Windows Phone 7 Recipe App Roundup
A look at the four big name recipe apps available for Windows Phone 7
In this post I take a look at the four big name recipe apps for windows phone 7.
AllRecipes.com Dinner Spinner
First up, "AllRecipes.com Dinner Spinner". This is one of the most popular apps in the marketplace at the time of this writing, and is deserving of it's popularity.
As the name suggests, it incorporates the AllRecipes.com Dinner Spinner which is a fun take on the "standard" recipe search (I have
The search results can be sorted by relevance to your search, alphabetically or by rating or popularity. The results lists are laid out nicely and contain a picture (if available) and the rating information. The actual recipe information is also put together nicely with an overview and swiping left or right reveals sections for the ingredients, cooking directions, nutritional information and reviews.
The AllRecipes app has an option to disable the lock screen, which is incredibly useful when trying not to get whatever you're making all over your phone and shows they gave some thought to it's use. As would be expected, it also includes the ability to share recipes via email, Facebook and twitter or mark recipes as favorites.
My only complaint with the AllRecipes.com Dinner Spinner app is that it feels slow. Most navigation within the app either has a notable pause while stuff loads, or, more often than not displays a "loading" screen for a couple of seconds while it searches and prepares the results. It's certainly not a deterrent to using the app, but it is noticeable in the "get in, get out, get on with your life" world of windows phone.
Betty Crocker
The second app on my list is "Betty Crocker", a name I'm sure some will recognize.
As most would expect, it too contains a tool to help in deciding what to make. Betty Crocker's variation asks for two ingredients and the meal type. There is also a "surprise me" option which will deliver a random meal suggestion to you.
The search results are laid out nicely with both the rating and prep time visible alongside the image and descriptive text. If you're not into being surprised and don't have a specific idea of what you want to make you can also browse through the a listing of all the recipes (separated by category).
The individual recipe views are clean and functional, but the ingredients and preparation are laid out on top of each other, where I would have preferred a pivot layout with ingredients, prep, etc separated out. You also have the ability to mark recipes as favorites, as well as share via email while viewing them.
There is a little bit of self-promotion within the app (e.g. there is a food type/category of "general mills cereals") but it's certainly not invasive and doesn't seem to go beyond things like the aforementioned cereals.
At the time of writing this, the web service appears to be down or they've changed the api. Whatever the cause, the app currently is unusable as it just reports an error when trying to do anything. Unfortunately even your favorited recipes don't seem to get their details cached locally. It's been less than a week since I first noticed, so hopefully they'll get it straightened out in short order.
BigOven.com
The third app on my list is "170,000+ Recipes - BigOven.com".
BigOven's take on "what to make" comes in the form of leftover usage, in which you can add up three ingredients and get suggested recipes for. The search results include an image, the rating and what category it falls into. You can also just search the recipes, optionally filtering by category or browse recent highly reviewed recipes. The recipes are shown across three panels, an overview, which contains the ingredients and preparation information, photos of the dish and nutrional information. You can also share recipes via email, twitter or facebook.
If you have a BigOven.com membership, the app offers a few additional features. Free members have access to Favorites as well as "Try Soons" (bookmark a dish you'd like to "try soon"). BigOven Pro (paid) members get the ability to generate grocery lists from the ingredients, as well as have access to the nutritional information for the recipes.
The app also includes "Recipe Scan" feature which I did not try. It uses "credits" which are available for approximately a dollar per recipe. The website currently offers 3 credits to any member upon signup and an additional 25 for Pro members. Their description of the service indicates it's backed by humans doing data entry meaning it should be far superior to just an ocr solution.
The app itself while functional has some interface issues that I personally find distracting while using it. In some cases the margins are off, in others they are correct (following the windows phone/metro guidelines). The use of background images works well in some spots and others just look messy. The search results have a weird mostly transparent background box and the overall style just seems lackluster.
The UI can always be improved upon in the future by an update, and with a pro membership only being $16/year the feature set makes it hard to dismiss over a few relatively minor issues.
Epicurious
The final app on my list is "Epicurious".
There's not really a "what to make" analog in Epicurious, however, the main screen displays a list of different types of meals (e.g. fast breakfasts, lunches kids love, vegetarian mains) allowing you to quickly jump to a list of recipes matching that criteria.
The search feature is fairly robust, allowing you to narrow your search by ingredients, meal course, dietary requirements and cuisine type in a slick and easy to use interface. The search results can be sorted by relevance, rating, most recent, alphabetically, or whether they have a photo. The results themselves display the image, name and category.
The individual recipes are presented nicely as well. An overview pane gives a brief description with the rating and an image. Swiping left or right reveals separate panes for the ingredients, preparation, photos and reviews.
Recipes can be shared and favorited, as well as added to a shopping list. Your shopping list is broken out into the different recipes, and/or displayed as a complete list. Each ingredient is listed with it's required quantity and a checkbox to indicate if you've acquired it or not. You can also send the list to someone else if they are going to be doing the shopping. It's not as feature complete as the dedicated shopping list apps but it is definitely a nice addition.
Each of the apps has it's own unique features that makes it worth exploring. However if that isn't something that interests you then hopefully this post will help you decide what your one app will be. If you feel I've missed an app or didn't highlight a feature please feel free to let me know in the comments.