# recipe software



## bizeblonde (Feb 20, 2013)

Hello,

I was watching the posts about recipe software.  I am looking for a comprehensive software that does nutritional breakdowns, allows for cutting and up-ing recipes, does cost analysis, and allows for both original and downloaded recipes.  I have been reviewing both:

Cook-N and Living Cookbook and want to know if anyone has exp. with either.  Reviews are pretty close to each other. Comments? Suggestions? All welcome

thank you!


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## petemccracken (Sep 18, 2008)

Ive used Mastercook (http://www.mastercook.com/ )since 2000 and prefer it.

It does all you listed with the advantage of storing recipes in one or more separate cookbooks, at your option.

Though the current nutritional database is USDA 12 or some such, all that is missing is the newer manufactured products and some newer reporting such as sugars.

There is a projected upgrade scheduled for this spring.


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## bizeblonde (Feb 20, 2013)

Thank you! I appreciate your view on this.


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## petemccracken (Sep 18, 2008)

FWIW, I've looked at Living Cookbook, Big Oven, Cook-N, and about a dozen others and found that they do not compare to Mastercook, especially using RecipeFox in FireFox (Mozilla) for web downloads, single click from over 350 recipe web sites.


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## bizeblonde (Feb 20, 2013)

Thanks so much! I had skimmed over the one because its ratings were not that great. I will take another look at it.


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## petemccracken (Sep 18, 2008)

I have no idea what ratings you were looking at but most of the ratings I've seen do justice to whomever paid for the rating /img/vbsmilies/smilies/talker.gif

Mastercook, in its present configuration, is what many classify as _not windows friendly_ as it was developed long before the current Windows standards. It does have a fairly steep learning curve but once learned, the power is exceptional.


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## bizeblonde (Feb 20, 2013)

So very true about the ratings, that is why I am asking professionals here. Thanks again,really appreciate it!

Carol

ps I am looking over amazon ratings


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## pete (Oct 7, 2001)

I was a die hard Mastercook user for years, but I recently switched over to Living Cookbook.  The problem with Mastercook is that Sierra, the company that orginally created Mastercook, sold it off to some other company, Valusoft I beleive.  For a couple of years the company didn't do anything with it and when I went to Windows 7 I had to do some custom installing to even get the thing to work, and then half of the components didn't work as they should.  Valusoft has now done an upgrade to Mastercook, releasing a new addition, but I just don't trust the company to continue to support Mastercook.

On the other hand, Living Cookbook, has a great support system, with the owner/programmer very active in the support forums to help people solve their issues.  I have found it to do everything that I was asking of Mastercook so I've had no problems with it at all.  I do have to admit that I am getting used to the look (I do like the Mastercook look better) but other than that I would have to suggest Living Cookbook.


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## bizeblonde (Feb 20, 2013)

Pete,

Thank you. I have been back and forth and have read till my eyes are blurry. appreciate it!

Carol


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## phatch (Mar 29, 2002)

BigOven is awful.


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## pollopicu (Jan 24, 2013)

I initially found and fell in love with Pepperplate, however, the second day after registering they had a server problem, I panicked and purchased the app for Paprika and have been using it ever since. I still like the format for Pepperplate best, but Paprika is pretty awesome, and has a lot more sites that are compatible with it, meaning you can just transfer recipe's to it straight from big sites like food52, Epicurious, recipes.com, etc


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## petemccracken (Sep 18, 2008)

Pete,

THX (I think) sold ValuSoft to COSMI, I believe last year and COSMI has already come out with an improved v11 of Mastercook that fixed the bugs left by THX and is laying the groundwork for v12 this spring.

Though it still carries the ValuSoft label, it is really a new company and has the full support of Pam Erickson and John Shotsky, long term supporters of Mastercook and there appears to be a host of improvements on the way.

Check out the web site http://www.mastercook.com


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## pete (Oct 7, 2001)

Bummer!!!  I've already made the move!!  Not that I'm complaining.  I like Living Cookbook, and for somethings it might even be better than Mastercook.  I'm just not thrilled with the visual look of it-too much like Windows.  I like the Mastercook look.  I have to admit though that I think Livning Cookbook has a better cookbook print option but it doesn't seem to have as many options for fonts and font color, or formatting.


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## afterburn25 (Dec 2, 2013)

bizeblonde said:


> Hello,
> 
> I was watching the posts about recipe software. I am looking for a comprehensive software that does nutritional breakdowns, allows for cutting and up-ing recipes, does cost analysis, and allows for both original and downloaded recipes. I have been reviewing both:
> 
> ...


yes i have used both they are both great programs but I stuck with cook'N it has other options that i like


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## petemccracken (Sep 18, 2008)

afterburn25 said:


> bizeblonde said:
> 
> 
> > Hello,
> ...


I prefer http://www.mastercook.com as it not only provides nutritional analysis, recipe scaling, shopping lists, separate cookbooks, single click download of web site recipes, upload of recipes and cookbooks to the web, and sharing of recipes with users who do not have Mastercook as well as exporting of recipes in text format.


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## afterburn25 (Dec 2, 2013)

PeteMcCracken said:


> I prefer http://www.mastercook.com as it not only provides nutritional analysis, recipe scaling, shopping lists, separate cookbooks, single click download of web site recipes, upload of recipes and cookbooks to the web, and sharing of recipes with users who do not have Mastercook as well as exporting of recipes in text format.


cook'n also has that plus what i like is the recipe capture function it captures the recipe from the web and automatically adds it to cookbook with 1 click


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## ahepburn51 (Oct 19, 2013)

I've been using a program called Recipe Center 6.0 for many years now on my laptop - looking at the info for Pepperplate it looks like it's an online solution? Does it save the recipes to my laptop, or does it save everything to some nebulous "cloud" somewhere?


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## butzy (Jan 8, 2010)

I use pepperplate. It's simple and free. I don't really need anything else than they offer.
I used bigoven pro for a while but did not like it.
I tend to print out my pepperplate recipex and keep them in a file, just in case.....


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## maryb (Mar 21, 2008)

Mastercook since it came out, tons of features, easy to create recipe books etc.


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## seemecook (Jan 21, 2014)

I switched to a Mac a year ago, and went with MacGoumet Deluxe. I love it. Was on Mastercook 7 for years, and MacGourmet blows it out of the water. It imports like a dream, has the clipping feature if the website is not supported, and keeps track of all my menus and shopping lists. One word of advice, do not download the program from the Apple App Store. Simply buy it from Mariner Software. You will get updates and the best support if need be.


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