8 ms·
Ask HN: Best Recipe Search Engine?
Is there a "Product Hunt for recipes"?
I want to be able to filter by time to make and by ingredients required.
- freddieoduks 6y agoBBC Good Food is usually my go to, they have categories like quick recipes (https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/collection/quick-recipes https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/collection/quick-recipes) and you can search for by ingredients. Could definitely be improved but is decent.
- mataug 6y agoYour mention of BBC Good Food reminded me of this hilarious video on their egg-fried rice recipe https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53me-ICi_f8&vl=en https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53me-ICi_f8&vl=en
- dairylee 6y agoThat recipe is from BBC Food which isn't related to BBC Good Food. > BBC Food is not related to the monthly magazine and media brand BBC Good Food, which was acquired by Immediate Media Company in 2018
- samschooler 6y agohttps://www.yummly.com/ https://www.yummly.com/ seems to be the one that is the best meta search version, in that it searches thousands of sites. Although this comes with some quality issues.
- freediver 6y agoI use https://www.reddit.com/r/GifRecipes/ https://www.reddit.com/r/GifRecipes/
- thebenedict 6y agoIf you'd consider an (inexpensive) paid option, https://www.ckbk.com/ https://www.ckbk.com/ takes an interesting approach. They partner with publishers to put cookbooks online. Fairly powerful search/filters, and the focus on cookbook content is a good proxy for recipe quality. I'm not affiliated with them, but Matt (cofounder) has a background in scientific publishing and is passionate about recipe sharing.
- rdtwo 6y agoAre they verified recipes? I’ve found that a lot of books just stole recipe and never tested similar to how online does it now. Also lots of recipes are needlessly complex
- basch 6y agoNot the answer you are looking for, but I use https://cse.google.com/ https://cse.google.com/ and whitelist the places I like. IBM Chef Watson was also pretty amazing sometimes, I really wish they hadnt deprecated it.
- Minor49er 6y agoSupercook lets you search by what you already have at home. I just used it to learn about apple puff pancakes. https://www.supercook.com https://www.supercook.com
- bovermyer 6y agoI'll second this. Great resource.
- mgradowski 6y agoI (as a vegetarian) sometimes use https://vegfaqs.com/high-protein-vegan-recipes/ https://vegfaqs.com/high-protein-vegan-recipes/ You can filter by meal type and sort by macros.
- captn3m0 6y agoHere's my favorite one: http://www.beyondloom.com/things/reciprocity.html http://www.beyondloom.com/things/reciprocity.html Works like magic, for most recipes I've tried.
- Finnucane 6y agoThe guesses it makes when it doesn't know a recipe are hilarious. I've never used head cheese in a chocolate mousse, but hey, who knows.
- faike 6y agoIf you're interested in Cocktail recipes Sphynx catalogues recipes from Instagram and cocktail books. (Built by yours truly) sphynx.page.link/get
- icey 6y agoSemi-related, but can anyone recommend a website for cocktail recipes?
- caseyf 6y agohttps://kindredcocktails.com https://kindredcocktails.com is amazing!
- rubidium 6y agohttps://www.gumbopages.com/food/beverages/index.html https://www.gumbopages.com/food/beverages/index.html
- peterwwillis 6y agoBuy this book. It's amazing. It might be my favorite book. It's entirely utilitarian in simplicity and proportions, yet also provides really interesting history and knowledge, and looks nice on a shelf. Anyone who drinks should own this book. https://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Bar-Book-Comprehensive-Cocktails/dp/0811843513 https://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Bar-Book-Comprehensive-Cockt... (Just don't buy it from Amazon and you'll save $10)
- jka 6y agoI'd welcome feedback on https://www.reciperadar.com https://www.reciperadar.com which is an open source recipe search & meal planning that I've been working on. ~100k recipes, search by ingredients (and kitchen equipment), and plenty more features planned.
- toast42 6y agoHow can I browse the recipes?
- jka 6y agoAs a fairly intentional design decision, you need to provide context from your kitchen - a search engine query, essentially - before you see results. The concept is that RecipeRadar will ultimately help you track your kitchen inventory (all on your own device; there are no user accounts), and then the search step will disappear into the background - you'll be straight into browsing recipes that match your context. It's not there yet and I'd appreciate hearing about how you like to browse recipes in case that's something else that can be supported.
- nickff 6y agoYou may want to provide 'suggested cupboards', with a limited selection of multi-use ingredients, to show how the app can help make the most of ingredients.
- narak 6y agohttps://www.yummly.com https://www.yummly.com
- beardbound 6y agoI've seen that around. Doesn't yummly require you to install their app to see the actual steps? That was a deal breaker for me. I hate websites that have a page then arbitrarily block content unless you get their app.
- narak 6y agoIt's been years since I've used it. Was a pretty technically sophisticated startup back in the day. Has been since acquired so not surprised it has decayed.
- rgrieselhuber 6y agoMy favorite site for this is Punchfork (https://www.punchfork.com/ https://www.punchfork.com/). It does exactly what you're looking for and the pictures / UX make it very easy to use.
- cjf4 6y agoFor paid options, the best is the ATK/CI site. The reason they're head and shoulders above anything else is quality control. You don't have to worry about a recipe being good or not because they test them so much. Even the NYT, which has more adventurous choices, aren't anywhere near as reliable.
- SkyMarshal 6y agoFor those who don’t know what ATK and CI are: https://www.americastestkitchen.com/ https://www.americastestkitchen.com/ https://www.cooksillustrated.com/ https://www.cooksillustrated.com/
- rdtwo 6y agoI was gonna pay them but between that an the fragmented walled nature of their site I decided not to give them any money. Shame really
- cameron_b 6y agoit really is unfortunate that - especially in this case - the content creators are great at their legacy content model, and terrible at getting it out there as a meaningful digital business. I subscribed happily during and after college. CI is truly a beautiful magazine, with a mix of foundational information and rock solid recipes. It helped me learn to feed myself and know my way around produce beyond "lettuce" etc. Haven't tried their website, so many of their recipes on my shelf, and so many pilfered on other sites as it is.
- momonga 6y agoIt's great until you want to cancel; they require you to call their customer support number to do so.
- mrloba 6y agoI got so pissed off by this that I rang them up right after subscribing and cancelled. At least they lost one customer for it.
- aSockPuppeteer 6y agoTangentially related but use this website to cure the cancer of recipe websites. https://plainoldrecipe.com/ https://plainoldrecipe.com/
- loco5niner 6y agoSimilarly, the paprikaapp.com recipe manager has a built-in browser that does a similar thing.
- cameron_b 6y agoI only wish this were a Pihole plugin A terrible cancer they are
- brainlessdev 6y agoAs far as I remember Ben Awad's https://www.mysaffronapp.com/ https://www.mysaffronapp.com/ has similar cruft-stripping features as well, and can function as a platform to build your own cookbook.
- largolagrande 6y agoThanks! You just made my day ;)
- adwi 6y agoRecipe search that’s never steered me wrong: __[dish name]__ “kenji”
- x87678r 6y agoI just wish http://opensauce.com/ http://opensauce.com/ was still a thing.
- tmaly 6y agoAllrecipes is still my favorite site. For some reason they took down the advanced search. Maybe it is available to pro accounts. You can still filter by ingredients and even specify ingredients to exclude. One of my favorite aspects is the Most Helpful Review. I often find other things I can do to improve upon the recipe in that review.
- kinghtown 6y agoI have a small baked goods business and spend a lot of time doing research. Allrecipes is pretty legit. I still prefer cookbooks over anything else because what’s missing from AR is technique plus many of the most popular recipes will opt for using heavily processed ingredients or mixing in premade food. I don’t think I’ve attempted the most popular Italian recipes on the site but from what I’ve seen they would be pretty good but I would steer you or anyone else to far superior sources such as Italia Squisita and Pasta Grannies on YouTube. But the strength in all recipes as a platform is that people can report in on what substitutions actually work.
- tmaly 6y agoI agree, the substitutions are key. I have found an amazing lasagna recipe on allrecipes. The first time I made it, it was way too salty. The trick was limiting the amount of Parmesan. The other great aspect of allrecipes is the number of reviews. People are really into leaving reviews and ratings. Its not uncommon to find a recipe with several thousand reviews.
- royka118 6y agoI always use Cookpad, Waitrose has a good site too https://cookpad.com https://cookpad.com https://www.waitrose.com/home/recipes.html https://www.waitrose.com/home/recipes.html
- dang 6y agoI don't know about recipe searching but HN has done a lot of recipe scraping this year: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23648864 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23648864 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23142220 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23142220
- kinghtown 6y agoI find myself moving further and further away from searching for recipes altogether, blogs especially. I spend most of my time researching pastry recipes and techniques but it really seems like everyone online is just copying each others content and padding the post out with weird stories and pep talks which transparently exist for page ranking. I’m a huge fan of cook books for formulas and recipes and then watching YouTube for technique.
- non-entity 6y agoZjsjfjvew
- peterwwillis 6y agoNot to be that guy that always says "what do you want to do that for?", but it's possible you're looking for the wrong solution. If you buy ingredients and set aside time for specific kinds of recipes, you don't need to hunt for the recipes. Get one cookbook of some cuisine you think you'll enjoy, and look for recipes that fit within a time frame you're comfortable with (keeping in mind that for many recipes, many steps can be done ahead of time or in parallel). For each recipe, make a list of ingredients and plan what to buy, when to buy it, when to prep it, when to cook it, and when to eat it (to anticipate a repeat cycle). If you follow this method you'll end up eating what you like, rather than what's convenient for a cabinet with ketchup, instant noodles, canned mushrooms, and dried basil. (Not knocking the poor man's pasta, just saying!) Also, most recipe databases are awash with poor-quality imitations of traditional dishes, designed purely to cater to whatever your supermarket gives you, rather than good ingredients or healthy food. This doesn't mean you should buy $4 tomatoes, but even a different thickness of noodle can make a big difference. (Though Jersey tomatoes are worth the price; just don't refrigerate them!!)
- chovy 6y agohttp://ketorecipes.cooking http://ketorecipes.cooking
- kaskakokos 6y agoMy approach on this is the opposite, I explain it here in case it helps. I go from specific to general and it has 3 advantages: - No wasted food. - Any web searcher is valid (duck.com, google,...) - Save money The procedure is simple: 1. Select the main ingredients, they will be those leftovers I have in my fridge & kitchen or if I am buying in the market, the offer of the day or the food I want to eat. 2. Search in the web a recipe containing these main ingredients, for example, yesterday for dinner it was "recipe portobello, spinach, tuna" 3. Implement You will be surprised that there is a recipe for any random combination of ingredients!
- thirtythree 6y agoThis is timely for me as I was just searching for it. I am using supercook.com but was looking for alternatives (just to see how good the alternatives were)
- throw1742 6y agoIf you're in the UK, Tesco's recipe site is really convenient because you can add all the ingredients to your shopping basket and then get it delivered or click and collect them: https://realfood.tesco.com/ https://realfood.tesco.com/