Best Online Sites for Recipes

Cookbooks have the unfortunate characteristic of being unwieldy and limited. Very few aspiring cooks want to thumb through giant books of complicated recipes with no guarantee of the outcome. I am thinking, of course, of the Joy of Cooking, which urges its readers to make homemade chicken stock and use vegetables like the rutabaga.

In my fast-paced and realistic world, there is no time for such culinary niceties. What I want is something fast, easy, and at my fingertips.

Online recipe websites are an innovative and simple way to access new recipes and to share favorite ones. I have encountered quite a few recipe sites in my quest for the best ones. Compiled below is my own list of the best recipe websites - each one with its own different benefit and drawback.

Best Site for Leftovers (or whatever you need to use up):

http://allrecipes.com/

This site has a really handy feature near the top. There should be a drop-down bar titled "More Searches." When you click it, there is an option entitled "Ingredient Search." This tool allows you to put in whatever ingredient you would like to use. If I have leftover meat, some vegetables that are on the brink of disintegration, or simply too many cans of black beans, all I have to do is type in my desired ingredient. The search tool will then bring up all the recipes in their database using that ingredient. You can even limit your search to avoid something you don't want. For example, I wanted to make a chicken pot pie using leftover chicken, but not using condensed cream soup. This site made that easy to do!

User feedback is provided throughout the site, and each recipe is rated according to a five-star scale. The only drawback to this site is that a select few of the recipes (usually the ones that look the best to me) are only available to paid subscribers.

Best Site for Copycats:

http://www.topsecretrecipes.com/home.asp

I love this site. The premise is that a culinary "Sleuth" takes your favorite foods from chain restaurants and discovers a way for you to duplicate them at home. Some of the recipes are free - for example, KFC's coleslaw. When I made this one, no one in my family could tell the difference between my coleslaw and the real deal. Other recipes are provided for a charge (usually less than a dollar). You will be amazed at how accurate their recipes are!

The main drawback to this site is the complication of the recipes. Whereas many recipes you find online are focused on being simple and inexpensive, these ones strive for authenticity rather than ease. Expect the ingredient list to be lengthy - preparation times may also be rather long.

Best Site for Tried-and-True Recipes:

http://www.recipezaar.com/

This site is composed entirely of recipes used by people just like you and me. You can choose foods based on type, occasion, dietary needs, ingredients, or any number of other prerequisites. This site works because it has the benefit of providing "Member Cookbooks." These cookbooks are really just compilations of someone else's favorite recipes from their own kitchen as well as from other cookbooks on the site. I have found that once you find someone whose skill and tastes run parallel to your own, their cookbook becomes a valuable tool. Reviews are neatly listed to the right side to allow you to read both positive and negative feedback. You can even make your own cookbook as you discover which recipes are your personal favorites.

This site is incredibly daunting at first. There are advertisements all over the place and numerous ways to find recipes. It takes some navigation and quite a bit of time to get oriented to the site.

Best Site for International Cuisine:

http://celebrateourworld.org/

This website is a valuable tool for all things multicultural - including cuisine. I find that it is much easier to navigate than many other recipe websites. By clicking on the drop-down menu near the top, you can pick any nation or culture in the world. Although not all of the nations have recipes listed, the vast majority do under the Food & Recipes category. The foods seem to be authentic and often include some background about the dish or the ingredients. I find that these recipes are great ones to do with your kids!

The main drawback to this site's recipes are the fact that they may be too authentic. Some of the ingredients would be impossible to find at anything other than a specialty store.

Although this is only a short list of recipe sites, they are very comprehensive. I find that it is much easier to orient myself to a handful of sites rather than to peruse the entire internet every time I want to cook a new meal.