Alternatives to Cooking NYT
September 4, 2017 1:42 PM   Subscribe

Cooking NYT has gone paywall. Sad! Are there alternatives that will work as well for me, or should I pony up the $?

I'd been using the Cooking NYT site extensively since it launched - Mr. just_ducky and I cook at least one new recipe every week. Things that I like about the site:
-LOTS of recipes
-good diversity of cuisines and types of dishes (appies, main course, dessert etc)
-recipes from well-known and competent chefs
-easy interface and ability to save recipes to my profile
-being able to mark something as cooked

Things I am not interested in:
-websites that have articles, videos, lifestyle sections in addition to recipes
-recipes that aren't quality-controlled
-narrow cuisine focus
-paying money if I don't have to
-phone apps (I do all my meal planning at home, using my laptop)

Are there other free cooking websites out there that can functionally replace what I love about Cooking NYT, or should I just pay for it? It's $7/month CDN, which seems pricey to me.
posted by just_ducky to Food & Drink (14 answers total) 15 users marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: The Guardian isn't paywalled and their cooking section is very good.
posted by mumimor at 1:44 PM on September 4, 2017 [1 favorite]


Best answer: epicurious?
posted by anthropomorphic at 1:45 PM on September 4, 2017 [3 favorites]


Pay for it. You liked it before. Continue to like it. Things like it only exist if people pay for them.
posted by durandal at 1:49 PM on September 4, 2017 [36 favorites]


I'd been using the Cooking NYT site extensively since it launched - Mr. just_ducky and I cook at least one new recipe every week.

So let's say you make 5 different recipes a month (just slightly over one a week), for 2 people each — 10 meals. That's 70 cents per meal, or $1.40 per recipe. If you can find something just as good for free, by all means use that instead. But if the NYT site is even marginally better than the alternative, that could mean you get more out of the stuff you get at the grocery store; you don't waste as much food; you maybe eat a little healthier because you're more motivated to cook at home. If you get those overall benefits, the site could easily pay for itself. And if the site even occasionally motivates you to eat at home instead of going to a pricey restaurant, well, then the frugal choice would be pretty clear.
posted by John Cohen at 1:58 PM on September 4, 2017 [5 favorites]


Best answer: There isn't a recipe site quite like Serious Eats.
posted by ancient star at 2:10 PM on September 4, 2017 [10 favorites]


Everything I've ever made from Smitten Kitchen has been great.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 2:24 PM on September 4, 2017 [8 favorites]


Though I concur with those advising you to pay for the content, I find the recipes on the Martha Stewart (and sometimes the Food Network) websites reliable as well.
posted by mosst at 2:43 PM on September 4, 2017


The BBC food website is really good and has a widget where you can put in ingredients and it will spit out recipes (handy for cleaning out the fridge). Also, please don't talk like the POTUS here, it's not 'sad', it's just 'gross', esp when you consider all the racist, homophobic, and xenophobic bullshit that usually precedes the 'sad!'
posted by sexyrobot at 2:58 PM on September 4, 2017 [2 favorites]


$7 a month is probably how much you spend on a latte. Given you care enough to write a AskMe question, in which explain how much you love making recipes from it, I think this is probably a very good $7 you can spend.
posted by pando11 at 3:00 PM on September 4, 2017 [2 favorites]


Response by poster: Thanks, all! I am going to try Epicurious, Serious Eats and the Guardian for a bit. Then if I am still missing NYT, I will indeed pay and subscribe.

(I already looooooove Smitten Kitchen :))
posted by just_ducky at 3:11 PM on September 4, 2017


I really like food52.com and smitten kitchen. Try those!
posted by vivzan at 3:24 PM on September 4, 2017


Your public library may allow you to access the nyt online for free if you have a card.
posted by brujita at 4:31 PM on September 4, 2017


Seconding food52, smitten kitchen, epicurious, and Guardian Food (especially Felicity Cloake). I find BBC Good Food hit or miss, though worth it to look at, along with Jamie Oliver.
posted by nonmerci at 6:10 AM on September 5, 2017


David Lebovitz and Ina Garten (Barefoot Contessa) are the only sites besides Smitten Kitchen where I like pretty much every single recipe. David Leboviz posts about other stuff, too, but you can bypass* all that and go directly to his recipes.

I save recipes I want to keep on Pinterest.

*Having said that, though, he's also the only blog that I find myself reading every single thing he posts, whether it's a recipe or not.
posted by MexicanYenta at 9:35 AM on September 5, 2017 [2 favorites]


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