Best Recipe Search Engine?

Tangentially related but use this website to cure the cancer of recipe websites.

https://plainoldrecipe.com/

BBC Good Food is usually my go to, they have categories like quick recipes (https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/collection/quick-recipes) and you can search for by ingredients. Could definitely be improved but is decent.

I'd welcome feedback on https://www.reciperadar.com which is an open source recipe search & meal planning that I've been working on.

~100k recipes, search by ingredients (and kitchen equipment), and plenty more features planned.

Not the answer you are looking for, but I use https://cse.google.com/ and whitelist the places I like.

IBM Chef Watson was also pretty amazing sometimes, I really wish they hadnt deprecated it.

My favorite site for this is Punchfork (https://www.punchfork.com/).

It does exactly what you're looking for and the pictures / UX make it very easy to use.

For paid options, the best is the ATK/CI site.

The reason they're head and shoulders above anything else is quality control. You don't have to worry about a recipe being good or not because they test them so much. Even the NYT, which has more adventurous choices, aren't anywhere near as reliable.

Supercook lets you search by what you already have at home. I just used it to learn about apple puff pancakes.

https://www.supercook.com

I use https://www.reddit.com/r/GifRecipes/

https://www.yummly.com/ seems to be the one that is the best meta search version, in that it searches thousands of sites. Although this comes with some quality issues.

I (as a vegetarian) sometimes use https://vegfaqs.com/high-protein-vegan-recipes/

You can filter by meal type and sort by macros.

Not to be that guy that always says "what do you want to do that for?", but it's possible you're looking for the wrong solution. If you buy ingredients and set aside time for specific kinds of recipes, you don't need to hunt for the recipes.

Get one cookbook of some cuisine you think you'll enjoy, and look for recipes that fit within a time frame you're comfortable with (keeping in mind that for many recipes, many steps can be done ahead of time or in parallel). For each recipe, make a list of ingredients and plan what to buy, when to buy it, when to prep it, when to cook it, and when to eat it (to anticipate a repeat cycle). If you follow this method you'll end up eating what you like, rather than what's convenient for a cabinet with ketchup, instant noodles, canned mushrooms, and dried basil. (Not knocking the poor man's pasta, just saying!)

Also, most recipe databases are awash with poor-quality imitations of traditional dishes, designed purely to cater to whatever your supermarket gives you, rather than good ingredients or healthy food. This doesn't mean you should buy $4 tomatoes, but even a different thickness of noodle can make a big difference. (Though Jersey tomatoes are worth the price; just don't refrigerate them!!)

I find myself moving further and further away from searching for recipes altogether, blogs especially. I spend most of my time researching pastry recipes and techniques but it really seems like everyone online is just copying each others content and padding the post out with weird stories and pep talks which transparently exist for page ranking.

I’m a huge fan of cook books for formulas and recipes and then watching YouTube for technique.

I don't know about recipe searching but HN has done a lot of recipe scraping this year:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23648864

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23142220

Recipe search that’s never steered me wrong: __[dish name]__ “kenji”

Allrecipes is still my favorite site. For some reason they took down the advanced search. Maybe it is available to pro accounts.

You can still filter by ingredients and even specify ingredients to exclude.

One of my favorite aspects is the Most Helpful Review. I often find other things I can do to improve upon the recipe in that review.

I always use Cookpad, Waitrose has a good site too

https://cookpad.com

https://www.waitrose.com/home/recipes.html

Here's my favorite one: http://www.beyondloom.com/things/reciprocity.html

Works like magic, for most recipes I've tried.

My approach on this is the opposite, I explain it here in case it helps. I go from specific to general and it has 3 advantages:

- No wasted food.

- Any web searcher is valid (duck.com, google,...)

- Save money

The procedure is simple:

1. Select the main ingredients, they will be those leftovers I have in my fridge & kitchen or if I am buying in the market, the offer of the day or the food I want to eat.

2. Search in the web a recipe containing these main ingredients, for example, yesterday for dinner it was "recipe portobello, spinach, tuna"

3. Implement

You will be surprised that there is a recipe for any random combination of ingredients!

If you'd consider an (inexpensive) paid option, https://www.ckbk.com/ takes an interesting approach. They partner with publishers to put cookbooks online. Fairly powerful search/filters, and the focus on cookbook content is a good proxy for recipe quality.

I'm not affiliated with them, but Matt (cofounder) has a background in scientific publishing and is passionate about recipe sharing.

I just wish http://opensauce.com/ was still a thing.

If you're in the UK, Tesco's recipe site is really convenient because you can add all the ingredients to your shopping basket and then get it delivered or click and collect them: https://realfood.tesco.com/

Semi-related, but can anyone recommend a website for cocktail recipes?

This is timely for me as I was just searching for it. I am using supercook.com but was looking for alternatives (just to see how good the alternatives were)

If you're interested in Cocktail recipes Sphynx catalogues recipes from Instagram and cocktail books. (Built by yours truly)

sphynx.page.link/get

https://www.yummly.com