons.

Do not make my own bread. As a full time employee and full time college student, there's no time for this...But, later I have every intention.:)

If I find a recipe I want to try and there are ingredients I don't like or are specified, I do my own thing. Whether that's omit them or put in what I want. So, that doesn't limit me.

Any recipe with more than 20 ingredients.

Processed foods as ingredients:

Canned soups

Canned vegetables or fruit

Cool Whip

Canned frosting

Gravy mix

You get the idea. It's pretty much fresh/from scratch or nothing for me.

Huge amounts of fat are a real turnoff for me.

The circled "R" products as mentioned by Karen Resta.

Cream of Gak Soup or recipes that combine a bunch of other canned, boxed or bagged ingredients.

Rabbit. (Can't eat it - had one as a pet.)

Peas. (Will usually just omit them and try to sub another veggie.)

I agree with quite a few on this list...if it has a cream of _____ soup, I absolutely refuse to make it. In general if it requires any mystery type of pre-packaged, perservative laden food I move on to the next recipe and/or cookbook.

Peppers - green, red, purple, orange, yellow and every color in between. No way will I use them!

One deal breaker is when a recipe includes "a can of. . ." I have no clue how big the can is and, even when I think I can deduce the size, I'm already turned off by the lack of clarity.

Also -- although it is not a deal-breaker 100 percent of the time -- is the use of "Rotel" or "tomato sauce with basil." I like including ingredients to my taste and those of my guests, so I rarely use these "combined" products.

I love this topic. This is the mother of invention. When I see a recipe and I do not like an ingredient or a combination, I adapt it. If you see an ingredient you do not like change it out, why would that stop you? Having said that there are things I will not use in a recipe even if it expressly calls for it.
Offal of any kind. The smell of it cooking causes me to gag.
I don't like to deep fry too much. I will do some snacks or chicken but that is about all.
Rolled fondant, was fun the first dozen times and I am over it.
Cilantro gets pulled out anytime I see it. I really tried to like it but I just do not.
green peppers, they are kind of raw to me so I sub any other color.

Any kind of bell peppers (blech)
@ rosezilla...the smell of sesame oil makes me queasy also!

This question caused me to think about how I approached recipes in the past. If I was in search of a cooky recipe, chances are it was because I wanted cookies RIGHT THEN so refrigerator doughs were out.

Of course, the usual list - Cream of Gak soup, cake mix, etc., would be off limits but I started to think about technique deal breakers. There was a time that like Amandarama, boning chix would have been a deal breaker. These days, I rarely buy boneless breasts unless I need a lot of them, instead opting to buy a whole chix and reap the benefits of the parts that don't usually make it to the package (backs and necks). I'm also cheap.

It's gotten to the point that even when recipes call for something outlandish, I might try to procure the item and try the recipe another time. The recipes I choose to prepare are indicative of how much time I have to dedicate to them and when I need the food ready. I love cassoulet but I know it takes days to make - I also know it's worth every luscious mouthful.

@hammondcheese - try poblanos next time a recipe calls for green peppers. They have a nice kick but won't scorch your mouth and have an entirely different mouthfeel than green bells.

Many people seem to be posting about ingredients, which is all well and good, but the actual deal-breaker for me was a recipe that called for 2 1/2 egg yolks. Come on!

Skipping over the things I just don't like (summer squash), are allergic to (eggplant), and don't have the equipment for (ice cream), there are very few things that are outright deal-breakers. I think requiring the purchase of a unitasker might be one - I have a well-stocked kitchen, minus a few key items - but would be reluctant to purchase anything that didn't appear to have a use elsewhere. The other is something that appears to be much more work or make more dishes than the end result would otherwise justify - and I'm lookin' at you, Rachael Ray.

Temporary deal-breakers are the ones the have ingredients that I need to go hunt for. I'm sorry, but my local grocer just doesn't stock prosciutto in 1/4 inch slices. I might tuck that recipe away for when I find the final ingredient, or maybe not.

If I'm sifting through recipes looking for the one I want to make tonight, deal-breakers would be the ones that require an extra-long step hidden in the middle. No, I want to eat the chicken tonight, I don't have time to marinate it for 4 hours. If the recipe looks good enough, I might tuck it away for a day when I've got time.

Recipes that include insane prep steps that make no sense will usually send me looking elsewhere. Explain to me why I need to transfer the stuff I just mixed into a glass bowl and I might do it. But if it makes no logical sense and there's no explanation for it, I'm most likely to think the recipe-writer is a sadistic control freak, and I'll move on.

Anything that has pork or shellfish in it, I can't make because it isn't a kosher recipe. Now, if it's something like fried chicken and mashed potatoes, I just omit the buttermilk bath and dredge the chicken in flour, an egg wash then seasoned pareve bread crumbs and I use soy milk and soy butter in my mashed potatoes. You really can't taste a difference in the milk and butter since you're cooking with it. The only time I can taste a difference in real butter and soy butter is if I'm licking it off my fingers, even on toast you can't really tell the difference, at least I can't.

Oh, and FYI, pareve means 'meat and dairy free'

For a good soy butter in stick form, use Willow Run and for a good soy butter in tub form, the light blue fleischman's is really good.