Recipes that describe themselves as "quick and easy" when they are neither of those things
The bar for calling something a quick and easy recipe has apparently collapsed entirely. I made something last week that was labeled quick and easy on three separate cooking sites and the first step was "caramelize the onions." If you have ever actually caramelized onions you know that this is a forty minute commitment minimum and that anyone who tells you otherwise is either lying or has never done it. The recipe did not mention this. It said "caramelize the onions, about 5 minutes." I don't know what stove these people are cooking on but I want one.
It's not just the time either. "Easy" has started to mean something like "theoretically possible for a human to complete" rather than anything resembling accessible. I've seen easy recipes that require a mandoline, a stand mixer, and something called a spider strainer. I own a pan and some knives. The gap between what recipe developers consider basic kitchen equipment and what most people actually have in their apartment is apparently enormous and nobody is adressing it.
The worst offender is the phrase "simple weeknight dinner." This label has been applied to dishes with seventeen ingredients, four separate components that need to cook simultaneously, and a sauce that requires constant attention for twenty minutes. A simple weeknight dinner should mean I can make it after work without needing to plan my afternoon around it. What it apparently means is that a professional cook with a prep team could technically complete it before 9pm.
I have started filtering recipe searches specifically to exclude the words quick, easy, and simple because they have become functionally meaningless. The recipes I find without those words are often actually faster. I don't know what that says about anything but it feels like it says something .