What are recipe votes based on?

A recipe on this subreddit receives 42 upvotes, 0 comments.

What do these votes indicate? that 41 people tried the recipe and liked it or that 41 read the recipe and would consider trying it because it sounds (reads actually) tasty?

If the latter is true, then it'd seem that choosing what recipe to go with based on voting is not a good way, as it's only an indication of what people think might be good. do you get me? so in that instance, how DO you find recipes that were rated based on people trying em and liking them?

bon appetit