Rolling out software
Recipe programs have their pluses and minuses
For many years, software programs have been available to organize recipes; rescale ingredients for more or fewer servings; analyze nutritional values such as calories and cholesterol; make up a shopping list and even estimate the costs.
Some programs let you enter a list of ingredients that you have on hand and call up recipes that use those ingredients. Others allow you to download recipes and shopping lists to a handheld computer to use in the kitchen or take with you to the supermarket. And the programs, which range in price from about $10 to $50, usually come with hundreds — even thousands — of recipes already in the database.
Yet, when the Deseret Morning News asked several dozen home cooks, professional chefs, cookbook authors and bake-off contestants, most said they still compose their recipes on a basic word-processing system or by hand on 3-by-5-inch cards.
Two said they were happily using recipe software, but several said they tried programs in the past and concluded they were more for computer geeks, not someone who wanted to get dinner on the table.
But even the most "techno-challenged" people can master skills — retrieving cell-phone messages or using the TV remote — if they take the time to learn how and then do it on a regular basis.
So when someone considers buying recipe software, they need to ask themselves how often they will use it and if the benefits are worth the initial investment of time and effort.
Diane Sheya of Ivy House Herbs bought "The Living Cookbook" online to create a cookbook of all her favorite recipes to give to family. She said it was easy to type in her own recipes, and "they offered a grundle of other recipes with it."
But so far she she hasn't done much with the other "timesaving" features. The nutritional analysis "would take some time to compile all the data. I'd have to fiddle with it a little more, and I'm somewhat computer-challenged," Sheya said.
What about importing recipes from the Web or e-mail? "The instructions say you can do it, but I haven't figured it out. Every time I try, it doesn't work," she said.
And as for the shopping list: "There was too much stuff to input. In that time, I could make a million shopping lists on my own, and I base my list around my grocery store's layout, which saves time at the store."
Cathie Mooers, culinary director at Orson Gygi's cookware store, said she's used programs called "Mastercook" and "MenuMagic" but is frustrated that she has to hand-type all her recipes into a template.
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