I have been frustrated recently in my efforts to find the perfect cook's software to run on Mac OS X.  My criteria isn't that demanding (so I thought). I have been looking for a programme that:

• Easily imports and categorises recipes.
• Has a menu planning facility.
• Creates shopping lists based on menus.

There seems to be maybe a dozen recipe and menu packages for Mac out there.  A few of them do all three of the above.  But what I found was there are very few that do it well.  This is when I should start to admit that my criteria is, actually, a bit more demanding than I thought.  As I've spent so much bloody time trying to find the perfect package, I thought I'd share my research here.  Maybe one of you knows of a programme that I haven't found yet.  Or maybe this will save you some time and money. I've listed each programme and a list of criteria (demanding - me?) that I used to evaluate them.  I actually made a spreadsheet and compared the features and cost of them all.  I am my father's daughter, after all!

Mac Gourmet (version 2.1.4)

• Cost: $24.95 /free 20 session trial
• User interface/presentation: 9 out of 10. Great OSX look, customisable with a choice of seven 'skins' and a variety of colours.  Chefs view for anyone crazy enough to have a computer in the kitchen.
• Importing/adding new recipes: Easy import wizard integrates with Services menu to make internet import easy, text importer works just as well.
• Adding photo/illustration to recipes: Yes and they are displayed at a decent size. 
• Recipe scaling: Yes
• Metric/US switching: Yes 
• Dietary information: Space to add your own if you have it.
• Menu Planner: No.
• Shopping List: Yes, but pretty basic. Combines ingredients but doesn't sort them.  Takes several steps to add new recipes.
• Notes: I had high hopes for Mac Gourmet because it looks so good and the import wizard is slick, but the lack of a menu planner and the rudimentary shopping list let it down.

Shop N Cook (version 3.4)

• Cost: $49.95/free 45 day trial
• User interface/presentation: 4 out of 10. Looks like a cheap & nasty Windows programme. Amateurish hand-drawn icons and bad layouts. 
• Importing/adding new recipes: Import wizard works well from internet or text files.
• Adding photo/illustration to recipes: No drag & drop, you need to have the file saved locally to add to recipes.  Display is tiny in the recipe view. 
• Recipe scaling: Yes
• Metric/US switching: Yes
• Dietary information: Yes, very accurate automatic calculation of all nutritional values. Impressive.
• Menu planner: Yes, a rather excellent one (combines daily menus nutrition for example) and allows planning months in advance.
• Shopping List: Yes, although the interface is a bit odd (editing involves scrolling through every ingredient available and un-ticking anything you don't want) it works, and it sorts by grocery section (dairy, meat etc)!
• Notes: It's the most expensive, and it looks like crap.  Otherwise it does everything you could ask for.

Organised Gourmet (version 2.2.1)

• Cost: $20/ 15 day free trial
• User interface/presentation: 6 out of 10. Brush aluminum, tidy but uninspiring.
• Importing/adding new recipes: No import wizard makes adding recipes extremely laborious.
• Adding photo/illustration to recipes:  Yes, with iSight support, but displayed too small in recipe view to be of much use.
• Recipe scaling: Yes.
• Metric/US switching: No.
• Dietary information: None.
• Menu planner: Yes.
• Shopping List: Yes, and sorts by grocery type.
• Notes: The laborious process of adding or importing new recipes totally killed this one for me.  I don't have time to type (or cut&paste) every ingredient individually!

Yummy Soup (version 1.5.1)   

• Cost: $20 / 15 day free trial
• User interface/presentation: 9 out of 10.  Looks and feels great.
• Importing/adding new recipes: Great import wizard which only integrates with nine web sites.  Importing from text files was laborious.
• Adding photo/illustration to recipes: Yes, and a decent size.
• Recipe scaling: No.
• Metric/US switching: No.
• Dietary information: No.
• Menu planner: No.
• Shopping List: Yes, but not sorted by grocery type.
• Notes:  I could probably live with the limited import facility if it had the scaling, dietary info, and a menu planner.

A Cook's Books (version 1.1.9)

• Cost: $39.95 / Limited trial (10 recipe limit)
• User interface/presentation: 6 out of 10.  Simple and easy to read but I don't like the separate panes or the fact that the illustration is only available in a separate window.
• Importing/adding new recipes: Supposedly the import wizard is available via the Services menu, but I couldn't get it to work in the trial version.  Importing from text means laboriously entering each ingredient.  Doesn't "learn' new ingredients as you go (you can manually add them into the database separately).
• Adding photo/illustration to recipes: Easy but displayed via a separate window.
• Recipe scaling: Yes
• Metric/US switching: Yes
• Dietary information: Yes but limited to very few food items, and only recognises 'mayo' and not mayonnaise for example. Didn't have values for Tabasco or Worcestershire sauce, chives or tomato!
• Menu planner: Has a planner for a month's work of recipes.
• Shopping List: Yes, and supposedly it sorts by grocery type, although once I ticked this option I couldn't get it to print a list at all.
• Notes: The limited trial version is irritating, and I was unable to figure out if all the features worked well.  I found it buggy when trying to use the planner and shopping list, and eventually the programme froze on me and I had to Force Quit to get out.

Busy Cooks

• Cost: $17.95 / trial version
• User interface/presentation: 5 out of 10. Super simple & clean.
• Importing/adding new recipes: From busycooks.com own site only. Text import doesn't work well.
• Adding photo/illustration to recipes: No.
• Recipe scaling: No
• Metric/US switching: No
• Dietary information: No
• Menu planner: No
• Shopping List: No
• Notes: Software hasn't been updated since 2004. Way too basic for my needs.

Yum version (2.3)

• Cost: Free (The developer calls it "underware" - donations requested, payment in beer accepted)
• User interface/presentation: 6 out of 10. Clean, simple, and easy to move the basic elements around to suit yourself. Probably the only programme out there which makes this easy.
• Importing/adding new recipes: Import wizard works well with most web sites and text files, by virtue of an intuitive "paste to ingredients list" option.
• Adding photo/illustration to recipes: Drop & drag anywhere into the instructions section. Unique in allowing selective placement.  Nice large display (depends on image size).
• Recipe scaling: Nope.
• Metric/US switching: No, but you choose which system to use when you enter recipes.
• Dietary information: Nope.
• Menu planner: None.
• Shopping List: Yes and it sorts by grocery type, but will require quite a bit of manual entry to make this work well.
• Notes: The attitude of this developer is admirable, he's tried to create something that the user can make their own.  Despite the lack of menu planning and nutrition info, I'm tempted.

Cookware Deluxe (version 3.1.)

• Cost: $35.95 / free trial available
• User interface/presentation: 6 out of 10. Designed for small screen computers; has many option buttons; could be a little more intuitive.
• Importing/adding new recipes: Drag & drop to each section, super easy.
• Adding photo/illustration to recipes: Drag & drop, easy!
• Recipe scaling: Not automated, but there are "tools" to tell you how. (?)
• Metric/US switching: No. (But again, there's a chart to refer to.)
• Dietary information: Space for you to enter your own info.
• Menu planner: Yes
• Shopping List: Yes. Can be sorted into sections but ingredients don't retain section settings.
• Notes: Hmm. Close but no cigar.  Does much of what I desire but ultimately falls short on the shopping list and interface.

And so... which one did I go for?  None, so far!  How frustrating is this? There are a few more that I would like to try, so watch this space.  D is threatening to write a programme for me, but let's hope it doesn't come to that.

Photo credit: Neiman Marcus Recipe Computer Originally uploaded by lilia_ahner to Flickr