The Recipe Cookbook interface is basic but functional, with a selection of search and organizing functions. It comes with over 2,000 recipes from varying sources, and, of course, you can add your own creations to the database using the Recipe Cookbook templates.

The recipes that Recipe Cookbook already stores are a real mix. Some (but not a significant number) are in Norwegian and recipe types range from cocktails and dips to breads and hotpots. Some recipes have notes attached, offering background or hints. You can also add your own notes.

Recipe Cookbook allows you to sort through the recipes by language, country of origin, category and ingredient, and you can modify existing recipes or delete ones you don't like. The program also provides links to a variety of cooking websites and gives you the opportunity to add new sites or modify existing ones. Finally, Recipe Cookbook lets you print and email recipes directly.

Unfortunately, Recipe Cookbook has plenty of faults. The interface is old fashioned, and its search functions, the most attractive feature of the program, are hard to control. Lots of the configuration settings seem to be modifiable, but unfortunately we just couldn't figure out how.

Despite this, Recipe Cookbook has a certain charm. It contains lots of recipes that you would be unlikely to find elsewhere and, even if there is no telling how good they will be, it would be fun to test them out.

Recipe Cookbook is eccentric but interesting cookbook software where the recipes alone merit a second look.

Download Recipe Cookbook 3.0 in Softonic

Recipe software doesn't always have the best reputation - it can be expensive, hard to use and totally user unfriendly. No so with RecipeMaster, a great program for all your recipe organization. It comes with lots of content pre-loaded - including a few Jamie Oliver recipes!

Adding your own recipes to RecipeMaster is easy - there's a form to fill out, or you can import recipes in MealMaster, Compu-Chef and MasterCook format. RecipeMaster only exports in XML, which is a slight pity. Making recipe management even easier is the great search function and excellent measurement conversion tool.

RecipeMaster also has a wine management tool, so you can record your favorite bottles and pair them up with your food. Unfortunately, the Help section isn't complete and the app was very slightly buggy, but all in all, RecipeMaster should be your first stop if you're looking for a free recipe organizer.

RecipeMaster is an excellent piece of recipe management software.

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At first sight Cookbook Portable looks really simple, but it includes all the tools and options you would need in a recipe database. You can organize recipes in categories, create and edit custom menus, export your recipes to various formats and also print them out with several configuration options – which is quite handy, since cooking with the computer beside the saucepan is not a very good idea.

Each recipe in Cookbook Portable includes ingredients, preparation, cooking time and servings. You can also rate them in terms of difficulty and how much you like them, and add a photo as well – though only one.

Cookbook Portable also includes a powerful built-in search tool which lets you easily locate any recipe on your database. If you’re looking for a simple recipe app, this is it.

It may not be the most feature-rich recipe application, but Cookbook Portable works great and includes all the basic tools you need to manage your recipes.

Download Cookbook Portable 1.7.1 in Softonic

Nutrition Facts consists of a large food database that you can browse or search in order to find all the nutritional data available for more than 7,000 types of food. You can enter your query by using general names (chocolate, cookies...) or entering certain brands.

Nutrition Facts’ search results are displayed in real time as you write your query. Simply select the food you're interested in and the nutritional information will be displayed on the right. The one thing we missed, however, was being able to copy, print, save or export the data in some way.

Whether you’re a calorie counter or just interested in eating healthfully, Nutrition Facts is a handy program to have on hand.

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Professional Bartender allows you to add your own recipes or use one of the 251 that come pre-loaded. You can't import recipes in the trial version, but adding them manually is easy, with fields for categorization and room for directions and comments. Professional Bartender also has a good search function that allows you to sift through recipes using a variety of criteria - type of liquor, glass used, cocktail ingredients and even the ideal season to drink it.

Professional Bartender also allows you to modify and print any of the drinks it contains. The recipes are easy to browse through and there's a nice selection, with everything from classics like Christmas Punch and Daiquiris to fun shooters like Mudslides and Jello Shots!

Professional Bartender is a fun, accessible program for all cocktail fans.

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As befits a cookbook, iCookbook looks impeccable. All recipes are accompanied by a great high resolution photo, and the search results (search is accessed via the charms bar, which in turn is accessed by mousing over the top right of your screen), look especially good. The search function is further improved by filtering options, and the Stir feature, which lets you "mix up" large groups of search results in the hope of further inspiration.

iCookbook makes following recipes very easy, with the recipe stats, ingredients and preparation instructions laid out in a very clear, informative manner. It's unfortunate, then, that the app doesn't support mouse scrolling or the left and right arrow keys, as we found this to be the most intuitive way to move through recipes.

iCookbook offers other features that will become useful as you use the app over time. There's a My Recipe collection, where you can collect your favorites, a set of kitchen tools like weight converters and baking tin charts, and a ratings feature, so you know what's worth making again. On the downside, iCookbook doesn't convert between cups and metric automatically, and there's no note-taking function.

iCookbook looks like a promising app. It's good at the moment, but needs a few improvements to be truly great.

Download iCookbook for Windows 8 0.9.0.9 in Softonic

Don't know what to cook for dinner? Looking at a bunch of ingredients but don't know what to cook? Allrecipes will help you with that. Look up recipes by searching for something specific or filter your search results by selecting the ingredients you have.

The front page of Allrecipes shows off feature recipes on the left, ingredients on the right, and your saved recipes all the way to the right. If you are an Allrecipes user, you can sync your saved recipes between devices, making it easy to transition from device to device.

Clicking on a recipe will take you to a page that features photos, instructions, and reviews. You'll have to swipe from right to left to view the rest of the long recipe page. This set up isn't ideal if your hands are dirty and don't want to touch your tablet. Recipes pages in Allrecipes are relatively text heavy so you'll have to make sure you read instructions. Other recipe apps feature big photos with simple text instructions, which may be better for more visual cooks.

Overall, Allrecipes is a solid recipe archive. There are tons of recipes to try and its user reviews are helpful.

Download Allrecipes for Windows 8 in Softonic

Have a look at Easy Recipe Deluxe, as it contains some interesting servings divided by categories and style. If you need a secure place to write down and catalog your grandmother's secret recipes, try this well-organized database. It has some extra features that allow you to create shopping lists based on the dishes you are going to prepare and you can export your cookbook in HTML or send it by mail to a friend.

The list of Easy Recipe Deluxe categories is huge and ranges from Appetizers, Breakfast, Microwave and Puddings to Stir-Fries and Vegetable dishes. You can also choose a recipe based on the main ingredient, or the style of cuisine.

I liked Easy Recipe Deluxe's clear interface, the photo of the dishes and the possibility of adding personal comments to the instructions. What I found annoying is the impossibility of downloading new online recipes and the fact that there are no step-by-step images on how to prepare the meal.

Don't store your favorite recipes on paper when you can have them all well organized in a clear database like Easy Recipe Deluxe. Unfortunately, though, it's not a great source of 'cooking inspiration'.

Download Easy Recipe Deluxe 1.6.265 in Softonic

If you are a person who likes to follow a healthy diet, then you'll know the importance of informing yourself about the nutritional content of your food - an application like Kelpiesoft Food File will allow you to do just this.

Type the food in question into the Kelpiesoft Food File Search box, restrict it to certain categories and the results are displayed in the pane on the right. Presuming Kelpiesoft Food File is accurate, it's a simple, clear way of viewing the nutritional content of your food and is especially useful if you're following a weight-loss diet.

One word of warning: the Kelpiesoft website does not work and it appears that the product is no longer being developed. Some of the food item entries have links to information online that is no longer available as a result and since the Help is also online, you won't be able to use it either.

It's a pity Kelpiesoft Food File is no longer being developed, as it is a useful addition to any healthy person's software collection.

Download Kelpiesoft Food File 1.0.0 in Softonic

Everyday Food for Windows 8 comes from Martha Stewart Living so its content is usually higher quality than user generated sites like Allrecipes. Like many other recipe apps, Everyday Food for Windows 8 displays recipes in a grid with thumbnails of each dish.

Clicking on a dish will take you to the recipe where you can see ingredients as well as cooking instructions. While there is a picture, it's not expandable and there's no gallery of photos, which would be very helpful when cooking something new for the first time.

Within the recipe page, you have the option to pin it to the home screen or to favorite it. This is handy but Everyday Food for Windows 8 needs a way to export recipes. You can share recipes with Windows 8's integrating sharing feature.

There's also short video clips of simple tutorials. There are some videos that provide a more in depth instructions on cooking but that varies from recipe to recipe.

Everyday Food for Windows 8 is a solid recipe application but could use a few more features.

Download Everyday Food for Windows 8 1.0.1.2 in Softonic

Recipe4win shares the same layout and design as recipe4all - it's very basic and old-fashioned, and at times it is hard to tell what's a recipe and what's an ad.

The program is a very restricted version of the website, and when you consider that the website's not even that great, this way below average app doesn't hold much attraction at all.

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Add another solid recipe catalog tool to the growing list of great options. Much like RecipeMaster and Living Cookbook, CookDiary is an easy-to-use program that in some ways is even more than just a library.

First, you'll want to add your favorite recipes into the program. CookDiary's interface is set up so you can create different categories of recipes, such as desserts, Italian food and breakfast items. These categories will appear in a narrow pane on the left side your screen. Once you've created the categories, then you can begin adding recipes to each one. CookDiary allows you to add a picture, a rating between one and three stars and even an icon to indicate if the recipe is spicy. Then, add the ingredients, serving size and cooking instructions and you're good to go.

It's the little features in CookDiary that make it really stand out. If, for example, you need to change the number of servings you need to make, you can do this easily and CookDiary will adjust the ingredients as necessary to meet your new serving size needs. In addition, there's a cooking instructions view that shows every instruction in large print for easy reading while you're in the kitchen. There's even a calendar and a feature that lets you create shopping lists.

If you want to store your cooking recipes on your PC for ready access, CookDiary makes it easy and enjoyable to do so.

Download CookDiary 2.2.1 in Softonic

If you've been in this situation, you need a program like Pantry. Pantry is a shopping organizer that not only lets you create and manage detailed shopping lists, but also keeps track of your current stock and synchronizes everything with your iPhone or iPod Touch.

Pantry features a complete database with all sorts of foods, beverages, personal care products and cleansers, but if you miss anything, you can add it to the list straight away. You can create a list with the stores where you usually do your shopping as well.

Each product has a detailed entry with your current stock, the average price, an optional expiration date and the number under which it should be refilled. As soon as you notice you're running out of any product, it will be automatically added to the shopping list – you do need to mark the product as 'running low' though, or let the program know that your current stock is under the refilling limit.

Pantry is automatically synced with a free online account in the Pantry website, and also with an iPhone app, which is sadly not free.

Pantry helps you manage the shopping at home with a handy organizer that can be synced with an online account and a paid iPhone app.

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The thing that really marks Living Cookbook out from its competitors is the sheer breadth of features. It covers just about every aspect of home cooking, from browsing the Internet for new ideas to planning your meals, scheduling your cooking and designing your shopping lists. The whole Living Cookbook is contained in a simple-to-use interface that anyone familiar with the Office Suite of tools should have no problems navigating.

Living Cookbook has a great help file, as well as offline tutorials and a host of online tools to help you get the most out of the program. There are also examples in each feature area, so you know exactly how you should be using the program. It comes bundled with plenty of recipes, sample shopping lists, suggested websites (for use with the in-built browser) and nutritional values, but it goes without saying that you can add or modify any of Living Cookbook's multiple areas to fully customize it.

Living Cookbook's configuration options are also very complete, as are the fully customizable display options. Unfortunately, although the program gave me the option to change measurements into metric, the setting didn't seem to 'stick', and continued to show me recipes in US measurements and auto-suggest ounces and pounds.

Beyond this little issue, Living Cookbook was a pleasure to use, and is useful even if you never add your own material. The options are so varied that it might take you a while to truly investigate the program, but it a serious piece of software that any enthusiastic cook will appreciate.

If you take your cooking seriously, Living Cookbook is the program for you.

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The streamlined interface gives you a clear view of all of your recipes, and browsing them by course is very easy. The only downside of the application would be the way you edit shopping lists. Although it's easy to add ingredients and amounts, it's not very simple to edit a shopping list after you've closed it or to erase one. Clicking "create shopping list" simply brings you back to your old list.

Behind an unassuming interface, Recipe Box makes for a handy way to keep track of all your recipe ideas.

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Windows tablets make a great kitchen companion. Unfortunately CookBook falls a bit short as a good cookbook replacement app. Its features are very basic. Browse by different categories of foods or search for recipes. You can favorite and bookmark recipes but that's about it.

The recipes in CookBook are very basic as well, only showing one (often grainy) photo and a bunch of text for the ingredients and the cooking instructions. Directions are formatted in a way that it is a singular block of text, making it difficult to read and keep track of individual steps.

While CookBook lets you search for recipes, it doesn't do it as intelligently as something like AllRecipes, which lets you search by ingredients, helping you make the most of what you have in your kitchen. It's a disappointment that CookBook doesn't include image and video galleries, which would allow users to see individual steps.

Overall, CookBook lacks many useful features and offers a sub par user experience compared to other cook book apps.

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Grocery List Generator works as a recipe manager and includes a list with different kinds of food. If you choose to cook a given recipe, it will automatically mark the necessary ingredients on the list. You can export both the recipe and the list as HTML files to print them and take them with you. Both the recipe manager and food list can be enriched with your own contributions, and you can also share your recipes on the Grocery List Generator website.

There are already some recipes included in Grocery List Generator, but I found it pretty annoying to discover that they're not complete. Also, the program's interface behaved quite erratically during tests. Overall, I think Grocery List Generator is a very useful app – as long as you have enough patience to enter all of your recipes manually.

Manage your recipes in an easy way and create grocery lists accordingly with Grocery List Generator.

Download Grocery List Generator 2.1.2 in Softonic

BigOven is a recipe management program from the BigOven.com community. You'll need to register (free) on the website to get full use of the trial version, as the program features a browser specifically to check out recipes from the site and add them to your collection. Apart from that, you'll be able to use the program's meal planning, shopping and nutrition functions to make sure that every dish you prepare is perfect.

The trial version of BigOven doesn't actually allow you to input your own recipes, but it does come already programmed with lots of recipes from the website, and of course, you can import recipes you find when browsing BigOven.com. You can edit these, changing the servings and ingredients, adding notes, viewing nutritional facts, adding tags for easy searching and even adding the dish - and its ingredients - to the BigOven meal planner and shopping list.

BigOven also has a good selection of configuration options that will allow you to play around with the way the program is displayed and other settings. It also allows you to display recipes in metric, but unfortunately European users will be disappointed to find that they are displayed in milliliters, which is practically useless. Current users of BigOven.com are sure to love this app. It is very complete in the range of actions it can perform, but unless you are a big fan of the website, you might feel restricted, as you can't import from other websites or create your own recipes.

BigOven is the ideal program for fans of BigOven.com.

Download BigOven 1.8.992 in Softonic