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5 Apps That Can Help You Cook Better

Posted on 16. Jun, 2012 by dfloyd in Android, Apps, Food, iOS

Image courtesy of Mrs. Gemstone (via Creative Commons)

Looking for a new taste, a fresh recipe, a mouthful of flavor? Sometimes we need new ideas to help expand our menu. I tend to get into a rut of rotating the same handful of meals: peanut butter, peanut and jelly, and when I’m feeling adventurous peanut butter and marshmallow.

Truth be told, peanut butter is not my only meal (but I do eat a bunch of it). Usually when I think about trying something new, I’m already walking around the grocery store. I have been known to walk over to the magazine aisle to see if there are any cooking issues. The five cooking apps below offers a range of recipes, great ideas and tips for being a better cook.

1. Foodily
Some folks started using Pinterest as a recipe tool for collecting and trading pictures of great tasting food. Foodily takes that functionality up a step and gives you the ability to store and save all sorts of great recipes. You can follow famous chefs, food bloggers, cookbook writers, plus all your friends. Foodily makes it easy to search and sort through great tasting recipes on all sorts of sites across the web.

2. Epicurious
One of the most popular recipe apps is Epicurious. This long time web site is the ultimate cookbook and kitchen companion for new cooks and long time chefs. Search and sort by ingredient, dish type, dietary considerations, occasion, season, and meal course. Once you select a recipe, it gives you prep time, photos, reviews and will even help you make an aisle by aisle grocery list. If you like it, favorite for future use.

3. Evernote Food
Remember the food you love with Evernote Food. Based on the continuous syncing app Evernote, this app keeps all your favorite meals, recipes, food sighting synced across your devices. Add captions, titles, tags, and any other details with each item.

4. Grill It
Any night is a great night to grill out. Whether grilling up a steak, some burgers, fish or even veggies, the grill adds that extra special taste. Here’s an app that gives you access to some of the best grilling recipes available. Plus, if you’ve got a questions, it comes with a built question tool that lets you post questions via email or put them on twitter for a fast response. The initial app costs $1.99 but after purchase, you get a free Meat Temps app that gives you recommended temperatures for all your favorite meats.

5. How to Cook Everything for the iPhone
What about an app that answers your cooking questions even while helping you pick some outstanding recipes. “How to Cook Everything” is a great tool for new and old cooks alike. It offers recipes, kitchen basics, and picks by New York Times columnist Mark Bittman (who wrote the bestselling cookbook, “How to Cook Everything”). Recipes over step-by-step instructions, an ingredients list that can be exported to a grocery list, and variations on recipes. I included this app because I love the practicality and cooking tips, but it does cost $4.99 (there is also a free version and a more expensive deluxe version), and sadly it’s only available for iPhone, iPad and iTouch right now.