Recipe Software - what do you use?

[MollyGrubbles]

Hi All,

I am curious if anyone else here uses recipe software (bigoven, living cookbook, mastercook etc).  I have noticed a couple of references to it in various posts, but could not find a topic dedicated to this subject.

At the moment, I am using the trial version of Living Cookbook (http://www.livingcookbook.com) but before I commit to buying anything, I am interested to find out what others are using & how it is working for them.

Living Cookbook seems to be a little laborious to put the recipes into, but once they are in, it can do meal plans, shopping lists, nutritional information for each recipe, and lots of other stuff, much of which I am still discovering.

Any help/reviews that you can provide would be welcome.  I am also happy to answer any questions about living cookbook if anyone is interested in that.

Molly

[cookie1]

I'm afraid I'm so modern that all I do is print out recipes and file them.  I guess that's my 'mature' age showing. Also the computer is in another room and I'm the Mother of the owner.  Really don't know what I'm going to do when she builds her house.  I do own a laptop but don't connect it to the internet.

Sorry I can't be of any help.

[Amanda]

Hello Molly!
Up until last year, when I bought an Apple Mac, I used a great little program called Accuchef.
http://www.accuchef.com/
I used it for many years and would still, if they offered a Mac version.  It is very cheap - only $20 and has loads of features, including very easy recipe importing.
They also offer a trial version so give it a go.
If anyone has any ideas on a good Mac recipe program I'm all ears!

[vivacity]

I use Living Kitchen. I love it. When I find something on the Internet, I just open Living Kitchen, click on the relevant cookbook and then click on "new recipe". I then "capture" the recipe in a matter of seconds. The programme is brilliant. No more notes all over the kitchen and I can see my cook books grow. Plus I can just print out the recipes for people who would like a particular recipe. I'm thinking of compiling a book of my favourite recipes for my sister for Christmas with a few photos to make it more personal.

[brazen20au]

vivacity, i can't find that one, do you have a link for it? (or is it actually the living cookbook mentioned above?)

[MollyGrubbles]

Hi Vivacity,

I also can't find that one, but it does sound a lot like Living Cookbook.

I only just realised that there was a "capture" feature (just after I posted the topic).  Prior to this I had been entering each title, ingredient and process step seperately.  No wonder I found it laborious 

[Amanda]

I've just had a look at Living Cookbook - it looks fantastic and I'd love to try it but sadly it is not for Mac's.
Bum!

[MollyGrubbles]

Hi Amanda,

Have you looked at any of these?

MacGourmet           http://macgourmet.com/ 
A Cook's Books       http://www.3caam.com/products.html
ShopNCook            http://www.shopncook.com/

From what I can gather, these seem to be the 3 most popular recipe organisers for Mac users & seem to have similar capability to Living Cookbook.

This site also has a list of recipe software with a little blurb about each, but it doesn't seem to actually review them - just an overview of what each can do:

http://www.pure-mac.com/recipes.html

There is also software you can get to have 'virtual windows' on your mac, which means a lot of windows programs will then work for you, however I don't think it comes cheap.

[vivacity]

Doooohhhhh. I'm such a nerdbrain. Of course, I meant Living Cookbook

[Amanda]

Thanks for those sites, Molly.  I wil have a look at them.
I had a brief look at Macgourmet, but wasn't really inspired - especially after seeing Living Cookbook!
I also saw the 'virtual windows' thingys but you a right - can be fairly pricey!

[I Love Bimby!]

Thanks for your suggestions. Do these come in imperial and metric versions or just one?? I had thought someone, somewhere posted that living cookbook was imperial measurements and I don't want to invest if it doesn't do metric.

Thanks

[brazen20au]

i have just checked that ILB and it does metric - sort of. so it changed oz to grams in some spots but not others and a pint stayed at a pint. (but is also in cups too)

[I Love Bimby!]

Thanks Brazen. 
  If I invest the time and $ then I want it to be tmx and metric friendly - my Grandfather would be appalled but how much is a pint??

[brazen20au]

my mum has a pint jug and i'm thinking it's a little less than a litre. have you googled?

PS: a pint is a very old and not so common measurement

[I Love Bimby!]

No I haven't - it was more a point that I don't know my imperial measurements