Here's The Trick To Spotting A Bad TikTok Recipe

TikTok can be considered a modern-day cookbook, perfect for those who want to eat delicious food, but be in the kitchen as little as possible. As Women's Health describes it, TikTok can detail a "world of healthy, mouthwatering meals in one minute or less." This is just one piece of the puzzle that has earned the platform around 1 billion active users per month, and many of them are self-proclaimed foodies, always looking for a new recipe, or hack, to get their hands on. We still use a certain TikTok hack when making mashed potatoes. 

However, while many recipes go viral for how easy they seem to be, there are some that might not seem all that appealing, and can actually be dangerous to make. Remember the toaster grilled cheese? It's actually one of the worst food trends we have seen from TikTok. Even the recipes that try to replicate an existing supermarket snack can actually end up worse than the original.

But, how does one decide if a TikTok recipe should be avoided from a bite-sized video? It's probably time you get a bit picky and skeptical before diving into a hack.

Lifehacker suggests always checking the ingredients of the box of the snack or treat you are trying to replicate. If the recipe doesn't have the primary ingredients, it's probably not a good one. With this method, Lifehacker uses Cheez-Its as an example. In one TikTok video, and we aren't sure which one as there are many, Lifehacker notes that the recipe doesn't use flour, which is the first ingredient listed on the Cheez-Its box. For those hoping for a homemade version of the snack, this recipe might prove to be a bust.

Another tip we can offer is to rely on your intuition. If you watch a video and immediately think that it's too good to be true, you're probably right. As The Atlantic reports, check if the person in the video actually tastes the recipe they are touting. This can help you decide if you want to give it a go. Plus, get suspicious. Who's preparing the recipe? A chef or food blogger? Or perhaps it could be a random TikToker trying to sell a recipe as cheap and easy just to get views.

We aren't telling you not to try a recipe that appeals to you, we're simply suggesting to think it through first, to hopefully avoid disappointment. As Lifehacker writes, you can proceed with caution and consider it a fun way to experiment in your kitchen.