My Social Design

The purpose of this blog post is to list the most comprehensive recipe websites. Ever find yourself craving something delicious but have no idea of how to make it? These websites are bound to have what you’re looking for. Here are my top 3 picks:

#3 – Williams-Sonoma: http://www.williams-sonoma.com/recipe/index.cfm?cm%5Ftype=gnav

This is a great starter website, especially if you are still stocking your kitchen with appliances and cooking tools. For each recipe, there are related cooking items on the left. With so many tools available, this is a great way to slowly stock your cooking arsenal. Another useful tool on the website is the “Recipe Box”. This function allows you to save recipes. This is a great function if you’re like me and browse multiple sites before picking the recipe of choice. The recipes I’ve made from the WS website have been delicious and the prep/cooking times accurate.

Williams-Sonoma was part of our wedding registry. Once we received our All-Clad slow-cooker, I used the WS website for slow cooker recipes. These are not as easy to find; but WS had plenty for me to choose from. Some of the recipes I have used include: 6-hour Chili, Beef Brisket Sandwiches (but without the sandwich portion), Beef Short Ribs with Roja Sauce. <A note on changes I made to these recipes will be posted at a later time.>

#2 – My Recipes: http://www.myrecipes.com/recipes/

There are a lot of delicious, rich recipes out there. But what about when you want to find something on the lighter, healthier side? My Recipes is great because it pools recipes from multiple magazine sources, including: Cooking Light, Health and Sunset. There is even a tab for “Healthy Diet” recipes. My Recipes also allows the option to save recipes. An additional feature allows users to add their own recipes to a private recipe box. This allows users easy, instant access to their own recipes. This eliminates the need for the traditional unkempt, recipe box.

#1 – Epicurious: http://www.epicurious.com/

This is by far the best resource for finding recipes online. The recipes are pooled from past issues of Bon Appetit and Gourmet. With the arsenal of these two magazines you know you will find some crowd-pleasing recipes. As with the previous two websites you can save the recipes into your personal recipe box.

Another reason I frequent this website the most is the user reviews. Users rate how well they liked the recipe, and most users will also add in comments on how to make the recipe more tasty and easier to make. It’s hard to go wrong when you have a resource like that at your fingertips. With an average rating of 4 forks out of four from 329 users, you can feel confident in the recipe.

I hope this blog post will assist you in finding an easy recipe for a last-minute weekday dinner or in creating a menu for your New Year’s Eve party. Feel free to post any other websites you’ve used and found useful. I have only seen so many, and there are bound to be numerous other great recipe finder websites. Thanks again for reading!!

**Addendum (12.28.07)- Today I went to my “Recipe Box” at epicurious.com and was DENIED!! It has been down all day. During the holidays?!! Normally I would be okay with this but I am hosting a book club tomorrow and a New Year’s Eve party on Monday. I wanted to do most of my shopping today. The one saving grace is that all the recipes were still available with the search function; I just had to remember what I wanted to make and which recipes were from epicurious.com. In the end everything worked out. It was just so frustrating and totally needless.