It depends. If it's a weeknight and I'm trying to figure out dinner, a deal breaker will be anything in a recipe that i don't have at home and/or can't find a suitable substitute.

For a while anything grilled was a deal breaker as our grill was broken, but it's fixed now and we've grilled for like 7 nights in a row!

Most cakes/soufflés etc. are deal breakers right now because I don't have very much bakeware. I need to buy some more stuff!

I think tools are the deal breaker for me, too. It used to be I flipped over any recipe that required a food processor. I just got one for Christmas, and now I have to outweigh pulling it out, putting the parts together, using it, pulling it back apart, washing it and putting it away over how badly I want to make the recipe. Otherwise, not much scares me!

I hate to admit but my deal breakers are usually constant supervision and dough that needs to be fussed with too much.

I tried making a sliced pinwheel cookie once and it was a disaster. Ever since then I'm a little nervous of that sort of thing. My kitchen floor is also really hard tile and I can't stand standing there watching something for too long. I'm trying to talk my husband into cork but we'll probably go with nice kitchen mats for the time being.

On weekdays I look for things that don't take a huge amount of time to make...

Dealbreakers for me are when the descriptions of items are too pretentious for words (ie, "don't just go to the supermarket to buy oregano--you have to go down to the Greek grocery stores and ask them if the oregano has been flown in from Greece: and it has to be fresh"). Ugh.

The only true deal breaker that I have is if the recipe includes mushrooms!

My dealbreakers: Grill (if it can't be broiled, like needs an open flame!)...Any 2 day preparation (unless it's really special!)...Fried (oil + dripping fat = ick!)...dairy (that's cause I can't have any!)...red meat (another ick ingredient that I just won't consume)...anything that calls for "Lard" or "shortening" or even "2 cups oil" (first two are just sickening while the latter I just feel my arteries closing in lol.) and anything to do with the extremities or unsual parts of an animal (no parts of any red meat anyways, but calling for like the insides of a chicken, or chicken feet/frog legs/chicken neck/gator tail)...and anything still alive (like the live squid!! or bugs...can't do that either lol)

Really.. the only thing... I hate olives. Can't stand them.

Any animals internal organs. Oh, and tongue.

I won't make something that is ostensibly simple but takes a lot of effort, like a saw a recipe for a fancy BLT in bon appetit. It sounded delicious but just not worth the time (plus we all know sandwiches are better when someone else makes them for you).

Also I don't think I've ever made anything fish-related other than a tuna salad sandwich. I'm not a fish person.

No organs! All organs that people eat are usually organs that perform a cleansing function in the body. To me that translates into eating the remnants of a drain strainer. That's a gross visual, I know, but it's what I see every time I think of liver and onions.

Any ingredient that can not be substituted and costs a fortune or is hard to find. Also, certain things that I just generally do not like.

mondaymoos -- I also hate olives. If I can taste the 'olive' part of olive oil, I have a problem with it.

Anything with Far too many steps I usually shy away from. If I can spare the time, then sure. But those instances are few and far between.

I'd say if I read the recipe, and I can mentally follow the recipe without too much of a problem...I'm good.

If I have time, I am usually up for the challenge of most recipes. However, yeast on the ingredient list has been known to scare me.

Anything overly elaborate. I have made truly elaborate meals, but I save them for special occasions.

As for ingredients, nothing really bugs me in recipes. I'll leave it out or sub it if it's a veggie I dislike (beets and bell peppers, ewwwwww). Or in the case of onions, I will saute them first if I can get away with it.

No mushrooms. If I'm perusing a recipe and I see that word, I move on. Same goes with any recipe that has more than just a little bit of dill.

Other than that, it's any recipe that requires tools that I don't have. And anything big that needs to be broiled, because our broiler is tiny and barely fits anything.

My number one recipe deal breaker is too many ingredients, especially if they include items that need to be purchased at a specialty store and I'm not in the mood for a road trip to get them. Other deal breakers are that the recipe can't easily be "veganized". Most of the time that's not a problem, since I get my recipes from vegetarian sources, but I stopped getting Vegetarian Times magazine because so many of the recipes had eggs or dairy in them without providing for substitutions for strict vegetarians. I can get ovo-lacto recipes anywhere!

i am usually pretty adventerous when it comes to cooking techniques, but the one thing i absolutely DREAD doing is frying. won't do it.

I have to agree with kiwitwist - I hate it when you find a great recipe and just when you sit down to make out a grocery list WHAM you see that one ingredient...the one you can't even pronounce...so you look it up on the internets and what do you know - it's a veg from liechtenstein that can only be found in 10 stores in the states and costs $120 a pound!!

It depends on my mood. If i feel like cooking which is usually on the weekend then im game for something new and challenging but during the week I want something easy.

Most things with heavy cream...ick!

if it calls for 2 day prep- or using tools i don't have like a food processor i'll skip it. also if there's an ingredient i've never heard of before, i won't even bother

Too many ingredients. And I'm vegan at home, so if it can't be veganized, then no.

Food processor or grilling.

Too many exotic ingredients. If I see a recipe that calls for a bunch of things I've never heard of that will require me to drive all over town to find...I turn the page! Plus, I hate buying a specific ingredient that you know you'll never use other than that one recipe.

if it has more than 10 ingredients

If it calls for use of double broiler, food processor, or inserting any thermometer, or any other tools i dont own

If it calls for Lard, heavy cream, bacon drippings

if the directions for making it are longer than a paragraph.

anchovies or anchovy paste. No thanks Rachel Ray.

frying. i just won't do it.

oh, and any recipe that gives very exact measurements. i like to feel free to toss and add as i see fit.

Organ meats. Touching them, eating them, looking at them - all not on my personal menu.

Almost anything else, unless it appears absolutely essential, can be either modified, substituted for, or left out. For instance:

1) Unless you're baking, in most recipes you can cut the amount of oil/butter/shortening/artery doom by 50 - 75% without any significant loss in taste. If the oil is just there to keep food from sticking, use nonstick cookware and leave it out altogether. This means you can usually "pan-fry" with 1-2 tsp of oil.

2) A lot of things that call for deep-frying (no thanks) can be baked instead.

3) Heavy cream substitute: 8 oz low-fat cottage cheese + 3 tbs nonfat powdered milk, pureed in a blender 5 mins or until smooth. Sounds weird, but I PROMISE it works, at least in cooked dishes.

Meat (but a lot of recipes I find I could easily adapt to be veggie friendly so not as much)
too many instructions
bacon drippings, lard, lots of butter, shortening, heavy cream
animal organs
things with ingredients I can't find
too many ingredients (maybe)

I forgot, if frying is required, no thank you. I do not like fried or oily food.

My deal breaker is any recipe that involves a two day prep. I just can't be bothered to work that long on one item of food.

I don't have a food processor, so those recipes are out. I detest green peppers, so those are also out. I don't eat fried food. Other than that, I'm up for trying a lot.

One word, baking. And by that I mean breads, cookies and other sweets. I think it all boils down to the fact that I despise the precise measuring that the recipes call for. I love to fly by the seat of my pants when I am in the kitchen. Anything goes!

Oh, and pre-shredded cheese. And don't get me started on the sawdusty "parmesan cheese" in a can. OK, I'm done now.

2 day prep. Usually I want the recipe tonight.

anything with mayo - gross

Timing, no matter how free my day is if it takes longer than 6 hours, it just isn't happening. Also anything involving a "bath" of any kind, whether water or otherwise. Always seems too pretentious for me.

Any kind of meat that is not a chicken. Kitchen tools that I don't own, like grill or food processor (only if it is really necessary). Ingredients that are too expensive. Too many ingredients. Cake mixes (can never be so good as a home made cake batter made from quality ingredients and without funny additives)...

Am I the only person on this entire page who enjoys fried food on occasion? For example... hangovers? Is there ever a better time for an artery-clogging breakfast?

Fried food is awesome but I think people agree it's just a b*tch to make at home in many cases.

I follow a lesson I learned from my dad, who is an excellent Italian cook: Avoid any recipe with more than 20 ingredients that aren't spices.

I fry stuff at home all the time! Yum! Last night I made deep fried zucchini sticks for a party.

I avoid anything that can't easily be made vegetarian.

I love recipes usually use them at least 4 nights a week. Deal breaker is preparing meat, seafood. I love all protein, but I don't like cutting off the fat or bones, deveining the shrimp, bearding the mussels, etc so hubby does all prep work.

PS: Love fried foods, you can't eat it every day. Hell you can't eat anything every day it gets boring.

a long ingredients list and a prep time of more than like, half an hour are dealbreakers for me. i'm way to add for that lol. i also tend to like recipes with pictures next to them lmao. sometimes i look at that dry, tiny print and just can't do it haha.

If it involves American (fake) cheese or heavy meats that take a long time to prep and cook then I am out.

My dealbreakers are things that I can't do in my apartment: grilling, deep frying, or blending. This, of course, could change. These aren't dealbreakers because I refuse to do something (like butcher an animal) but simply because I haven't the resources.

Anything by that "Mostly Home Made" woman. I would have thought consumers would stick to the Kraft company cookbook series if they wanted to eat crap.

Otherwise, any recipe book that shows contempt for food/technique/home cooks is detestable.

more than 10 ingredients, or more than 15 minutes prep time, most of the time!