What is Altered Recipe?

Welcome to Altered Recipe, a place where all of your dreams will come true.

Of course that’s not true, unless your dreams are to find great recipes, in which case, BINGO! We can deliver there.

I am Lauren, founder of this site.

Lauren

A little bit about me and why I started this site.

I started out as a horrible cook – anyone who knows me can and will attest to this.

I was probably horrible because I don’t like to play by the rules (draw outside the box with lots of colored crayons, anyone?). Ever since I can remember I did things my way, including cooking things through trial by fire – no recipe – no expertise to draw on – which usually meant no bueno for my poor guests.

I have a really hard time following the exact directions of a recipe and run out of patience for watching food boil, cook, whatever – my husband and in-laws (rule-followers) still yell at me to this day for opening the oven door when the cake is rising. C’mon, I have to look!

BUT – silver lining – I HAVE GOTTEN BETTER. I make things now and people ask for recipes. I have impressed some of the most critical of judges (namely, my mother-in-law) with some of the recipes I’m posting here on the site.

This is my secret formula:

  • I only start with recipes that are already proven successes (highest rated).
  • Then, before I make any recipe, I scour the comment section for how to make it better… how to do it differently. 
  • I typically make it once the way it was written.
  • Then, I do it differently – using people’s suggested alterations.
  • Once I feel it has been perfected, I document it in my notebook – this makes me feel scientific. I should buy a white labcoat to really seal the deal (would that be strange?).

Sometimes, I am trying to make it more healthy (add veggies, cut down on cheeses or dairy).

Sometimes, I am trying to make it more flavorful (add spices, add some healthy fats if possible).

Often, a recipe is perfect without any additions (I will post those here as well). When I post a recipe I have not altered, I’m picking only the most unique and amazing dishes; the internet is full of boring recipes and I don’t intend to provide you with those.

I started AlteredRecipe so that you can find some stellar, contest-winning worthy recipes, most of which have been adjusted to be even better than they started out.

Is This Allowed?

If you are wondering if all of this is kosher (as in, am I legally allowed to post this stuff?), the answer is “yes”. 

Ingredients themselves cannot be copyrighted (source) – but recipe instructions have to be re-written in your own words (as they should be anyways).

For ethical purposes, I should always to give credit to the original recipe author – which I do.

If I am posting anything I found from an online recipe where I have altered the recipe, you will see “Adapted From:” and the source with a hyperlink.

If I post something that is really just loosely based on another recipe I will say “Inspired By:”, which means it hardly resembles the original.

Some of these recipes have been handed down from our families or we (my husband and I) have created them ourselves. Our relatives don’t want their names used. They barely want to admit that we’re related – ha, kidding, mostly. If there is no credit provided it’s because I am using something that was provided to me by one of our many hand-written family cookbooks with no sources listed.

Unfortunately, some recipes might be mistaken for copied, but there are only so many ways to make some foods, like guacamole, for instance. I’d be willing to be that at least 2 out of every 10 guacamole recipes are virtually identical.

Being honest and transparent with where we get our information and crediting our sources is very important to us, so if you see something you feel has been misrepresented (like, we found a recipe from a reposted recipe that didn’t credit the actual source), please let us know this so that we can correct it.

Have a Great Recipe?

If you have a killer recipe you think I should add (with alterations included) send me an email: admin-at-alteredrecipe-dot-com – Make sure you include the source/link and then the alterations that you think make it oh-so-much-better.

Eventually, I might add a members area to this site that way people can post their own recipes.

 

Until then, Happy Altering!

Thanks for stopping by,

Lauren

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