I think it’s because the recipe itself cannot be copyrighted but the blog post around it can.

I know I read this somewhere, but can’t find the reference now. So, take this with a grain of salt or a starting point for your own research :)

More people read those blog posts as entertainment than use the recipe.

I'm not sure how a section of information that is often largely irrelevant to the recipe (despite mentioning a few key terms) is going to be a valuable SEO practise.

I assume people are trying to be the next online cooking personality who gets to publish a book. I've seen a couple in shops with pictures of YouTube recipe demonstration people on the cover.

Also, more text is more "content" to mix adverts into.

> I assume people are trying to be the next online cooking personality who gets to publish a book.

I just assume that they associate recipes and foods with times and places and people (generally happily) and it's akin to "do you remember that time mother cooked weasel?" kind of conversations you'd have with people, except on a blog.

That it probably the case for those that are put together more as a blog for friends and family to peruse.

But a lot of the sites I've seen don't feel that way. They feel like they are desperately trying to feel that way though (the old "sincerity is key: once you can fake it you win" skit).

> Also, more text is more "content" to mix adverts into.

Ah, yes. Of course. This is the most plausible explanation IMO.

Something I read a couple of weeks ago discussed this. From what I remember it’s to increase the time a user spends on a page, this increases the page ranking in Google; ISTR it was called dwell time.

ISTR = I Seem To Recall(?)

Acronym expanded for the benefit of anyone else who's browsing HN before coffee and would have taken a similarly embarrassing length of time to infer the likely meaning of this one, which I'd never seen before.

I've always known is as "I Seem To Remember" and I thought it was in common use. It's been around for as long as I can remember, apologies for assuming.