[johnwdefeo]

Yes! It would be easier to write 500 word blurbs than a meaningful 50 words. I despise recipe sites for this reason. So much "content" gets in the way of the actual content. The recipes in my favorite cookbook are around 100 words on average, yet if they were published online, I doubt they would rank.

[jfengel]

If they published the whole cookbook, or at least chapters, it would avoid looking like the minimum effort applied by content farmers.

I wonder if the same thing would work for you: organize your site with more content per page. You could add value with lists organized by some principle, or just borrow Amazon's catalog tree.

For that matter, would the same notion work for recipe sites? In addition to the main recipe per page, add several other related dishes -- compatible side dishes, similar main dishes, cocktails, etc. Reduce the blurb to please readers, but still produce content.

I'm far from an expert in SEO so I apologize if I'm telling you something you already know (or already know doesn't work). I'm just spitballing.