Build a personal recipe app with scaling and cook mode

Structure each recipe as data

A recipe pasted as one block of text can be displayed but not scaled, searched by ingredient or turned into a shopping list. Ask for structured recipes from the start:

Ingredients: Each with a quantity, a unit and a name, plus an optional note ("finely chopped"). Groups such as "For the sauce" keep long recipes readable.
Method: Numbered steps, each short enough to read at a glance. A step can carry a time ("simmer 20 minutes") that cook mode can turn into a timer.
Serves: The base number of portions, which scaling works from.
Tags and times: Prep and cook time, course, diet labels you choose, and where it came from ("Gran's card", a book and page).

Scaling that doesn't produce nonsense

Multiplying every number is the easy part. A good recipe organiser app also handles the awkward cases:

Readable fractions. 0.333 cups should read as 1/3 cup; 1.5 eggs needs a note rather than a decimal.
Unit steps. 18 teaspoons is better shown as 6 tablespoons. Decide whether you want metric, cups, or both shown side by side.
Things that don't scale. Pinches, "to taste" and "1 bay leaf" shouldn't triple automatically. Mark them as fixed.
Tin and dish size. Doubling a cake changes the tin or the baking time, not just the flour. A note on the recipe is more honest than a formula.

Ask for a serves selector at the top of each recipe and test it with a recipe you know well, at half and at triple.

Cook mode

Cook mode is a different screen, not a bigger font. One step at a time in large type, the ingredients for that step beside it, big Previous and Next buttons that work with a knuckle, and step timers you can start with one tap. Timers should keep counting if you scroll back to check something, and show clearly when they finish.

Keeping the screen awake is the part to test. Some browsers let a page ask the phone not to dim, but whether that works inside Anticode's app sandbox on your phone isn't something to assume: ask for it, try it during a real recipe, and if the screen still sleeps, change your phone's auto-lock setting while you cook.

A brief that works

"A recipe app for our family. Recipes with ingredient groups, quantities in grams and millilitres with cups shown alongside, numbered steps with optional timers, serves, prep and cook time, and tags. Search by title or ingredient, filter by tag. A serves selector that scales sensibly and leaves pinches alone. A cook mode with one step per screen, huge text and step timers. A shopping list built from ticked recipes. Warm, simple, readable in a bright kitchen. Start with six sample recipes I can delete."

Anticode's model writes this as one app that runs in the browser. Use it for a week of real cooking and ask for changes in plain words. Shopping lists can grow into their own tool; there's a separate guide to a shopping list app and to weekly meal planning.

Where the recipes are kept

The app runs in a sandbox with no network, so recipes are saved in the browser on your device, and nowhere else. There are no ads and no account. A few megabytes of browser storage holds a great many text recipes, but not a photo for each one; ask for small thumbnails if you want pictures and check how many fit.

No sync is the trade-off. The recipes you type on the laptop aren't on the phone you prop against the kettle. Pick the phone or tablet you cook with as the recipe box's home, and ask for an export and import file so you can make backups and move house. Installing the published app on that device's home screen makes it feel like any other app.

What it can't do

No importing from a web link. The app can't fetch a recipe page. Paste the text and ask for a parser that splits ingredients from steps, then check the result.
No nutrition lookups. Calories need a food database; enter values yourself if you want them.
No sharing with the family's phones. Each device has its own box. For a public family cookbook others can read, a published site whose recipes you edit through CMS collections fits better; visitors read them but can't add their own.
No AI suggestions inside the app, such as "what can I make with leeks". Ingredient search over your own recipes is the honest version.

Questions people ask

Is this recipe app private?

Yes. Your recipes stay in your browser on your device, and the published app holds none of them.

Can it convert between cups and grams?

Volume conversions are straightforward. Cups to grams depends on the ingredient, so ask for a small table of the ingredients you use most, and check it.

Can I print a recipe?

Ask for a print layout without buttons and test it with your browser's print command.