Shop'NCook shopping list and recipe management software

Shop'NCook Pro 3.4.2 User's Manual

Shop'NCook
Getting started
Shopping List
Database Editor
Sublists
Sublist Editor
Recipes
Cookbooks
Recipe Import/Export
Recipe Editor
Nutritional Analysis
Direct Access
Menus & Meal Planner
Costing
Browser
Preferences
Troubleshooting
Search

Recipes

Overview

The recipe panel is accessed by clicking on the Recipes tab at the top of the screen. The recipes are organized in cookbooks and by chapters, and classified in categories. The titles of the recipes of the current cookbook are shown in the column on the left. When a category is selected in the pull-down menu of the toolbar, only the titles of the recipes belonging to this category are displayed. To display all the recipes, select again the category All at the top of the category pull-down menu.

Click on the name of a recipe to display it in the area on the right. Select the Recipe tab to view the text of the recipe. Select the Ingredients tab to scale the ingredients and add them selectively to the shopping list. To scale the recipe itself or view it in a separate window, double-click on it or press the View button of the toolbar. The recipe is opened in a new window with a scaling tool. You can also display the recipe in full-screen mode (or called also cooking mode) by selecting View In Full-Screen in the File menu.

A recipe can be printed, sent by e-mail, shared with the other Shop'NCook users by loading it to The Recipe Database, or exported to various formats (Shop'NCook exchange, Meal-Master, HTML and plain text formats). The data displayed in the recipe (for example categories, yield, preparation time, etc.) can be customized in the preferences panel.

Color code of the ingredients

Some ingredients of a recipe may appear in red, blue or green in the Ingredients tab. The colors have the following meanings:

Red: The ingredient has not been linked to the item database. It is unchecked by default. If checked, it will be added to the shopping list in the category Miscellaneous.
Blue: The unit of the ingredient is unknown to the software and it is therefore not included in the nutritional analysis of the recipe.
Green: The nutritional information has not been defined for the ingredient. It is therefore not included in the nutritional analysis of the recipe.
Black: The ingredient is linked to the item database, its quantity and nutritional information are known. Only ingredients in black are included in the nutritional analysis of the recipe.

When an ingredient is red, you can edit the item database to add the unknown ingredient in its correct category. The ingredient in the recipe will be then automatically linked to the new shopping list item. Alternatively, you can link it with an existing item by editing the recipe. When an ingredient is blue, you can add the unknown unit to the ingredient in the nutritional information editor. Alternatively, you can input the gram weight information for the ingredient by editing the recipe. When an ingredient is green, you can input the nutritional information of the ingredient yourself in the nutritional information editor to include it in the nutritional analysis of the recipe.
Ingredients that appears in bold are linked to an other recipe of the same cookbook. If the recipe name is selected, the ingredients of the linked recipe are listed below, properly scaled. When displaying the Recipe tab, linked recipes are underlined. You can view them by clicking on their name: they are opened in a separate window.

About The Recipe Database

The Recipe Database (http://www.TheRecipeDatabase.com) has been created especially for Shop'NCook users. This is where you can share your recipes with other Shop'NCook users and with the web. A forum has also been created specially to request recipes from other users. You can add a recipe to the database by using the "Share" function. The downloadable index allows to search the database offline in the Direct Access panel. Online recipes are viewed and their ingredients added to the shopping list as conveniently as if they were on your computer (see the Direct Access Panel help for more information). Adding your recipes to the database gives you access to them at any time at TheRecipeDatabase.com.

Recipes - How To...

  • How to share a recipe with other Shop'NCook users
  • How to get your Recipe Database login information sent by e-mail

    How to search to recipes

    The recipe list can be searched by the search function of the toolbar. You input the words you want to find in the text field next to the "Find:" prompt and click on the search button. The software search for exact word match. If you want to look for partial words, you can use the wild card "*", where the star character stands for any group of characters. For example, if you search for "tomato*", it will find recipes containing the word "tomatoes" as well as "tomato". The search function look for a match in the recipe title, category list, or list of ingredients. Only the ingredients linked to the shopping list are searched. Also, only the recipes in the current cookbook and current category are searched. To search all the categories, you must first select "All" in the category pull-down menu. When recipes are found, they are displayed in the list on the left. To view again the list of all the recipes, click on the ShowAll button of the toolbar.

    How to add recipes

    Recipes can be added in several ways: Note: Before creating or importing recipes, make sure to open first the cookbook to which you want to add the recipes. It must be an unlocked cookbook, as recipes cannot be added to locked cookbooks. How to delete recipes To delete recipes, select them and click on the Delete button. Only recipes in an unlocked cookbook can be deleted. If the cookbook is locked, you must first unlock it. Note that when you delete a recipe, it is definitely removed from every category, not only from the currently selected category. If you want to remove recipes from a category, you can achieve that by editing them or by using a combination of Rename Category... and Add Category... functions of the Tools menu.

    How to scale a recipe

    Select the recipe in the Recipes panel and click on the View button or alternatively, double-click the recipe name. The recipe will open in a separate window with a scaling tool. Input the desired number of servings and portion size and click on the Calculate button to scale the recipe. Quantities expressed in cups, tablespoons and teaspoons will be approximated by a combination of cups, tablespoons and teaspoons in the scaled recipe. The other quantities will be exactly scaled. Note that only the display of the recipe is changed in this window: the original recipe is not modified. You can print the scaled recipe by clicking on the Print button.
    To save a scaled version of a recipe, select the recipe and choose "Save As Scaled Recipe..." in the File menu. You will be able to specify the scaled recipe title, the number of servings and the serving size. The scaled recipe will be saved as a new recipe and will not replace the original one.
    Diverse options are available in the Preferences to customize recipe scaling:
    • The quantities can be automatically scaled to a fixed number of servings. If the number of servings of the recipe is set to 0, the quantities are not scaled. This is useful if you want to prevent automatic scaling for recipes that are not easily scaled, like cakes for example that depend on the mold size and not on the number of servings.
    • You can display the original quantities in parenthesis after the scaled quantities.
    • You can enable the substitution list to substitute automatically some ingredients for others. For example, if you always use low fat milk instead of milk, you can enable this option to replace milk with low fat milk. The substitution will also affect the nutritional analysis. Use however this option with caution as you may lose information useful for the recipe, as the whole ingredient name, including eventually preparation instructions, is replaced by the substituted ingredient.
    • Volume units can be automatically converted to weight units.
    • You can select to scale the text of the recipe too. This option is slow and disabled by default.
    • You can convert automatically weight units from metric to US units, or vice versa.

    How to view a recipe in full-screen mode

    Go to the recipe panel by selecting the Recipes tab and select the recipe. Choose "View In Full Screen" to display it in full-screen mode. To view a scaled recipe in full-screen mode, display fisrt the scaling window by double-clicking on the recipe title in the column on the left. Scale the recipe to the desired number of servings or servings size, and click on the "Cooking View" button. To return to the normal view, click on the Close button.

    How to view and export a picture attached to a recipe

    A picture attached to a recipe is displayed in small format with the recipe. To display a large view of the picture, click on it. It the opening window, you can also export to picture to JPG format.

    How to add recipe ingredients to the shopping list

    Go to the recipe panel by selecting the Recipes tab. Select the recipe title and click on the Ingredients tab. The recipe ingredients are displayed. Scale the ingredients by inputting the desired number of servings and portion size and clicking on the Calculate button. Make sure the ingredients you want to add to the shopping list are checked, and uncheck the others. You can set in the Recipe Editor which ingredients are checked by default. If an ingredient of the recipe is linked to another recipe, the ingredients of the linked recipe are also listed. If you deselect the name of the recipe, its ingredients will be hidden and won't be added to the shopping list. Click the "Add" button of the toolbar to add the selected ingredients to the shopping list. Note that ingredients displayed in red are not linked to the item database and are added to the Miscellaneous category of the shopping list.

    Different options are available in the preferences to add ingredients to the shopping list:

    • The ingredients can be automatically scaled to a fixed number of servings. This option is useful if you cook always for the same number of persons. If the recipe has a number of servings set to "0", the quantities will not be scaled.
    • The title of the recipe can be automatically added next to the ingredients in the shopping list.
    • The quantities can be automatically converted to a preferred US or metric unit. The preferred unit is defined in the item database editor.
    • If the recipe specifies a quantity of a cooked ingredient, it can be automatically converted to the quantity of the raw ingredient. For example, 3 cups of cooked rice will be added as 1 cup of (raw) rice.
    • Weights can be automatically corrected for refuse. Refuse is the non-edible part of food that is included in the weight of the ingredient as bought but not included in the recipes. For example, 1 cup of chopped tomatoes has a weight of 6.4 oz or 180 g. However, you need to purchase 7 oz or 200 g of tomatoes, because you have to remove the core and stems that represent about 9% of the weight of the tomatoes. Shop'NCook will make automatically this correction if you enable this option.
    • You can enable a list of ingredients that should always be automatically deselected. This is useful to deselect automatically ingredients like salt that you keep usually in stock.
    • You can enable a list of substitution. Ingredients in this list are automatically replaced by another ingredient that you specify. For example, if you always buy low fat milk, you can replace automatically milk by the same amount of low fat milk.

    How to print recipe index cards

    Go to the recipe panel by selecting the Recipes tab. Select the recipes you want to print. You can select a range of recipes by selecting the first recipe, then clicking on the last recipe of the range while pressing down the shift key. You can also select individual recipes by clicking on the recipe names with the control key on Windows, or the command key on Mac OS X, pressed down. If you want to print on small (A6) index card, open the preference pane, decrease the margin to the minimum value allowed and decrease the character size if necessary. Select then Page Setup... in the file menu and select the paper size and orientation. Click on Print to print out the selected recipes.
    If you want to print a scaled recipe, double-click on the recipe name or click on the View button to display the recipe with the scaling tool, scale the recipe to the desired number of servings and serving size and click the Print button.

    How to view several recipes simultaneously

    Double-click on the name of a recipe or click on the view button to open it in a separate window. You can open several recipes and view them together by arranging the windows on the screen.

    How to send recipes by e-mail

    Go to the recipe panel by selecting the Recipes tab. Select the recipes you want to send by e-mail. You can select a range of recipes by selecting the first recipe, then clicking on the last recipe of the range while pressing down the shift key. You can also select individual recipes by clicking on the recipe names with the control key on Windows, or the command key on Mac OS X, pressed down. Click on Send in the toolbar. In the window that opens, type in the recipient e-mail address or choose it from the pull-down menu, input the subject, the format of the e-mail and an accompagnying message. Click Send to send the selected recipes.

    How to view the recipes belonging to a chapter If the cookbook is not already in Chapter mode, select "Chapter Mode" in the Tools menu of the recipe manager. The recipes belonging to a chapter will be listed in the column on the left in chapter order. Note that if chapters have not been defined for the current cookbook, the list of recipes will be empty. Select a chapter name in the chapter pull-down menu of the toolbar to display the recipes belonging to this chapter. To view again the list of the recipes belonging to all the chapters, select All in the pull-down menu.

    How to view the recipes belonging to a category

    If the cookbook is not already in Category mode, select "Category Mode" in the Tools menu of the recipe manager. The recipes will be listed in alphabetical order in the column on the left. Select a category name in the category pull-down menu of the toolbar to display the recipes belonging to this category. The recipes belonging to this category will be listed on the left. To list again all the recipes, select All in the pull-down menu.

    How to rename a category

    When a category is selected in the Category pull-down menu of the toolbar, you can choose "Rename Category" in the Tools menu to rename it. Type the new name of the category in the window that opens. All the recipes belonging to the category will be moved to the new one. If you clear the name of the category, the category will be removed. If you type the name of an existing category, all the recipes belonging to the initial category will be moved to the other one. This function is only available in unlocked cookbooks.

    How to delete a category

    Select the category to delete in the Category pull-down menu of the toolbar. Choose "Rename Category" in the Tools menu, leave the caetgory name field empty and click OK. The category will be deleted. This function is only available in unlocked cookbooks.
    Note: you should not delete the recipes belonging to a category to delete a category: when you delete a recipe, it is removed from all the categories, not only from the current category.

    How to add recipes to a category

    To add recipes to a category, select the recipes and choose the "Add Category" function in the Tools menu. Type the name of the category to which you want to add the recipes in the window that opens.

    How to display the nutritional analysis of a recipe

    Nutritional information can be displayed in many different formats. You can select the information you want displayed and the format in the Preferences. Shop'NCook is unique in that it also allows the user to define nutrition scripts to calculate custom formulas and customize the display of nutrition data. When ingredients of the recipe are linked to another recipe, the nutritional information of the linked recipe will be appropriately scaled and included in the nutritional analysis.
    Note that the ingredients displayed in color in the Ingredients tab of the recipe are not included in the nutritional analysis. See the nutritional analysis help for more information on the color code used and to learn how to customize the nutritional data.

    How to view the effect of a substitution on the nutritional analysis

    To view the effect on the nutritional analysis of substituting ingredients, define the desired substitutions in the Shopping List tab of the Preferences (for example, you can substitute automatically low-fat milk for milk), enable then the use of substitution in scaled recipes in the Recipe tab of the Preferences. Save the Preferences. Double-click then on the recipe name to display it in a separate window with the scaling tool. The nutritional information will be displayed for the substituted ingredients

    How to estimate the cost of a recipe

    To estimate the cost of a recipe, display the Recipes panel and select the recipe. Click then on the Costing button of the toolbar. A new window will be displayed with the cost information. With the default settings, the quantities are displayed on three columns: the first one shows the recipe quantities, the second one shows the same quantities in the unit for which the cost is defined, usually in weight unit. The third column shows the quantities increased by the refuse, i.e. purchase quantities. The refuse information for each ingredient can be changed in the nutrition editor. You can disable the correction for the refuse in the preferences. Only the selected ingredients in black are included in the cost calculation. Optional ingredients are unchecked by default. You can select or deselect ingredients to see the effect on the total cost. You can scale the recipe quantities for the desired number of servings and serving size. If you have input a non-zero labour hourly rate in the preferences panel, the labour cost is itemized per recipe at the end of the food cost. You can print the cost data or export it to a file. For information on the meaning of the different colors and on the action to take to allow the sofware to estimate the cost of the colored ingredients, see Costing.

    How to share a recipe with other Shop'NCook users

    Go to the recipe panel by selecting the Recipes tab. Select the recipe you want to share. Click on the Share button. The first time you use this feature, you are prompted to create an account with The Recipe Database or input login information. Though it is not required to upload a recipe, creating an account allows you to access easily the recipes you shared from any web browser by going to http://www.TheRecipeDatabase.com, input your login information, and clicking "My Recipes". After you have created an account (or chosen not to), a window opens where you can edit the category list and database classification. The category list should consist in a list of keywords to help the users to find your recipe with the search function. The classification determines in which sections of the database your recipe will be listed. It is possible to choose several sections by pressing down the control key (on Windows) or the command key (on Mac OS X) while clicking on the sections. It is recommended to choose at least a type of meal, a main ingredient, and if applicable a region of origin. Click OK to upload the recipe. The recipe becomes then instantly available to the other Shop'NCook users with a Direct Access account, and accessible to all internet users through The Recipe Database pages. If you try to share a recipe that you have already uploaded to The Recipe Database, you are given the option to upload it as new or update the existing listing. To see the shared recipe on the Direct Access panel, go o the Direct Access panel, select "Update Index" in the file menu. The new or updated recipe will be listed in the left.

    Note about the login account: All internet users can create a login account for free. It allows them to access and edit their recipes, vote to recommend recipes to other and create a list of favorites. It should not be confused with the Direct Access account which is only available to registered users of the software.

    How to get your Recipe Database login information sent by e-mail

    Go to the recipe panel by selecting the Recipes tab. Select "Login To Another Account" from the Tools menu. Input the e-mail address you are using in your account. Click on "Email me my account info". The software will request The Recipe Database to send you your account information. Note: if you have not yet setup your account information, you should select "Setup Login...", click "Existing Account", and ask to have your account information sent to you.

    Copyright Rufenacht Innovative 2004.