The thought of cooking a meal for your family in your kitchen certainly brings about some therapeutic feelings. However, the abundance of printed out recipes, magazine cut-outs, and cookbooks can overwhelm just about any chef, and certainly isn’t good for your organizational skills. Enter Android. Everyone’s favorite jolly green robot saves the day once again, but this time in the kitchen. Developers have worked long and hard on cooking apps and although they’re few and far between, the best ones are certainly worth using, and beat out just about any cookbook you’ll ever lay your hands on. Here’s my list of the top cooking/recipe apps currently available for Android. You’re guaranteed to love them!
1. Recipe Search- Recipe Search features a gorgeous design and features really all that one looks for in a cooking application. It's got a sleek design, fast navigation, and advertises itself as "more than just a recipe app." Recipe Search allows users to ask questions regarding specific recipes and even cooking techniques/strategies. You're able to interact with real people in real time, which adds a bit of a social aspect to the application. You can also share the photos of your completed dish straight to the application, where they'll be posted and available for other users to check out. You'll get great feedback on your pictures from fellow chefs that are also using the application. Users can bookmark their favorite recipes and even plan their future meals.
Play Store Download Link (Free)
2. Big Oven- Big Oven is another great-looking recipe app with a great design. Armed with 250,000+ recipes, this one's sure to pack a punch. Users can search recipes by type, ingredient, and by its course (appetizer, entrée, dessert, etc.). The app features a rating system for users to rate their favorite (or least favorite) recipes. You can also upload photos of your completed dish, which is especially great for chefs that want to see what the true finished product looks like, rather than a mocked-up studio image. Estimated cooking time is given of course, which is always something we need when trying to complete a dish in a short amount of time. Big Oven also has a shopping list feature, which allows users to categorize ingredients by department so they don't find themselves aimlessly wandering through the aisles. Just like Recipe Search, Big Oven lets you plan out your future meals on an in-app calendar as well, which is always a nice feature to include.
Play Store Download Link (Free)
3. Must-Have Recipes- Must-Have Recipes has to be one of the most navigable apps I've ever used. The tab organization is all anyone could ask for, as it's extremely simple— pretty much any cooking mom could figure it out, independent of whether or not they’ve used an Android device before. I can imagine this app looks even better on tablets, with really nice scalable photos of delectable dishes. It's got pretty much all the same features as Big Oven and Recipe Search, but I must say, their search feature to find recipes is definitely more refined, which makes it much easier to find what you're looking for. You can even search for meals by prep time, which is an awesome feature to include. Must-Have Recipes also lets you search for "How-To Secrets" about specific recipes, or just cooking techniques in general. Definitely get this app if you don't have much Android experience and are looking for something you'll be able to easily navigate without much trouble.
Play Store Download Link (Free)
4. Food Network in the Kitchen- This one's for you, Food Network addicts. It may not be as creatively designed as the previously mentioned apps, but it certainly includes all the features you're looking for. In addition to all the packed features, the Food Network in the Kitchen app lets you search for recipes categorized by your favorite Food Network chefs to fit your needs and tastes. Even our favorite chef Paula Deen is in there! (Grrr…) The app also features a unit converter, multiple cooking timers for multi-tasking chefs, social media sharing options, and recipe saving to your "recipe box." Unfortunately, the app goes for $1.99 in the Play Store, so if you don't feel like emptying your pocket of the spare change and don't really have a need to organize the recipes by your favorite Food Network chefs, you may want to skip this one and grab another from this list.
Play Store Download Link (Paid)
5. Kraft Foods Cooking School- Kraft Foods Cooking School is made only for tablets, and features a nice design. Although I don't think it comes close to any of the other apps in this list, it still offers the same great features and gives you everything you'll need to complete a great meal. You can easily scroll through recipe categories, watch instructional cooking videos to go along with recipes, add recipes to iFood, email the recipes, or add it to your favorites. Definitely check this one out if you want to do some cooking with your tablet in hand.
Play Store Download Link (Free)
Obviously we can’t fit every cooking/recipe app into the list, so we’ve created a list of honorable mentions below for you to check out at your leisure.
Honorable Mentions: What’s for Dinner? Recipes, Allrecipes Dinner Spinner Pro
If there are any apps we didn’t mention that you love to use, just hit us up in the comments. Happy cooking, everyone!
Come comment on this article: Best Android apps for finding that perfect recipe [July 2013]
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