Please school me on Paprika (the app, not the spice).

[Mosca]

Plus there are countless little conveniences:

If you have it open while you’re cooking, the screen won’t time out.

If a cooking time pops up in a recipe, it is highlighted; just touch it to set a timer. It will set multiple timers.

If you’re in a recipe, click the shopping cart, and it makes a grocery list for that recipe.

You can tag a recipe multiple ways: Cottage Pie can be tagged as beef, dinner, casserole, and anything else you want. Grandma, if that’s where you got it. All your categories are in line on the left.

You can make a pantry inventory, and add/subtract from it as you shop and as you eat. At the store, can’t remember if you need red peppers? Check your pantry. (I think you can set it up to transfer items from your shopping list to the pantry as you buy them, but I’m not sure.)

You can plan meals from it, setting up the whole week. You can then click the shopping cart, and get a grocery list.

You can set up menus for events, then shop off of the menu. So you can plan Thanksgiving dinner by moving the recipes to “menus”, then click the shopping cart. Instant grocery list! If you did it on your laptop, it appears on your phone that you’re taking to the store.

You can import all your current recipes, as long as they aren’t .pdf. (Settings/import recipes/[location])


That’s just what I can think of without digging deeper. But it is more than recipe storage; it is a complete kitchen manager.

[Mosca]

Andrrr I didn’t know you could do that, with the striking of ingredients as you add them. Damn.

[Michael_in_TX]

Not timing out is huge. My OneNote on my tablet times out....usually with my hand is coated with oil or something!

[IowaGirl]

It will even start a timer for you. Tap on a time and a little timer window pops up in the app.

[Mosca]

Grocery list to pantry:






Sorting the pantry:

[au4stree]

Nothing new to add except ditto, it makes recipe management/organizing super easy.

[Mosca]

This one I just have to show, I can’t describe it. But you can photograph a recipe from a cookbook and paste it into Paprika.

[Donw]

So you are saying that you can take a photo of a recipe and then just copy and paste it into the app and it handles the character recognition? What steps did you take and where did you paste the photo?

[Mosca]

I’ve had the photo box come up in Paprika, but I can’t remember how I did it! But you can approach it from the other direction. Frame the photo with iPad or iPhone (it might work with Android, haven’t tried). Then hit the character recognition box, and it takes the photo and cuts the text. Go to Paprika and paste. This recipe is from and old cookbook and isn’t formatted like they are today. But it’s easy to move around.

[WayneT]

I echo the comments about using the built in browser to find, copy and save recipes into the app. I’ve only had one recipe that didn’t format properly from the download and save. I’d guess it will work 95% of the time. The other 5% will require just some tweaking.

[Bob K]

Came here to say how great Paprika app is and ended up learning a half-dozen new features to try, thanks guys! I will emphasize one thing here:

Ease of importing recipes has been mentioned, but I thought an example of how easy it is might help. Know how when you’re looking for a recipe, find one that’s promising, and then get smacked in the face with a blog post beginning with the cooling of the earth and 2,000 words later concluding with "even my hubby and the kiddos like it and they don’t like anything!"?

Vanquish that chatty blogger by tapping on share to Paprika and it instantly culls all that garbage out and imports the ingredients and instructions (along with a photo, the link to source, and title). That for me was the game changer, all the other features are the icing.

(Also throwing in that while I’m usually using phone or iPad, there’s a bookmark you can add to your laptop/desktop browser that will import the page you’re viewing into Paprika in recipe format, which of course will sync like the other devices.)

[acorgihouse]

Can I ask a few simple questions? I have looked at Paprika off and on in the past, but never bit other than (I think) the trial version once. At that time, it was mostly geared to apple products, and I don't i-anything. I had a hard time getting it to work on the MS/Google laptop stuff, and my Android phone. Now it seems that is smoother, from your descriptions, and I'm getting rid of more and more paper including the planners and shopping lists that I've carried around forever. My house is run/automated with Google Home, and I can make lists there just by talking to the phone or the little home hubs and doodads around the house, but they are just lists so fine for Lowe's but not for pantry and food shopping. I just looked at the user guide, so:
1) where it says I can have more than one grocery list, that means I can have a Costco list, a produce market list, a mail order list....?
2) as long as I'm signed into the same Paprika cloud account, I can use it from anywhere that I have the app downloaded and they all sync, no matter the platform? (I think that was one of my problems initially.)
3) the pantry app is segregated into "aisles", but can you also segregate into things like "kitchen fridge", "garage fridge", "garage freezer", "garage shelves"....? Given I hate shopping, and get a lot at Costco, I often have "backstock" on shelves in the garage (or even guest bedroom closet..) and would like to keep track.
4) does this mean that I can put amounts of "stock" in the pantry, like, say, 3 lb Diamond Kosher salt, and then as I use it in recipes (or I assume, take it out to move to other containers) it will subtract the amounts from the 3 lb and let me know my current stock? Of course, I wouldn't do that for every little thing, but for stuff that gets used in large amounts, cups say, would be handy to know I have one cup left of avocado oil. I know is pretty OCD, but also could be really handy.
5) does this mean I could download a recipe, or a group of recipes for a mealplan or event, and it could tell me what I have on hand, or would it only add to a list if I ask it to?
OK, if this is too obsessive, laugh and move on, but the descriptions here make me think I need to have another look.

[djl]

To add to what Mosca said.

Use it on Microsoft PC all the time. No issues. Actually started by importing all the recipes I had in Google Docs

[Mosca]

Can I ask a few simple questions? I have looked at Paprika off and on in the past, but never bit other than (I think) the trial version once. At that time, it was mostly geared to apple products, and I don't i-anything. I had a hard time getting it to work on the MS/Google laptop stuff, and my Android phone. Now it seems that is smoother, from your descriptions, and I'm getting rid of more and more paper including the planners and shopping lists that I've carried around forever. My house is run/automated with Google Home, and I can make lists there just by talking to the phone or the little home hubs and doodads around the house, but they are just lists so fine for Lowe's but not for pantry and food shopping. I just looked at the user guide, so:
1) where it says I can have more than one grocery list, that means I can have a Costco list, a produce market list, a mail order list....?
2) as long as I'm signed into the same Paprika cloud account, I can use it from anywhere that I have the app downloaded and they all sync, no matter the platform? (I think that was one of my problems initially.)
3) the pantry app is segregated into "aisles", but can you also segregate into things like "kitchen fridge", "garage fridge", "garage freezer", "garage shelves"....? Given I hate shopping, and get a lot at Costco, I often have "backstock" on shelves in the garage (or even guest bedroom closet..) and would like to keep track.
4) does this mean that I can put amounts of "stock" in the pantry, like, say, 3 lb Diamond Kosher salt, and then as I use it in recipes (or I assume, take it out to move to other containers) it will subtract the amounts from the 3 lb and let me know my current stock? Of course, I wouldn't do that for every little thing, but for stuff that gets used in large amounts, cups say, would be handy to know I have one cup left of avocado oil. I know is pretty OCD, but also could be really handy.
5) does this mean I could download a recipe, or a group of recipes for a mealplan or event, and it could tell me what I have on hand, or would it only add to a list if I ask it to?
OK, if this is too obsessive, laugh and move on, but the descriptions here make me think I need to have another look.

1) Yes.
2) Yes. I use it on iPad and Samsung Galaxy.
3) In the settings you can edit aisles, adding and subtracting and renaming them as you please. You can also change how you sort items: by name, recipe, etc.
4) I’m pretty sure you have to do that one manually. That is a piece of functionality I don’t use, because I don’t make every recipe from paprika. Everyone is different, but for me that would fall into the category, “harder than actually looking at what’s left”.
5) It might be able to do that, let me check… nope. I have a tri-tip in my pantry in the app, and it added tri-tip to my grocery list for that recipe.

[acorgihouse]

Thanks, sounds like something I need to go to! I have some motel time coming up soon, so getting this going might be a good project

[yakima]

My goodness. I recently bought the app, but have not used it. I retired. I don't want all this tech. I had a criminal case in federal court 10-15 years ago. Needed to get into their electronic filing system. Called the
clerk's office in Spokane. Mr Lamb, you are not admitted to federal court.
Are you looking at computer records? Yes.
Well I was admitted before computers.
I will have to call you back.
She did, very apologetic. Had found me.

And I am happy for you all, as I sort thru endless paper recipe copies.

[Mosca]

This is EXACTLY for people like you, and me.

[yakima]

Mosca, I am starting to pride myself as a charter luddite.

[Mosca]

yakima Me too. That is why Paprika blows my mind: IT JUST WORKS. Click the download and everything goes where it is supposed to. Click the scale and it changes all the portions.

I liken it to when I was trying to figure out iTunes (or any music manager). I got so frustrated with tagging and sorting, and just when I thought I had everything sorted I’d go to use it and the songs would play alphabetically by artist instead of whatever album I’d chosen. Paprika doesn’t do that.

[Michael_in_TX]

Wow, this is about as unanimous a recommendation as one can get! If I can stand it, I think I may wait until late November to get it....if they have a Black Friday sale and I can more easily get all three platforms that I need.

Really does look like a fantastic application!

[JimLinebarger]

I like the ability to link to other recipes in your database from within a recipe and jump to them with just a click instead of having to search for them. (using the [recipe:Recipe name in your database])

[djl]

What!?

Thanks! I will be using this feature from now on

[acorgihouse]

I stayed up way too late fooling with it on my phone. Had decided to do the trial on phone, see how I like now, but when I put in my email it recognized that I'd had a free trial already and just completed to the full program. Stayed up adding recipes from some of my fav sites, love how it does exactly as noted and takes out all the chatter. Love that I can categorize recipes in multiple ways, like rice+chicken+soup, or seafood+grill+Asian. Love that I can pull out ingredient lists and make master shopping list, whether for store or for kitchen. Love that I can google search from within the browser section, and download straight away. I'm sold already.

[Texas Larry]

Paprika has a killer fast search function. Can’t do nested searches, but you can filter by your categories, then you can search by ingredients, source, etc. Almost don’t need much organization. I never use the meal calendar or shopping list functions.

[KimO]

There are a lot of features. The things I personally like the most are:
Categories: I can create all the categories I want and also use the favorites and the 'pinned' feature a lot for upcoming meals.
Download: Almost all the recipes download perfectly from internet into the app; URL, Name, times, ingredients, instructions, etc.
Notes: i write a lot of notes because I'm new to cooking and it helps to remind myself of things I missed! hee hee.
Times: Prep time, cook time; after entering the time provided by the recipe, I can update with my actual times.
Meals: I use this religiously. It is the only way I can stay organized and use up and buy the right food for the house.

Those are my biggies. Hope this helps. I can't think there is a better app for these things.
Kim

[Mosca]

I wish I could get used to the meal and menu planning features, but I’ve lived my whole life flying that stuff blind, using things as they near expiration dates, freezing stuff as it gets close, eating spaghetti for breakfast because it’s on its last day… but I just can’t. I set it up and then forget that I did it.

[KimO]

I think maybe it is more because I am new to cooking every day. It relieves one of my stresses. One less thing to worry about! :-)

[Mosca]

One good thing, though, cooking every day can become one of the most calming and rewarding parts of your life. It’s been that for me for years. Even when I screw something up, I can shrug and scramble some eggs and still feel like I achieved something.

[Carolyn]

I wish I felt that way, but I do kind of like being outside cooking. Just about everything make my anxiety worse especially if it requires decisions.

[KimO]

Mosca, I have found some enjoyment out of cooking, like I have out of smoking meats. 'Kitchen cooking' (as I like to call it!) requires many different kinds of skills, planning and resources. It does feel overwhelming at times. I trust one day this will become old hat and I will relax with it more and enjoy the process and the making of the meals! I have had glimpses of just feeling good about feeding my family (the dogs always get just a little too).