What the house format strips out, and why

Every recipe in your library reads the same way. Here is what we remove from a recipe page, what we keep, and the reasoning behind each rule.

Most recipe pages are written to be found, not cooked from. The recipe is there, but it sits under a story, a run of photos, a list of tips you will never need, and a few blocks of ads. Bare Bones Cooking keeps the part you actually use at the stove and puts it in the same order every time, so you never hunt for the oven temperature again.

What we strip out

The story. Trips, family memories, the history of an ingredient, and why the author loves the dish. All of it can be good writing; none of it changes what you do in the kitchen.
Padding. Long introductions, repeated summaries, "jump to recipe" scaffolding, and step photos that only restate the text.
The source's own photographs. We never copy a site's photos into your library. The recipe links back to the original if you want to see them.
Ads and pop-ups. Nothing from the original page's advertising comes along.

What we keep

Ingredients, with amounts and units, grouped the way the recipe groups them ("For the sauce", "For the topping").
Steps, in order, with the details that matter while cooking.
Yield and times: servings, prep, cook, and total.
Equipment you might not already own.
Substitutions for hard-to-find ingredients.
A link back to the original page, always.

The rules, one at a time

A short note, only when it changes what you do. A recipe can open with up to about three short lines, and only for things that affect the cooking: an overnight rest, a 24-hour brine, a cast-iron skillet or a probe thermometer you will need, butter that has to be at room temperature. "Blend only half the pot; the rest stays whole for texture" belongs. "This soup got me through a long winter" does not. If a note would not change what you do, it is left out.

Produce by the unit. A recipe that says "1/2 cup diced bell pepper" leaves you guessing how many peppers to buy. We write the measured amount first and the whole-produce equivalent after it: "1/2 cup diced bell pepper (about 1/2 a medium pepper)". The volume or weight leads because that is what the recipe was tested with; the count is there for your shopping list.

US customary units. Recipes written in grams and milliliters are converted to cups, spoons, ounces, and pounds, and amounts read the way a cook writes them: "1 1/4 cups", not "1.25 cups".

Steps with cues, not shorthand. "Saute the onions" tells you nothing about heat or doneness. We keep steps specific, in the style of good test-kitchen writing: "Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until soft and translucent, about 8 minutes." A heat level, something to look for, and a rough time.

Yield, plainly. "Makes 4 servings", with a per-serving description only when it helps, such as "about 2 thighs and a cup of potatoes".

Times as the source states them. Prep, cook, and total are reported as written. If the source leaves out the total, we flag it rather than adding prep and cook together, because the two often overlap; the flag tells you the source did not say.

Equipment up front. If a recipe needs something many kitchens do not have, such as a stand mixer, a Dutch oven, or a 10-inch cast-iron skillet, you see it before you start, not halfway through step six.

Substitutions as a plain list. When an ingredient is hard to find, you get the swap and nothing else: "buttermilk: 1 1/2 cups milk plus 1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice".

Why the original link always stays

Every imported recipe keeps the exact link you pasted, shown on the recipe and printed with it, and it will travel with your recipes when library export arrives. It is never shortened, cleaned up, or dropped, even when an import fails. The person who wrote the recipe deserves the credit, and you deserve to be able to go back to the source.

Why this is the right line to draw