Top Recipe Software for the Apple Macintosh Computer for Under $30

As with most software for Windows-based computers, there is a large assortment of recipe software available to choose from, some of it good, some of it bad. Those of you with Apple Macintosh computers may have to search a little harder for adequate recipe software, but you should be happy to know that there is indeed a fine assortment of it available at a minimal cost, and some of it even for free.

One such freeware application is simply called Yum. Yum is a nifty little application that does quite a lot in terms of recipe management, and its creator is eager to help fix any bugs and flaws and make continual improvements. As such, Yum has steadily progressed over the years to be one of the most simplified, yet also one of the best recipe collection databases available for the Apple Macintosh.

Recipes can be typed in manually or imported through copy and paste and MasterCook files. Excellent formatting tools are available, allowing you to customize the looks of your recipes by choosing font types and sizes, colors, layouts, and paragraph styles.

Recipes can be sorted by specific categories, and typing in search words provides a list of all recipes in your database containing the keyword, helping you to find certain recipes quickly. The recipe software will also allow you to paste graphics onto recipe pages, so that you can easily recall what a completed meal should look like. An email function also allows you to email selected recipes quickly. A small host of other features also makes Yum a standout recipe program.

Similar in function but utilizing a familiar iTunes-like interface is Connoisseur, at a meager price of $20.00. Connoisseur features an auto-completion setting for ingredients that will automatically fill in familiar ingredients for you, saving you the hassle of typing them completely. As with Yum, recipes can be easily sorted by categories, as well as searched for by ingredients or meal type.

Both Yum and Connoisseur are capable of scaling recipes, but Connoisseur will only do so for pre-determined multiples. What Connoisseur does possess that YUM does not is an importable shopping list feature, easily imported to your iPod, and the ability to switch between metric and imperial units of measurement. Thanks to its interface, Connoisseur is especially easy and enjoyable to use.

For a mere $5.00 more, at $25.00, you can get yourself a copy of A Cook's Books, recipe software for the Apple Macintosh that claims to be the most powerful recipe manager for Macs. A Cook's Books features an elegantly designed interface and a host of similar features as those in the previous two programs, such as recipe categorization, and scaling.

A Cook's Books also features the ability to import recipes from a sampling of other recipe programs, as well as more features for convenience, such as shopping list generation, and a very thorough nutritional database, which will tell you exactly what you need to know about specific ingredients regarding nutrition, a very worthy feature for the health-conscious cook. A useful meal planner is also a respected feature implemented by the recipe software, helping you to plan your week's worth of meals, saving you valuable time each day trying to decide what to eat.

A Cook's Books allows you to add pictures to recipe pages, easily email and print batches of recipes, and format and manage your recipes in a simple intuitive way. Searching for specific recipes can be achieved either with a simply keyword or with more advanced, specific search functions, with the ability to save searches. Some handy reference items are also included, such as temperature and time charts for roasting foods, and measurement cross-reference charts to easily determine the proper measurement of any ingredient. The developer is also responsive to questions regarding the software.