Now that it’s December, the holidays are in full force. And for many of us, that means oodles of entertaining with family and friends. The best preparation. Get your hands on our favorite recipe apps for your iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch.
Epicurious Recipes and Shopping List
Over 5 million users can’t be wrong, this app has won the National Magazine Award for Digital Media two years running, as well as Best Mobile Media in 2010. The award-winning recipe and food website is now at your fingertips, with more than 30,000 recipes from Bon Appetit, Gourmet, Self magazines, as well as from chefs and cookbooks. The simple interface is easy to use, and it lets users browse recipes by main ingredient, meal, dietary preference and more. You can also share recipes and shopping lists with friends through email, Facebook, Twitter, and other programs. It also includes an easy save to your Recipe Box that you can access on your device or online, however, this does have a one time fee for using.
Jamie’s Recipes
This new app from Jamie Oliver is highlighted with winter and Christmas know-how. Though the app is a free download, there are charges for different content packs. A free taster pack with about 10 recipes and 3 videos is included, then additional theme packs are available to purchase. He just introduced a Christmas pack, with a two-day action plan for cooking a festive dinner and other make-ahead ideas. All of the content packs have recipes and videos, among them “10 Minute Meals” and “Classic Comfort Food”. There is also a Shopping List that makes and sorts the ingredients by aisle, and lets you cross them off as you shop.
170,000+ Recipes – Big Oven
This free app features loads of recipes (over 170,000!) along with grocery list capabilities and a Menu Planner. It has won the Readers Choice Best Recipe App of 2011, and named the best app for foodies, new moms, and eating in, among others. There are easy search, find, save fields, and the interface is a breeze to use. If you get a free account, you can use the menu planning calendar, post your own recipes, take and upload photos, save your favorites, share with friends via email, Facebook, and Twitter, review other recipes, and import recipes with RecipeScan (for a limited time). For paying users ($15.99/per year), you can continually use Recipe Scan, get automatic grocery lists, get all the nutrition facts you need, store your own recipes privately, remove all adds, get tips on ingredients, substitutions, and terms, and track the recipes you have made.
Mario Batali Cooks
For $4.99, it’s like you’ve stepped into the Italian kitchen of chef Mario Batali. This slick interface is easy and fun to use, and includes over 65 Italian recipes, with step-by-step photos and videos, making them easy to follow (even though someof them are pretty fancy!) There is also wine pairing details for each recipe.
All Recipes Dinner Spinner
The free AllRecipes.com Dinner Spinner app includes thousands of user-submitted recipes, with reviews and suggestions and photos to boot. The fun Dinner Spinner option lets you shake your device for a quick, random recipe, or let’s you fill out the search fields to find something specific. You can search or browse by dish, ingredient, time, and just ideas, as well as filter for special diets.
Cooks Illustrated
From America’s Test Kitchen, you’ll know that these recipes will go off without a hitch. High-quality recipes are featured in the free app, with fifty of their all-time best recipes, along with reviews, videos, shopping list, kitchen timer, and more! If you have a CooksIllustrated.com membership, this is a key: it gives you access to the members-only recipes, videos, and reviews that are available on the site. Users can browse by cuisine or category, watch videos, read reviews on ingredients, organize your favorites, and sync to the online site.
Whole Foods Market Recipes
The free Whole Foods Market Recipes app is easy to navigate, and includes hundreds of recipes all equipped with nutritional facts, dietary needs, and gorgeous photos. You can search by items that you have on hand already, and build an easy shopping list that can be sent to you via email. It’s a great complement to their already detailed website.
How to Cook Everything
Mark Bittman knows how to cook, and his bestselling cookbook has been created in an easy-to-use app for just $4.99. Over 2,000 recipes and 400 how-tos with easy-to-follow guidance makes this a great app for anyone who loves to cook. You can search or browse recipes and make well-organized shopping lists that can be printed. What we really love is that everything is available offline, so you don’t have to be connected to access it (IE at the grocery store). In the iPad version (9.99$), you can bookmark recipe steps, access the how-to tutorials, select quotes with voice overs from Bittman himself, as well as other features. We wouldn’t understand why you would NOT love it.