Main Area and Open Discussion > General Software Discussion

What's the best program for cooking and recipe management?

<< < (3/3)

iphigenie:
A relatively unexplored category!  :) I'm thinking a must-have feature for a software like this would be to connect to an online repository and contribute or download specific recipes to the local database with ability to modify it further.
-nosh (January 17, 2008, 02:31 AM)
--- End quote ---
That would be incredibly useful! There are so many great foodblogs out there but no really easy way to do advanced searches across many of them. I get hungry just by thinking about how much more good food I could've eaten with such a tool at hand!  ;D
-Nod5 (January 17, 2008, 11:37 AM)
--- End quote ---

It is one of my projects that always gets put off to do a website app which is a recipe organiser, sharing etc.

The bit I had started on was a recipe "scanner" that would try to recognise patterns. This is so a recipe could then be automatically put in a structure when being stored, and then it can be displayed in a choice of languages or styles. This is all I ever started but maybe, one day...

app103:
There is no standard 'recipe format' that could be compatible with all software. I wish there was. Then we could all swap recipe files and they could work in anything written to use it. It would also make it easier to import recipes from websites if they all followed some sort of standard.

Like there is a standard for the xml PAD files, there should be a standard for xml recipe files. I don't know why there isn't already.

The whole idea of being able to create a recipe database on my home pc, consisting of the 20 years of creations I have concocted, really appeals to me. It would make having that pc in my kitchen make more sense.

This is something I have given a lot of thought to, and I do plan on writing my own software to do it at some point in the very distant future.

There are certain features I feel an application MUST have, if it is going to be something I will be happy with, long term.


* must be able to import/export recipes in some sort of agreed upon standard format

* must be easy to adjust the yield

* must be easy to convert between metric & imperial measurements

* must include a menu planner

* must include a shopping list builder

* must be searchable by ingredient/type, capable of handling multiple search terms, and displaying the results in a ranked list (such as "cookies cocoa shortening" results showing all cookie recipes containing both ingredients as ranked higher than cake with the 2 ingredients, or cookies with only 1 of the ingredients)

* must include an ingredient substitution database (if you don't have a cup of buttermilk, there should be a way to select an alternative)
These are just off the top of my head, but I wouldn't really want to create anything that didn't have those features, nor would I ever want to spend money on another recipe application that didn't have them.

KenR:
My wife has used Masterpiece for a long time. It has been revised numerous times and is quite polished. To name just a few features: it will make shopping lists, you can print the instructions for a recipe to cook from, and you can cook things in the recipe database it includes or add your own recipes. The cost is very reasonable and you can usually buy it off the shelf for under $20 NOT on sale.

Ken

johnfdeluca:
I did a mini-review of CookingAction over in the minireview section https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=11902.msg97240

dspelley:
For me it's BigOven http://www.bigoven.com/. Gives access to a large online database of recipe's searchable by cuisine, main ingredient, etc. New recipe's are always being added and rated by an active user group.

Can import recipes from several of the standard recipe formats (MealMaster, MasterCook, etc).

Easy menu planning by dragging recipies onto built-in calendar. Drag recipes onto shopping list.

Enter a list of a few leftover foods and it can find recipes you can make from those items.

Starter version is about $10. Full version is about $30.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[*] Previous page