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Food-Related Software


Matthew Grant

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Can anybody recommend some good food related software? I am specifically interested in a database that will be able to save the recipes I have collected or devised over time and allow searches by various criteria.

Is there any other food related software people can recommend?

"Why would we want Children? What do they know about food?"

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As a database for recipes, you might want to consider the following package:

RecipeCenter Software.

You can download an evaluation copy for free.

Come to think of it, if there is enough interest on this board, we should invite the guys from this company to discuss the possible enhancements, as i definitely see the potential in their software.

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I am very happy with my Mastercook software - have used for 4+ years. I have slowly been inputting all my favorites and editing away. You can search by category, ingredient, etc. Relatively easy to learn and use.

Now, when I finish reading a food magazine, I go back through, find the recipes I want, go to their website and cut and paste into my Mastercook. Then I take the magazine to work and leave in the kitchen to be recycled.

Good luck! :biggrin:

Well, butter my b--- and call me a biscuit!

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  • 1 month later...
  • 4 months later...

Does anyone know of any quality recipe software? I'm looking for something pretty simple in which we could input recipes, thereby eliminating our mounting pile of recipe scraps. I tried to find something on Amazon, and everything I could find looked kind of crappy. Thanks

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There's MasterCook, or the one I use is called Cookin. cookin software They both have recipes, and the cookin software allows you to input recipes, set up new categories and will re-size recipes for you. I have the Mastercook as well, and I find it cumbersome to work with.

Edited by Marlene (log)

Marlene

Practice. Do it over. Get it right.

Mostly, I want people to be as happy eating my food as I am cooking it.

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Thanks! The download site has so many options it is almost overwhelming.

Marlene: The cookin software was one that I saw on Amazon, but the reviews were poor. I am always dubious of such reports, and it sounds like you have had success. Thanks.

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We're working on something Web-based that may come as a pleasant surprise.

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

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I guess this means I won't be moderating a recipe forum in the near future! On online cookbook sounds really great though!

Marlene

Practice. Do it over. Get it right.

Mostly, I want people to be as happy eating my food as I am cooking it.

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I'm not independently wealthy, and I don't have an abundance of free time. However, I was intrigued by this project.

I can't help posting an early sneak peak. Don't expect to see this for real for a number of weeks or even months.

Here is how a typical recipe looks:

fcb7001c.gif

This is the same recipe, but in editing mode:

fcb70018.gif

Tonite's project is the search page:

fcb6ee51.gif

Please consider this vaporware until we work out the remaining software and server issues.

Edited by vengroff (log)

Chief Scientist / Amateur Cook

MadVal, Seattle, WA

Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code

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Cool, cool, cool! Can I assume we will be able to create our own personal cookbooks by both submitting our own recipes and flagging/including recipes that others contribute? Sort of like "My Favorite Recipes"?

A few other pie-in-the-sky wish list features:

- The ability to indicate ingredient amounts in both volume and weight (cups and grams) simultaneously.

- The ability to scale a recipe (1/2, 2X, 1/4)

- A field for special equipment needed (baking pan, tureen mold, madoline, deep fryer, smoker, etc.)

- recipe categories (appetizers, cocktails, entrees, vegetables, desserts, etc.)

Of course it looks like what you've built will be wonderful even without these extra features. Thanks so much for taking this on! :smile:

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The fact that the Powers That Be are willing to tackle this, plus the new look of TDG, the Q & A's, lead me to wonder how they even have time to work for $. They are to be commended for dedication to this and the many other things on their plates. Remember, there are plenty of people who could and would volunteer to help with the mundane aspects of this; just ask.

Susan Fahning aka "snowangel"
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Sweet! Can I help out in any way?

Absolutely. There will be a beta test period before it goes public. It could also perhaps benefit from a little design work, and of course, someone will have to enter the recipes that have already appeared in threads on the site. To make this easier, I'm going to try to build a recipe parser that can take a recipe in plain text and get an 85-90% accurate version into the db.

Chief Scientist / Amateur Cook

MadVal, Seattle, WA

Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code

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Count me in to do any editing/typing of recipes.

Anna N

Anna Nielsen aka "Anna N"

...I just let people know about something I made for supper that they might enjoy, too. That's all it is. (Nigel Slater)

"Cooking is about doing the best with what you have . . . and succeeding." John Thorne

Our 2012 (Kerry Beal and me) Blog

My 2004 eG Blog

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Exceedingly cool.

Will it also allow the entry of links to favorite copyrighted recipes on other sites, which would turn up in keyword and category searches, and, similarly, references to recipes in cookbooks by title/edition/page?

A little more work on this and you'll be able to sell it instead of donating it.

"To Serve Man"

-- Favorite Twilight Zone cookbook

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If you could figure out a way to do this, it would be nice to have a section where members could add variations or notes about preparation (i.e. "I tried this recipe but used pork rather than lamb" or "if you blanch the beans before sauteeing, they seem to retain more color").

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The fact that the Powers That Be are willing to tackle this, plus the new look of TDG, the Q & A's, lead me to wonder how they even have time to work for $.

While logged in to eGullet, part of your computer's processing power is accessed by the eGullet Mysterious Orb in geosynchronous orbit and is sold to fast food chains to run their cash registers and other computerized equipment. A nice bit of proprietary software registers the kinetic energy of your keystrokes and coverts that into wattage that keeps the heat lamps and steam tables burning. So you can see that the site pays for itself and gives a nice little daily wage to the Super Admins. Both Jason and Steve are currently monitoring the site by brainwaves while they float submerged in osetra caviar in mother of pearl-lined solid gold eggs.

So stay logged in and keep typing. We're trying a system upgrade to beluga caviar.

You're welcome.

"I've caught you Richardson, stuffing spit-backs in your vile maw. 'Let tomorrow's omelets go empty,' is that your fucking attitude?" -E. B. Farnum

"Behold, I teach you the ubermunch. The ubermunch is the meaning of the earth. Let your will say: the ubermunch shall be the meaning of the earth!" -Fritzy N.

"It's okay to like celery more than yogurt, but it's not okay to think that batter is yogurt."

Serving fine and fresh gratuitous comments since Oct 5 2001, 09:53 PM

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My dream feature of a recipe software is to allow the storage of references to the recipes/ingredients in the cookbooks. I have the Word file on my laptop, where i type in some notes as i go through a cookbook, but as the file grows i'd like to have more sophisticated search capabilities.

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