How the ranking works

Without information, a recipe is simply average. Every piece of evidence pulls the score up or down. The more trustworthy evidence, the further a recipe can move from the middle. That way, a recipe with one enthusiastic review can't jump straight to the top.

Some sites give almost every recipe 4.9 or 5 stars, so 4.95 says little there. On a strict site where recipes average 4.2, a 4.6 is exceptional. So we don't look at the stars themselves, but at how a recipe scores compared to the other recipes on the same site.

If a site barely distinguishes between recipes, or we only know a few of its recipes, its stars count for less. And however many reviews a recipe has at the maker, together they never count for more than 10 reviews here, because we can't verify them.

• A review with a photo of your result counts for more: you really made it.
• A review with a real explanation counts a little more.
• Your first and second reviews count a little less; from your third, every review counts fully. Experienced cooks count a bit more: from 10 reviews ×1.15, from 25 reviews ×1.3.
• An account less than a day old counts for half.
• Someone who always gives exactly the same score counts for half.
• You can't review a recipe you added yourself, and you can review each recipe only once.

We also even out strict and generous reviewers. If someone always scores 2 points below everyone else, a 7 from them counts for more than a 7 from someone who gives everything a 9.

Suspicious patterns, like a burst of high scores for one maker from brand-new accounts, are flagged and checked by hand.

Next to every score you see how much evidence is behind it: little evidence, fairly sure, or reliable. A score only becomes reliable with enough reviews here. From 20 reviews, your reviews decide almost all of the score.