Whether you love to cook or you just love to eat, odds are you have a collection of dishes and recipes you'd like to try. Maybe you have a bunch handed down from a loved one. In either case, you probably need a better method to keep them organized for the long haul than a bunch of index cards in a file folder. Here are some of the best apps for you, depending on the kind of recipe collection you have.
- Best Recipe Book App For Mac
- Best Database App For Mac
- Free Apps For Books
- Recipe Book App For Mac
- Recipe Book App For Windows
- Address Book App For Mac
- Recipe Book App For Pc
- Paprika is an app that helps you organize your recipes, make meal plans, and create grocery lists. Using Paprika's built-in browser, you can save recipes from anywhere on the web.
- The updated version of Indian Recipe app includes more palatable Indian dishes like samosa recipes, pickles, special holiday recipes, Indian fry-bread, Indian paneer, Indian fish recipes, Indian chicken recipes, and many more.
The easiest way to organize your recipes. Recipe Keeper is the quick and easy way to collect, organize and share all your favorite recipes across your mobile, tablet, PC and Mac.
We've covered a number of recipe managers and organization tools in the past. This time though we're taking a look at some specific tools just right for your needs, whether you like to take your tablet into the kitchen or you have boxes of hand-written recipes you want to save for future generations.
Advertisement Google chrome mac.
Five Best Recipe Managers
Traditionally recipes were stored in a recipe box tucked in the cupboard, but times change and…
Read more Best Recipe Book App For Mac
Read![Apps Apps](/uploads/1/3/3/8/133895674/809795625.png)
For Importing Old, Hand-Written Recipes: BigOven
If you're looking for a recipe organizer because you need something to bridge the paper and electronic divide, BigOven (Web/iOS/Android/Windows Phone) is the service for you. It's been around for a while, but it still boasts a recipe library over 250,000 strong, and it's still a fantastic way to combine recipes from around the web with those old, hand-written recipes you may have stuffed between pages in a cookbook. BigOven is free to join, but to get the best features out of it, you'll need to pony up $2.50/mo or $20/yr for a Pro membership.
Advertisement
Being a Pro member gives you access to BigOven's recipe scanner, which lets you take photos of your cookbooks, hand-written note cards, and other printed out recipes and add them to your collection thanks to a combination of optical character recognition (OCR) and real people behind the scenes reviewing the scans. However, they're not free, even with a Pro membership. Signing up for Pro gets you 25 free scans, but after that they're generally a dollar per scan. That can add up if you have a lot of recipes to enter, but then again, you can enter them manually if you prefer. You have to ask, which is more valuable, the time or the money?
Beyond that though, Pro memberships come with other bonuses (nutritional information, BigOven's web clipper-which admittedly is a free feature on almost any other site, and private notes) as well. Plus, for as well as it works on the web, BigOven also has iOS, Android, and Windows Phone apps to let you take your collection on the go.
Advertisement
For the Web Clipper or Pinterest Junkie: ChefTap or Paprika
If the bulk of your saved recipes are already available online or you have them pinned to other sites (like Pinterest), consider previously mentioned ChefTap (Web/Android) or Paprika (Mac/iOS/Android). Both make it easy to pull in recipes from other sites. ChefTap can import an entire pinboard full of linked recipes and dishes in three taps, and Paprika has a built-in browser you can use to import recipes from your pinboards or favorite blogs.
Advertisement
ChefTap for Android Turns Your Phone into a Cooking Companion
Android: There's no shortage of mobile apps that allow you to look up recipes, bookmark them,…
![Recipe Book App For Mac Recipe Book App For Mac](/uploads/1/3/3/8/133895674/744285994.jpg)
ChefTap is free, and works great on Android phones and tablets as well as on the desktop. Clipping recipes from around the web is easy, and you can edit them later. It's smart enough to pull the recipe out of even long blog articles, and works on any site or blog—something a lot of recipe apps can't claim. It'll tag and organize your recipes, make them easy to find by search later, and has a large-print 'kitchen view' if you want to take your device into the kitchen with you.
Advertisement Free app for mac.
Paprika recently launched an Android version of its well regarded iOS and Mac apps. Clipping recipes from the web thanks to its built-in browser is easy, and then syncs those recipes to the cloud so you can get back to them on any of your devices. Organizing your recipes into folders or notebooks is a drag-and-drop affair, and Paprika can even make grocery lists out of those recipes that you can take to the store with you. The only downside to Paprika is its price. It's $20 for the Mac, $5 for the iPhone, $5 for the iPad (no, it's not a universal app), and $5 for Android. You'll have to buy a version for each device you want to use it with.
For the Tablet Cook: Basil or Pepperplate
Advertisement
If you like to take your tablet to the kitchen while you cook, consider Basil (iPad) or Pepperplate (iOS/Android/WIndows 8/Windows Phone/Nook). Basil has a laundry list of sites that it supports one-touch imports from, including some of our favorites like CHOW, Bon Appetit, and Serious Eats. It's also designed to be used in the kitchen, with bright backgrounds and black text, built-in timers, and large photos. Pepperplate includes built-in kitchen timers, large, easy-to-read displays while you're cooking, and offline access so you don't need connectivity while you cook.
Basil is iPad only (and $3 at iTunes). Basil doesn't just clip your recipes, it also organizes them by ingredient, tags them automatically, and makes them easy to find. In effect, it turns your recipes into a personal cookbook that's easy to browse and search whenever you're in the mood for something or you have a specific ingredient you have to work with. It even converts units, scales recipes up or down for you, and any step in a recipe with a time attached automatically becomes a timer.
Advertisement
Pepperplate on the other hand supports a broad variety of devices, and has huge tablet views and built-in timers to help you out while you're in the kitchen trying to make your mom's chicken soup from the recipe you just digitized. It goes beyond recipes though, and includes a fully-featured meal planner, recipe search tool, and tools to build grocery lists based on your meal plan or the recipes you want to make on a given week.
For Complete Control: Evernote/Evernote Food or Springpad
Advertisement
If you're looking for total control over your recipe collection, give Evernote or its food-centric spinoff Evernote Food (Web/iOS/Android) a try. Similarly, Springpad (Web/iOS/Android) takes a very visual approach to saving recipes in a virtual 'recipe box,' and it even organizes them for you so they're easy to search and browse. While other methods focus on building cookbooks and specifically organizing recipes, these tools work for a variety of other things as well as food, and make your data a bit more portable, available on more devices, and cost less to use.
Evernote is already a great place to save your recipes, since you can enter text or clip items from the web extremely easy thanks to its web clipper. You can organize your own notebooks however you choose. Evernote Food for iOS and Android takes this up a notch by encouraging you to take pictures and upload your own recipes to your personal 'cookbook.' You can also use that cookbook as a jumping off point to explore new recipes from other users.
Advertisement
Springpad is a little more robust in this regard, and is actually our preferred option between the two when it comes to clipping recipes. The interface is a bit more suited for recipes, and the Springpad web clipper can tell a recipe from an article or a bookmark. It'll auto-populate your clipping with ingredients and step-by-step instructions, and then leaves you to tag it, add photos, and save it. Once you do, it'll even look up a wine pairing that would go well with the dish and add it to your saved recipe, automatically.
Should I Use Springpad or Evernote?
Dear Lifehacker, I'm looking for an app to help me get organized, and a lot of my friends use …
Read more ReadAdvertisement
These tools are just the beginning. You could just go 'text files in Dropbox' if you don't want to bother with any of these, but there's something great about having your recipes neatly organized, complete with pictures, ingredients, nutrition information, and more. We think these are a great start, depending on the type of home cook you are, and what you need to organize.
Best Database App For Mac
Title photo made using Simone Andress (Shutterstock), McCarthy, and Chiot's Run.
Advertisement
Traditionally recipes were stored in a recipe box tucked in the cupboard, but times change and technology accelerates the process. Check out the interesting ways your fellow readers store their recipes. Photo by deby roby.
Earlier this week we asked you to share your favorite recipe organization tools. We're back with the votes tallied to share the top five tools Lifehacker readers use to organize, share, and get the most out of their recipes.
Advertisement
Free Apps For Books
Best Recipe Organizer?
Recipe Book App For Mac
In honor of Food Week and the overwhelming number of requests we've received on this topic, we …
Read more ReadPaper (Binders, Notebooks, 3x5 Cards)
Advertisement
Recipe Book App For Windows
Traditionalists rejoice! Despite the creep of technology into all realms of our lives, many of you have eschewed search-friendly text, embeddable images, and virtual recipe sharing for storing your recipes traditionally on paper. Not all of you hand wrote your recipes—some printed and stored them—but there is a certain intimacy that comes with keeping handwritten recipes that some of you haven't abandoned. The votes for paper-based systems were scattered among 3-ring binders, bound notebooks, and 3x5 cards. Paper is an excellent and timeless choice for those wanting to avoid whisking an egg all over your laptop screen. Photo by Pink Sherbet Photography.
AllRecipes (Web-Based, Basic Membership: Free/Supporting Membership: $17.50/year)
Advertisement
Where SousChef and BigOven shine with their powerful software, AllRecipes astounds with a huge and diverse web site containing recipes, how-to videos, and more. You don't need to register to browse the recipes, featured recipe collections, and informational videos and articles, but signing up for an account does enable quite a few features if you'd like to use AllRecipes as your virtual recipe box. With the basic membership you can submit recipes, upload photos of your tasty dishes, rate and review recipes, save recipes to a virtual recipe box, and create shopping lists based on the recipes you want to whip up. Upgrading to the rather reasonably priced supporting membership enables you to further customize and edit your recipes as well as create a personal food blog with a vanity URL. AllrRecipes is a frequent destination for people when they first start searching the web for new recipes, and many folks sign up to take advantage of the abundant recipes and start adding their own.
SousChef (Mac, $30)
Advertisement
If index cards sprinkled with powdered sugar is the way great grandparents across the land kept their recipes organized, SousChef is the way their techno-savvy grandchildren do it. All the recipes you enter into this app are stored in an enormous 90,000+ SousChef recipe cloud—you can opt out of sharing recipes on a global or individual basis to protect family secrets. If you're willing to take the time to input what you have in your fridge and pantry, SousChef will rank recipes based on what you can make with what you have, followed by recipes that require the least ingredients. Astounded that someone would put their MacBook on the same counter cooking oil and flour were being slopped around? SousChef has has a ten-foot mode that combines an enlarged and easy to read display with remote control either by voice commands or by using an Apple or Keyspan Front Row remote. SousChef also maintains a database of substitutions to help you squeeze some mileage out of your current pantry contents without a trip to the store. It also sports easy importing of web-based recipes.
Address Book App For Mac
Evernote (Windows/Mac/Mobile Platforms, Basic: Free / Premium: $45/year)
Recipe Book App For Pc
Advertisement
What don't Lifehacker readers use Evernote for? It crops up in the most interesting places and apparently lives up to its promise to help you remember everything—even cookie recipes. Many of you already use Evernote for all your note-taking and capture needs, so it's only natural you'd leverage familiarity coupled with Evernote's excellent text recognition and note tagging to turn it into a take anywhere, use anywhere recipe book. While Evernote offers a premium account, if you're experimenting with it as a flexible recipe book only, you likely won't need more upload allowance than the free account provides. Evernote's desktop client is available for Windows and Mac, and its mobile client is available for iPhone, Palm-Pre, Blackberry, and Windows Mobile.
Big Oven (Web-Based/Windows/Mobile Platforms, $30)
Advertisement
BigOven is an enormous, 170,000+ recipe database that plugs directly into the BigOven Windows and mobile software. If you read over the features of SousChef and muttered about how Mac folks always have the flashy toys, don't despair: BigOven is a recipe tool for Windows that stands quite strongly on its own. Even if you don't use the software, you can still search and browse the BigOven website for free. If you're serious about recipe organization, BigOven offers a host of features, including nutritional calculations, an integrated meal planning calendar, and easy capture for importing recipes you find on the web. Big Oven can also import recipes from other outside sources, including popular cookbook database formats. Its drag-and-drop shopping list generator will also save you time on your way to the grocery store. Apart from the online database and the Windows software, Big Oven also offers free companion applications that enable syncing with Windows Mobile, Palm OS, and the iPhone. It even features a cookbook publishing tool for generating cookbooks to give to friends and family.
Now that you've had a chance to look over the contenders for King of the Recipe Castle, it's time to cast your vote in the poll below:
Advertisement
Best Recipe Manager?(trends)
Have a strong opinion about how recipes should be organized? Shocked that people would share their precious recipes online? Insist on keeping your secret cookie recipes written in cuneiform? Sound off in the comments below with your recipe sharing or hoarding wisdom.
Advertisement