There appears to have been a change between 3.7x and at least one 3.6x versions in handling preparation time.
It was possible to add \0m\ to a recipe to force a crafted item to be placed on the ground when made, handy for heavy items like logs. In 3.7x this instruction is silently ignored mean several keypresses need to done to drop the object(s). It seems now to need \1m\ to force the drop on completion but the you cannot do anything with the item until the time has elapsed.
I am not sure if this a bug or was a bug that is fixed, or is it a feature? Before wasting time with a bug report I thought it best to canvas opinions of modders.