Mac-based or online recipe database?

October 7, 2004 6:09 PM

CookingFilter redux: It sure would be nice to have a computerized database of all our recipes, something both my wife and I could use. What's the best Mac-based solution? Or, better yet, are there good web-based solutions? I'm not opposed to paying a few bucks a year to maintain a database of recipes, but I'd balk at a few bucks a month.
posted by jdroth to Computers & Internet (7 answers total)

I've tried Yum! and it seems to be pretty good. However, we have so many cookbooks in the house that we use all the time that I gave up on entering recipes in yum and now just keep a text file of favorite recipes and their location.
posted by ursus_comiter at 6:14 PM on October 7, 2004

For years and years I have used MasterCook, first on a Mac, then on a PC. But it's sort of gone dead. You can still buy it, but apparently the company who presently owns the title is not doing anything to keep it going.

You'll find a lot of recipe sites, USENET groups, etc. where MasterCook was the default app for recipes. There was another one years ago, too, but I have forgotten the name of it.
posted by briank at 6:23 PM on October 7, 2004

Response by poster: I'm downloading MacGourmet, which looks promising. Do any of you have experience with it?
posted by jdroth at 6:28 PM on October 7, 2004

It's not web-based, but have you considered using Notational Velocity to store your recipes? They would be keyword-searchable and you aren't tied to any particular schema in terms of how you format recipes and instructions, and the whole thing exports into plain old text files for sharing with friends. I find myself putting more and more of this sort of scrap information into NV.
posted by majick at 6:38 PM on October 7, 2004 [1 favorite]

I'm also interested in this. MacGourmet looks interesting, especially if the web-page-import functionality works well. What I really want in this kind of software is ingredient-based searching (e.g. I've got beets and chicken lying around that I need to use before it spoils. What can I make?).
posted by mkultra at 7:00 AM on October 8, 2004

mkultra, I can't help you with the meat side, but vegweb has a great index of vegetarian dishes that is searchable by ingredient.

We made a great pumpkin and potato curry over the weekend with help from vegweb.
posted by ursus_comiter at 7:49 AM on October 8, 2004

What about using MT (or your favorite free alternative)?
posted by rschroed at 9:30 AM on October 8, 2004