For those of us iPhone owners that love to cook, the device has become a convenient way to find recipes and make grocery lists. I used to use the "Everyday Food" app from Martha Stewart Living, however I recently discovered Epicurious, and since then it has turned into my one place to get recipes and make my shopping list. Although both the Martha Stewart app and Epicurious both offer many of the same features and functionality, Epicurious is free (and still better), whereas Martha's Everyday Food is 99 cents. I love going through my Mom's dusty old cookbooks (the Betty Crocker one is the best!), but if I ever do find a recipe I want to make, I have to write down all the ingredients on my grocery list. Fortunately, Epicurious is now saving me that trouble (and some trees). With one click you can add any recipe's ingredients (and how much of that ingredient to buy) to a grocery list. You can select all of the meals you want for the next week, and the app will assemble an amalgamated grocery list with everything on it. This feature is so convenient, I now walk around the grocery store with iPhone in-hand, checking items off the list as I go. I still get funny looks from a few shoppers, but every once in a while I see a like-minded soul being led around the store by their iPhone, and smile.
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Review: Epicurious for iPhone

Jun 16th 2010 by

For those of us iPhone owners that love to cook, the device has become a convenient way to find recipes and make grocery lists.  I used to use the “Everyday Food” app from Martha Stewart Living, however I recently discovered Epicurious, and since then it has turned into my one place to get recipes and make my weekly shopping list.  Although both the Martha Stewart app and Epicurious both offer many of the same features and functionality, Epicurious is free (and still better), whereas Martha’s Everyday Food is 99 cents.

I love going through my Mom’s dusty old cookbooks (the Betty Crocker one is the best!), but if I ever do find a recipe I want to make, I have to write down all the ingredients on a paper grocery list.  Fortunately, Epicurious is now saving me that trouble (and some trees).  With one click you can add any recipe’s ingredients (and how much of that ingredient to buy) to a grocery list.  You can select all of the meals you want for the next week, and the app will assemble an amalgamated grocery list with everything on it.  This feature is so convenient, I now walk around the grocery store with iPhone in-hand, checking items off the list as I go.  I still get funny looks from a few shoppers, but every once in a while I see a like-minded soul being led around the store by their iPhone, and smile.

The main page when you start Epicurious displays a number of feature items and categories.  For example, right now there’s a category named “July 4th” which will link you to a bunch of recipes that would suit the American Independence Day.  This is a great way to ease in new users and familiarize them with the way Epicurious works.  It’s also a great way to browse recipes for seasonal occasions – you could probably find all the recipes you would ever need in this one section alone.

Once you’ve settled on a recipe, you can click the “plus” symbol and it will add the items in the recipe to your grocery list.  Aside from discovering new recipes, this is the coolest – and most convenient – feature that Epicurious has to offer.  If you want to look for recipes, you can search with a number of modifiers.  Search based on the ingredient (ie. broccoli), type of food (ie. Soup), season (ie. Christmas), or you can even search by dietary consideration (ie. Gluten-free).  The search engine (pictured above) is intuitive, and you can immediately filter the results by tapping one of the categories or modifiers.  For example, I could search for “Broccoli soup” recipes, and then filter the results by “dietary consideration – low fat.”  Then I’d have a list of low fat broccoli soup recipes.  It’s easy, intuitive, and even a little fun.

Recipes almost always have a picture of the what the finished meal will look like.  Epicurious also allows you the option to rate the recipe (out of “4 forks”) and write a user review.  These ratings and user reviews help you see if the people that tried the recipe before you enjoyed it, and if they would make it again.  It’s a great community feature, and I have yet to come across a recipe that didn’t have at least one user review/rating.

There’s no doubt that the Epicurious app for iPhone will make your grocery shopping/cooking more productive, and it’s a great time-saving app for iPhone owners who love to cook.  Popular (and therefore, great) recipes usually appear high up in the search results, and the user reviews are very helpful.  It’s kind of like Digg.com for recipes.  I’ve enjoyed using Epicurious so much, I would definitely recommend it to iPhone owners, especially over the Martha Stewart Everyday Food app.  The fact that Epicurious is free and Everyday Food is not is just the icing on the cake.  The only downside is that my Betty Crocker cookbook is now gathering dust on the bookshelf.

Epicurious is available from the iTunes AppStore for Free.

This app was independently purchased (for free) by the post author in the iPhone App Store. For further information regarding our site ‘s review policies, please see the ‘About ‘ page.

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