Enter ingredients, get recipes...

May 27, 2008 4:59 PM

An interesting food web site - enter your ingredients, it tells you what you can make. Even suggests items you'll need for other dishes. Previously questioned in AskMe.
posted by ObscureReferenceMan (25 comments total)

Hmm. I entered:

* Tuna
* Onions
* Tomatoes
* Rice

It told me I could make Tuna Alfredo, which requires noodles and green onions.
posted by yath at 5:18 PM on May 27, 2008

The problem is that it seems to glom on to the most popular ingredient and ignore the rest.

If I give it 2 ingredients, I want a recipe that uses both of them at the top of the results (duh). I entered "yams broccoli" and didn't see yams on the first five pages of results. ("sweet potato" didn't work much better).

I also tried 4-5 ingredients with "green beans" at the end, and it gave me five pages of plain-old green bean recipes.

g broccoli yam recipes isn't easy, but it still beats Supercook for now.
posted by mrgrimm at 5:20 PM on May 27, 2008

"hummus + gummi worms" does not yield any recipes involving gummi worms.
posted by emelenjr at 5:25 PM on May 27, 2008 [2 favorites]

It's not exactly diplomatic. I told it I had rice vinegar, three pomegranates, chocolate chips, sriracha, oyster crackers, half a tub of I Can't Believe It's Not Butter, and a case of beer, and it told me to get a girlfriend already.
posted by dyoneo at 5:28 PM on May 27, 2008 [11 favorites]

This is a good idea, but I think there may be too many "you will also need..." results. I mean, my three local grocery stores are all at least a one and a half-minute walk away, and I just don't have that kind of time.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:37 PM on May 27, 2008

This would be better if it could automatically twitter what you're attempting to think about making for dinner.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 5:39 PM on May 27, 2008 [1 favorite]

Wait, I'd have to attempt to think? Nuh-uh.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 5:41 PM on May 27, 2008

This looks like a good way to get ideas, but not such a great way to run your pantry down to E.
posted by DU at 5:45 PM on May 27, 2008

I told it I had five stale taco shells, a busted-open box of baking soda, and a half jar of dusty cinnamon cloves, and it told me to go "down the street, not across the road!" Is that a hint that I need to do some shopping or something?
posted by turgid dahlia at 5:54 PM on May 27, 2008 [1 favorite]

I have only this stone and a kettle of water.
posted by hal9k at 6:01 PM on May 27, 2008 [4 favorites]

If only you had salt as well, then you could have had something.
posted by yhbc at 6:04 PM on May 27, 2008 [1 favorite]

With yams/sweetpotato and broccoli you could totally make a bizarro-gobi aloo. Add the broccoli later than you would cauliflower, as it cooks faster. The spices in that recipe are only guidelines, the only essentials are cumin, turmeric, garlic, ginger.

But yeah, the search function has a long way to go, and it could never make the sort of brainstormed substitutions which are essential to actually cooking with what you have lying around.
posted by mek at 6:14 PM on May 27, 2008

Can I use vitamin water?
posted by Dizzy at 6:14 PM on May 27, 2008

Wow! Great. Thanks.
posted by chance at 6:15 PM on May 27, 2008

Hah they never heard of weed!
posted by CautionToTheWind at 6:23 PM on May 27, 2008

It's iffy, but hey, I'm usually looking more for inspiration than precision. Thanks!
posted by owhydididoit at 7:38 PM on May 27, 2008

That's weird. Mefite Soma lkzx had a similar site called Snacksby with a similar premise, featured on MeFi Projects. But it seems to have vanished.
posted by dhruva at 8:34 PM on May 27, 2008

I've been waiting for this to happen for a while.

now if their spiders will only crawl on some vegan sites--

and include options to exclude all recipes with meat.
posted by eustatic at 8:49 PM on May 27, 2008

My kitchen:

rye bread
mustard
pistachios
milk
cream cheese

I can make:

Whipped Cream Cheese
Bacon-Olive Party Sandwiches
Bacon-Olive Party Sandwiches

...right now!

I believe this explains why I ate out tonight, though I am intrigued by the possibility of Bacon-Olive Party Sandwiches. However both recipes seem to also require bacon and olives.
posted by Bugg at 9:00 PM on May 27, 2008

ObscureReferenceMan, thank you!

I have a number of staple ingredients in the house and now, I have options. Positively neat.


This is one of the reasons I really, really like metafilter....
posted by anitanita at 10:46 PM on May 27, 2008

bonus points for actually having recipes (though only 4) involving kimchi....the permanent staple of staples in my kitchen.
posted by yeoja at 11:22 PM on May 27, 2008

google serves this purpose for me, with greater success. Search for ingredient(s) + recipe, et voila!
posted by asok at 5:10 AM on May 28, 2008

A few recipes for tripe. Lots of recipes for white chocolate. None that combine the two. The search continues.
posted by clearlynuts at 6:17 AM on May 28, 2008

I've been waiting for someone to make a website like this! It's not perfect, but the basic idea is there. Just the other day I was staring at my pantry wondering what I could make with a can of tuna other than another boring tuna sandwich.
posted by geeky at 7:45 AM on May 29, 2008

What a fabulous site! For food enthusiasts and hobbyists, this makes cooking a much more organic, creative experience. Thanks for sharing.
posted by davinciuno at 1:32 PM on May 29, 2008