Screening out unsuccessful recipes

Following up on Susie’s blog, Epic fail – anatomy of the recipe that didn’t, we found a great follow-up article. Susie’s article, besides being funny, details many of the ways a recipe can be poorly written. As she points out, a poorly written recipe can be costly in time and ingredients, and potentially embarassing to boot.

So is there a way to eyeball a recipe and figure out that there may be danger ahead? And what chefs are well-known for their attention to detail and can be trusted? Over at the Splendid Table, they have a checklist for How to Spot Good Recipes, along with a list of 21 writers who produce reliable recipes (and, no, Rachael Ray and Gwyneth Paltrow aren’t on the list).