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Published on 5/16/08
Published on 5/17/08
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Cookthink.com
Site specifics Have a particular craving? Recipe resource Cookthink is modeled after music site Pandora and its Music Genome Project. Cookthink gives cooks with a particular urge—whether it’s cleaning out the refrigerator or eating something spicy—the ability to search by ingredient, dish, cuisine or mood. The site’s Recipe Mapping Project, which considers things such as texture and taste, tries to match results to craving.
Does it compute? Cookthink wasn’t much help with a bowl of leftover mashed potatoes. We clicked on tangy in the mood category, which returned a recipe for a tuna, green bean and potato salad. Tangy, yes; but the potatoes in the recipe aren’t mashed. However, a quest for asparagus ideas got some mouth-watering results. Our favorite feature is that tips related to your search appear alongside results, such as how to cube a potato or the best way to slice a mango.
Supercook.com
Site specifics Supercook was created for home chefs who don’t want to run out to the grocery store every time they try a new recipe. Users search for recipes by typing in ingredients, spices and condiments they have on hand. With each item entered, Supercook recommends recipes, just as MP3 sites suggest bands similar to ones originally searched for. Most results feature a photo of each dish and a list of other ingredients required, so you know whether a recipe is worth reading before you click on it.
Does it compute? We were wondering what to do with the last bit of napa cabbage in the fridge. Supercook recognized only the word cabbage and returned a slew of slaw recipes. But it found 859 things to do with blue cheese. We also like that results can be sorted by course, such as starter, entrée or dessert.
TasteBook.com
Site specifics Cooks who seek a more physical relationship with their favorite recipes can turn to TasteBook, a site with features similar to iTunes’ Smart Playlists. Users drag and drop recipes from TasteBook’s library—which links to Epicurious.com as well as other sites—into their books, or type in their own. Next, they choose cover art and photos to create spiral-bound cookbooks ($34.95 for 100 recipes), which the site then mails. The books are archived online, so you can add or remove recipes at will.
Does it compute? A cumbersome tip box kept interrupting navigation, but a search for chilled soup resulted in almost 200 recipes from some of our favorite food mags. And if the idea of accumulating 100 recipes is daunting, you can create a book of any number; but since you’re paying for 100, the leftovers are stored as credit for your next masterpiece.
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