Talking to people of all age groups, I’ve found that many more people are using tablets to cook rather than good old fashioned recipe books. All Recipes and Food Network’s online presence have been around for a while, but the culture of looking up food online has permeated throughout the lives of just about everyone at this point, and there are thousands of apps to choose from. (Not)Recipes is my latest find, and it gives prospective users a smaller glimpse into the world of food with mixed results.
After the token signup process (which can be done manually or with Facebook), the social network opens. Well, sort of, because the social elements aren’t really visible at first. This is due to two major factors—one, they’re kind of hidden, and two, the service doesn’t really have many users yet as it just launched. As people know the userbase can make or break any platform, so hopefully people start to pile in or there won’t be many recipes to go around.
That said, I do appreciate that (Not)Recipes is a bit more personal. You can see someone’s avatar, usually their photo by any given recipe, with actual photos taken by them to give you an accurate, no frills view of the food. Sometimes in similar apps I’ll end up making something that looks nothing like the picture, so this has a more real feel to it. The actual recipe itself is clearly marked, including a full ingredients list on the same page.
If you’re looking for a more intimate search engine for homemade food, (Not)Recipes is a good place to start. Of course there’s the chance that it could rapidly grow into a monstrosity of millions of listings like other major sites, but for now, it’s a relaxed environment, which is just the way I like to cook.
(Not)Recipes is an iOS app that can be downloaded for free in the iTunes App Store.