Recipe Keeper: CookBook

I don’t like leaving reviews. But this one deserves more than 5 stars, nay, Apple needs to create a different category just for this app. In my MANY years of using iPhone and numerous apps, I’ve never seen such a thoroughly-thought-through app. The developer must have done his homework very well for us users. Every turn you find the developer’s thoughtful, clever, intelligent, and useful addition. There is nothing “I wish it was...”. What we could ever think of as the best recipe/meal planner app, this app has it all. The functionality of this app deserves “the App of the Year” easily. And I am not exaggerating even a bit how so well designed app this is and how so well it is working. The OCR is the best part of this app for me. Finally, I could add my favorite recipes from my cookbooks that had been on my bookshelf for ages without being organized. I am importing all my favorite recipes from websites and from my old recipe apps (including Paprika). Cookbook covers all realms of a cookbook ought to be. I finally found a place where all my recipes will be saved. I am not sure how many times I shouted “wow” while building up my cookbook here - there are no unnecessary part in this app. So clean and neat, beautiful and functional, & easy and delightful to use. I’ve never said “thank you” to app developers and this is my first one - THANK YOU for this app which you created with all your effort and time. Your app truly deserves the name “Cookbook”!

I have super appreciated this app for years, but was initially put off by the requirement to pay for it again. Then somebody reminded me that seven years is a long time for an app to keep working. For example, I am no longer able to use the Microsoft office suite I purchased for my windows XP machine. Fair reasoning. That said, here are some of the reasons I value this app so highly: The “import recipe from a URL” is simply astonishing. It extracts the important elements for recipes from websites like AllRecipes and the Food Network, while leaving all the ads and commentary out. Everything is completely editable after importing, so if you want to alter the recipe to reflect something you saw in the comments, it’s very easy. The import via OCR (optical character recognition – converting a photo with printed text to digital text) is not quite as simple, but once you get it, it’s fantastic. It allowed me to retain my favorite recipes from my mother’s cookbooks, which were falling apart. I told it which parts of the image were the title, ingredients and steps, and it did the rest. The tags, timer, and “cross-out finished steps” features are the ones I use the most, but this app has loads of other features, also. The interface is very user-friendly and the pro version is an exceptional value.

I don’t often leave reviews, but this app has been a complete game changer for my meal prep. Before installing this app, I would bookmark all the recipes I found online and tried my best to organize them in folders. But digging through a list of titles meant I often skimmed past recipes I loved or struggled to find the recipe I was looking for. This app has completely changed how I approach cooking/meal prep and even lets me share my favorite recipes with friends! I can now quickly import recipes from the internet or recipes scribbled down by my in-laws directly to my cookbook. It’s easy to find what I’m looking for thanks to all the pictures and custom tags (they start you off with some basic ones which was super helpful). And thanks to the shopping list feature I can now quickly plan out my meals for the week and get an organized shopping list that combines the same ingredients across recipes - no more writing everything down on a sticky note and crossing out numbers as multiple recipes start calling for limes. To top it all off, I can even share my recipes/notes with friends whether they have the app or not. But to be honest, now recommending this app to everyone, I absolutely love it. If you like to cook, and have a ton of recipes to store/organize, this is the app for you!