CookShelf: Search Cookbooks

I am an avid cookbook collector and curious home cook. I have over 75 cookbooks, and this app has transformed the way I interact with my beloved books. If you have ever been over-eager at the farmers market, but then get home and wonder, “ok, what can I make with this __”, all you have to do is type the item in the search and the app offers all the recipes in your books, what page they are on and ingredients needed. If you want to make a frittata, you can search for all the recipes to choose from in your library. You can bookmark recipes, read reviews, and see photos from other users. I am now reaching for my books more often, discovering new recipes, and truly diving into my book collection (vs being overwhelmed or forgetting where to find recipes). It’s easy to add books by scanning the bar codes. Such a great app!

CookShelf single-handedly makes it possible for me to use cookbooks at all, and I’m VERY grateful for that. There are however a few improvements I’d like to see. 1) The grocery list feature: I understand why recipe steps aren’t in the app, but it makes no sense to me that CS doesn’t include recipe quantities. It makes grocery planning so much more fiddly and annoying. Items should have the option to be swiped to be checked off (and tapped to edit) as it’s too easy to mistakenly remove them. The auto grocery sorting in Paprika 3 is much better, with categories that match US grocery aisles (I realize this may not be a US-centric app, but there isn’t even a Dairy or Other option…). Paprika 3 also combines the same ingredients from different recipes into 1 entry; CS does not. 2) Recipe photos cannot be tapped to enlarge them - this makes some pics impossible to view clearly, especially on iPad. 3) Would love to be able to sort every recipe in a book by ratings/popularity instead of seeing just the top 5. 4) Would love to see all recipes I’ve cooked from a book, not just all my cooks - wastes time to scroll through repeat cooks of the same recipe. 5) Would love to be able to quickly submit feedback/feature requests to devs via the app. 6) Nice to have - would love to be able to add friends and follow their cooks.

I don't expect full recipes here, but I do wish there was more flexibility in the app. Tagging books by a category we choose would help a lot, especially for filtering. (Such as, I have a few books that are more challenging "project" cooking - so I'd love to be able to tag a book so it doesn't show up when I want a weeknight meal.) I wish there were other view options than one long list of recipe titles - like small thumbnails or something. Obviously it would be great to sort by cook time or difficulty if applicable, but I understand that would be very hard to index. The other big thing, which I don't think would be possible, is to get the book photos instead of user-submitted photos for the recipes. Almost none have photos, and those that do aren't appetizing, making me not want to cook it. I really appreciate what the app does, and the amount it DID index was good (not great for more obscure or vintage books, which I understand.) But it's not functional enough for me to subscribe yet.