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Cooking Application Showdown
Published on June 9th, 2009 by Will
WHICH IS RIPE AND WHICH IS WILTING?
A chef’s computer nowadays serves as a dynamic resource in the kitchen. There are recipe websites galore – it’s as easy as three clicks to find out how to make that favorite Thai dish of yours which you’ve been ordering out for years. It’s that meal you never thought you could make yourself. However, upon finding a recipe for it online, you’ll realize it’s possible to cook at home.
Here at EYL, we recently spent an afternoon searching Google results and YouTube videos trying to figure out how to extract the heart from an artichoke. Half-way through our experiment we realized the chokes had gone bad, but anyway, the web has the power to transform unschooled, inexperienced chefs, into smarter, but still inexperienced ones. Seeing ingredients and cooking tips on your computer screen can’t make you an Iron Chef contestant (original beats the American version any day.) But, what can one do to manage, store, and easily access the information and recipes they gather on the internet? Well, you could write every recipe down and store it in one of those recipe binders thingys. That’s one way to do it, but why waste the time when technology allows us to easily save the information we access? You could bookmark every recipe you find, but when you’re stuck in a cottage located in the boonies with a professional kitchen, yet no internet access, how will those bookmarks help you? It’s better to save them somewhere in your computer – somewhere where you’re recipe collection is safe, where those family recipes will survive if your recipe binder catches fire while hanging out by the stove.
Some cook-friendly software designers are one step ahead of you. Aracia Tree Software’s Sous Chef and Hungry SeaCow Software’s YummySoup! are the two best software programs out there for Macs. Sorry PC users, but here at EYL, we favor and primarily use Apple computers.
Sous Chef by Aracia Tree Software $30
Sous Chef takes out the trouble of searching for recipes through Google. The program has the power to search and find whatever you might want to cook on any given night. Thousands, close to 100,000 recipes now, are at your finger tips – when connected to the internet of course. It’s simple. Every recipe a Sous Chef user enters is submitted into a database, accessible to every other Sous Chefer on the planet. Search for vegetarian recipes, breakfast, lunch, or dinner, whatever you’re looking for. Users also have the option of searching for recipes based on what’s in their refrigerator already.
Once users find a recipe which seems promising, they can then import it, saving it to their Sous Chef library. Here’s a picture of my library. Selected I have a vegetarian chili which I found about a week ago. Summer is not the best time for chili – so, I’m saving it for later. Now, with recipes at hand, Sous Chef can help you cook them as well. It’s always annoying to have a cookbook propped open when your trying to prep your dish quickly. One must undoubtably keep going back and forth, from cooking to reading – it’s a tiresome ordeal. Sous Chef solves this problem.
Say, for example, I want to cook that chili I saved. I simply hit the cook button, underneath the recipe and I’m off. Sous Chef displays the steps, allowing for cooks to cut down on idle time. A virtual voice can read out directions. Sous Chef includes a variety of other features. With e-mail incorporation and integrated blogging software, Sous Chef makes it easy for you to share your favorite recipes with not only your brother, but your blog followers as well.
YummySoup! by Hungry Seacow Software $20
YummySoup! is a lot like Sous Chef. Users can access every recipe available on the YummySoup! database. The layout is a bit more mainstreamed and is easier on the eyes. Personally, I am much more apt to choose a dish, to go through all the steps, take all the time, if I have a photograph of what I am trying to make. A visual component is tasty – a title is often bland.
As you can see, YummySoup! uses a picture layout, making it easy for users to spot what might hit-the-spot that day. Here’s EYL’s Summer Salsa which we posted last week.
Again, much like Sous Chef, YummySoup! users can enter chef mode, making the program incredibly useful in the kitchen. There’s no virtual voice with this program. The visually impaired might have to shy away from YummySoup!
But there is one YummySoup! feature which separates it from Sous Chef and this is the AnySite Web Importer. YummySoup! has a built in web browser which makes saving recipes you find online a piece of cake. Just pull up the recipe on the browser, highlight features and then match them to the top inputs. Instead of the hassle of typing in all of the directions and ingredients, recipes can be imported and saved for later in mere seconds. Now, your recipe collection is easily accessible, even in that internet-lacking cottage.
Conclusion
For those, like us, who use the internet to find recipes and want a great way to easily save them all, YummySoup! is the way to go. While the online database is a sad one when compared to Sous Chef’s, YummySoup!’s AnySite Web Importer makes up for this shortcoming. It should be noted that even while Sous Chef champions a 100,000 recipe database, rarely do users accurately tag their recipes – finding vegetarian ones can often prove difficult. YummySoup! costs $20 – Sous Chef is available at $30 – save the extra $10 and buy the better program! Go buy some extra veggies with the $10 you’ve saved.
Summer Time Cooking
Published on May 11th, 2009 by Will
It’s (Finally) That Time of the Year Again
Now that the temperature is finally on the up and up (at least in the Northeast) and school is over, papers passed in, it’s time to start a new chapter here at EYL: summer time cooking. What is summer time cooking and how does it compare to winter cooking? Well, for starters, summer time cooking is lighter. We no longer need that extra layer of food in our bodies, guarding us from the bitter weather. No more hearty soups, no more deep, rich pasta dishes. It’s time for light, sweet, fun-filled food. Summer cooking also calls for taking advantage of the summer items which will soon be flooding grocery stores.
During the summer, a vast array of vegetables and fruits ripen. Your produce section is no longer dominated by the delicious, yet boring, display of apples, bananas, and oranges. Nope, now you’ll have the opportunity to sink your teeth into some watermelons, apricots, and, my favorite, blueberries. Instead of those heavy, blueberry pancakes in the morning, just sprinkle a handful on some cheerios or granola. You’ve probably been buying those bags of frozen berries or paying $10 a carton for some ‘fresh’ ones, but with summer, the blueberry woes are over. Blueberries hold massive amounts of anti-oxidants and are amazingly low in sugar compared to other fruits. Raspberries, blackberries, and mangos are available too. Rainbow aisles of fruit await you.
In addition to the great, new selection of fruits, some vegetables are in best pickings during the summer months. Arugula is a great addition to any salad or sandwich – surprisingly, it is also a good source of vitamin C and calcium. On focaccia, with fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, and pesto, arugula can be the make-or-break ingredient when it comes to a delicious, light, Mediterranean sandwich. Although available year round, avocados are at their peak during the summer. An addition of avocados lightens up any omelette. Nix that boring cheddar cheese, add some asiago instead, and you’ve got a tasty, summer breakfast. Avocado chunks are also a great addition to any chopped salad – avocados contain a compound that helps with the absorption of healthy carotenoids – a class of natural fat-soluble pigments that provide vitamin A and anti-oxidants – from vegetables. And, who doesn’t like a big bowl of guacamole to dip chips into while sitting next to the pool, drinking a nice fruity cocktail or a class of ice-cold lemonade?
Here at EYL, we hope your summer days, nights, and vacations are filled with cooking opportunities. Leave those school woes and work worries behind and start cooking creatively again. We will be posting more regularly in the coming months and hope that you will enjoy our summer dishes.
* Photos courtesy of photobucket.com