Searching for Recipes on the Internet

It used to be that I perused cookbooks for inspiration. Some cookbooks I even read like a novel, prizing them for the insight they gave into a particular time and place, or planning dinner parties I might never give. When confronted with a new ingredient, I went straight to the well-worn copy of The Joy Of Cooking to find out how to prepare and cook it.

Then along came the internet and search engines. Now, if I need to know how to make something specific, I usually go to www.epicurious.com and www.foodtv.com. I might look at several recipes, compare them, and decide which one looks like the best fit for what I am trying to do. This is a process that used to take a long time, going through cookbook indexes one by one.

Powerful search engines now allow us to recreate food memories.  Search google for Gilchrist macaroons, a powerful food memory for those who grew up near Boston. But you have to read a few to find the right one. The first hit is for coconut macaroons-so wrong.  Here's the link to the best recipe I found: Gilchrist Macaroons

Now there are sites that are more like cookbooks. Take a look at Cookstr which highlight chefs and recipes in an easy to use format.

There are great food bloggers. My favorite is Mark Bittman, whose Bitten blog appears on the New York Times website. Check out a recent post about mastering the omelette: Bitten

And there are user driven sites. One of the most recent I have found is Big Oven. This is a site with lots of free recipes and tools, and the option to download (for a fee) their recipe software.

And of course, there are health conscious sites, that help with recipe makeovers. Take a look at Taste of Home's healthy food section, or look at Weight Watchers where you can search recipes for free.

Of course, all this leads to the question, is there still a place in the world for a great cookbook?

What do you think?

Comments

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Is there still a place in the world for a great cookbook?

Well, I think there is.. What I did is just search on the net, and I found many recipes..