AFTER HOURS
Culinary Websites Have Been Cooking Up New Features
by Thomas Pack
Cooking websites and apps have whipped up a fresh batch of innovative new features during the past several months. Major platforms have added tools, content, and partnerships to spice up their offerings, transform the digital culinary experience, and help you boost your skills in the kitchen. From integrating seamless grocery delivery to centralizing recipe storage to enhancing the format of digital recipes so they’re easier to follow, these platforms have been striving to make cooking more efficient and engaging for home chefs.
MYRECIPES
In March, the print and digital publishing company Dotdash Meredith introduced MyRecipes, which serves as a central repository for recipes from many other platforms, including Allrecipes, EatingWell, Food & Wine, Southern Living, Better Homes & Gardens, Simply Recipes, and REAL SIMPLE. MyRecipes lets you search, save, and organize more than 90,000 recipes across these other sites, and you can sort your favorite dishes into default collections such as Keepers, Want to Try, and Weeknight Ideas. You can also create your own custom categories, so MyRecipes essentially lets you build your own virtual cookbooks with recipes from a range of trusted sources.
APPLE NEWS+ FOOD
With the launch of iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4 in March, Apple took a big step into culinary content by also launching a new Food feature for users who subscribe to Apple News+. The content includes more than 70,000 recipes as well as cooking tips, meal inspiration, and articles about chefs and restaurants curated from a range of culinary publications.
Apple News+ Food lets you search for
recipes, filter your results by various parameters, and save your favorites. The recipes are displayed with a list of ingredients that can be checked off while you cook, and you can tap any ingredient to see the amount you need for the current step. You also can set a timer by tapping on a highlighted duration time listed in a recipe.
COOK MODE
If you’ve ever smeared flour or—even worse!—oil on your phone, tablet, or laptop because you were following a recipe and the screen went dark, you’ll be glad to know that several food sites offer Cook Mode, which is a distraction-free, user-friendly interface that keeps the screen awake while you finish your dish.
Sites such as Food & Wine, Simply Recipes, and EatingWell introduced the new feature late last year, so now you can just click a button to prevent your screen from dimming or locking when you follow their recipes. Many Cook Mode interfaces also boast minimal visual clutter, larger fonts, and clear step-by-step instructions. Cook Mode in Apple News+ provides recipe instructions in full-screen view.
NEW YORK TIMES COOKING
In June 2024, New York Times Cooking, which says its website and app logged about 456 million visits in the past year, integrated its recipe platform with the online grocery delivery service Instacart. This collaboration has been a game-changer for home chefs who want to streamline both meal planning and shopping.
You’ll find a Shop Ingredients on Instacart button at the bottom of the ingredients list on most New York Times Cooking recipes. Clicking the button takes you to Instacart, where you can also shop for additional items if you like, or you can navigate back to New York Times Cooking to add ingredients from additional recipes to your cart. You place your final order through Instacart for delivery from a nearby store. (You should note that some New York Times Cooking recipes are available without a subscription, but you need to subscribe to access all of the recipes in the database.)
More recently, New York Times Cooking has been expanding its video offerings, which are available on its own platform as well as YouTube. July brought the second season of the flagship show Cooking 101, which features a rotating group of hosts who teach culinary basics. New York Times Cooking is also enhancing its roster of programming by working to develop new shows such as The Veggie, which will help you learn more about vegan, vegetarian, and vegetable-focused cooking.
HOME COOKING BOOM
Interest in home cooking grew during the pandemic when many people began exploring new recipes and honing their kitchen skills. Interest remains high because of ever-increasing restaurant prices and because so much high-quality how-to information is available. Home cooks’ need for accessibility, convenience, and customized content has been driving the innovations on culinary platforms, and the features launched during the past year could be just the beginning of the happy marriage between the culinary and digital worlds. Soon you could see even more advanced features on your favorite food sites, such as voice-guided recipes, integration with smart appliances, and enhanced tools that make highly personalized meal planning a piece of cake.
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