What’s for dinner? Search your cookbook collection

What's for dinner? Search your cookbook collection
© Diana Vyshniakov | Dreamstime.com

Do you ever wish you had the CTRL + F shortcut in real life? Think about it: An easy way to find what you’re looking for in printed text would be a lifesaver.

Now, this isn’t that, but it functions essentially the same way. If you have a stack of cookbooks collecting dust, you’ll love this site.

Eat Your Books is an online database of nearly 10,000 cookbooks with 1.5 million recipes — plus magazines and blogs. You create a profile, select the cookbooks you own and Eat Your Books generates your recipe index.

Now you can find recipes you want to make, with the ingredients you have on hand, without paging through an entire cookbook. You’re just a quick search away from breaking out of your dinnertime rut. Search by ingredients, cuisine, ease of preparation, cooking style (Instant Pot, anyone?) and more.

Aside from your own library of cookbooks, the site includes recipes from “The New York Times” (you can search by columnist), years of Bon Appetit and Food & Wine and the entire catalog of Cooks Illustrated magazine.

With a free account, you can add five cookbooks. If you’re a cookbook fiend and want to include your entire collection, a premium subscription will run you $3 per month or $30 for a year.

Even before you sign in, you can browse recipes from cookbooks you don’t own. Scroll to the bottom of the home page, select a cuisine or author. We chose Jamie Oliver. Now, select a recipe that looks great, and click Online. You’ll see a version of the recipe posted online. We’ll take these grilled lamb kebabs, please.

With a paid membership, you can organize your cookbook collection, save and tag recipes, and create menus.

It’s time to put your cookbooks to work.

Try this site. It’s great stuff!

Tags: home, ingredients, Instant Pot, magazines, real-life, recipes