Handy Cookbook App Reviews

The latest version doesn’t work properly on the iPhone 8.When I enter a recipe, the fractional amounts are not placed into the recipe properly. It requires going into edit each of the entries to get it correct. This is the case whether I type in the entries or use voice dictation. When you go into edit the entry, there is some weird syntax that shows up. The fractional quantities for teaspoons, cup, etc. are not there.

I have 224 recipes in this app. Love the layout, how easy it is to add & categorize recipes... In addition to using it at home, I use it at the grocery store to remind me of ingredients I might not have or for something I just feel like making. When the warnings about the app not working with iOS 11 kept coming up, I frantically looked for an alternative & didn't install 11. Everything else seems to want to give you their recipes, while I want to keep mine. Thank you for updating (although I still haven't moved to 11)! Please keep this useful app available!

I was looking for a blank slate that I could mold to my own style. I file recipes oddly - by genre, ingredient, holidat and daypart (crazy but it works). and I have my own shorthand for ingredients and measurements. so, any app that forced me into a box was no good. and, I wanted easy backups and flex ability to share/output. I tried a bunch and they all failed. this is simply one of the best apps I have - it does exactly what it promises, extends my recipes easily back to other formats, ties the PC in if that's how I want to load/edut a recipe. easy to backup, edit and update. I took 4 thick paper files of recipes - pulled the very best (my go-to list) and loaded them. I also load new, untried recipes on the fly and delete them when they stink - update them with my alterations. I liberally add notes to everything. now, we add photos. this has made me a better home cook and everything is accessible when I travel. freaking amazing.

Used this app in the past with an older version of Mastercook on an older PC. Loaded Mastercook 14 and cannot import to my iPad, either via wifi or by using the cable. No support link on the developer's site. Very disappointed.

Great update! Have added all family recipes to new cookbook. I use this app almost daily. ***** This app will no longer work with the next iOS update. I hope it is updated. I would hate to lose all my recipes. Please let us know your plans . Cheers! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

I have been using this app for well over a year until all the recent updates. I'm not sure if it is the app or the new 5.0 or a combination of both. But since I updated I can get connect through my browser. Up till now I have had no problems at all. I don't like giving 1 star to something I use on a daily basis but as of right now it is useless to me. I more be more than happy to change this when a fix comes out or either I get a reply to my e-mail I sent a few weeks ago.

This is a well planned and excellent app. The developer has been thorough and put himself in the position of the user. The app is robust in the way it deals with user cookbooks. For example, it readily imports and categorizes MasterCook files and recipes. The developer is also very responsive to questions and suggestions In short, this is what a lifestyle app should be.

This app does just what it says and no more, which is fine with me. I have an extensive recipe collection in Living Cookbook and was in a pickle trying to get recipes onto my IPad for an upcoming trip. I am grateful that another reviewer made it clear that this app contains no recipes, but is designed for importing recipes from another source. There were so many apps and most contained recipes and were not what I needed. Although I found the instructions on importation from Living Cookbook a little confusing, I muddled through and amazingly it worked! I now have all my recipes on my IPad and ready to roll. I recommend this app for anyone using Living Cookbook or Master Cook. It works well.

Great app, especially if you have MasterCook or Living cookbook programs. Thank you for all your hardwork. And, if y'all like this app, don't forget to donate.

I do looove this app. But, lately it won’t let me add recipes on my iPhone or iPad. I’ve tried emailing Carlos; but, I don’t think he’s received them because I’ve had no response. What I have on my app works beautifully, but, I need to add more recipes. I hope he will find a way to show me how to fix it!

Don't know what other reviewers were talking about. Horrible import program. Many glitches require re doing things many times. No help or instructions to speak of.

Have spent 3 hours trying to move master cook recipe book - app doesn't see them and no instructions on how to fix!

It drops some recipes when I transfer my Mastercook files to my iphone. Also sometimes lists recipes in incorrect alphabetical order.

UPDATE (4-7-15): After using this app almost daily for years I am downgrading it to 4 stars. The app crashes constantly when I use the Search feature. This is very frustrating. Also, I would like to have a place for the recipe source and multiple categories for the same recipe. When these fixes have been made I will be proud to upgrade it back to 5 stars. ORIGINAL REVIEW: I love this app and have been using it almost daily on the iPad for a couple of years! I have transferred over 1,400 recipes quickly from MasterCook, where I've been keeping them on my computer for over 20 years. Now I can carry all my recipes around wherever I go, email them instantly to friends on request and add beautiful photos to each and every recipe. In recent updates you are now able to import your notes along with the recipe as well as import the recipe in its original category, which is very helpful so you don't keep having to edit the category from "Imported Recipes." Much appreciated. NEW FEATURES FOR FUTURE UPDATES: (1) It would be nice to import the "Recipe By" category so that I know where the recipe came from without having to check my computer. (2) I would also like to be able to place the recipe into more than one category as you can in MasterCook so, if you're making "Arroz con Pollo," for example," it can go into "Poultry" as well as "Mexican Food." (3) Being able to import the nutritional info from MasterCook would also be helpful, so you don't have to enter it manually. PROBLEM: There is a small glitch in the app that does need correction. You can't search for more than one recipe without the app crashing. That can be frustrating when you're looking up several recipes at a time. In general, Handy Cookbook is a great app, fun to use and extremely helpful. I recommend it highly.

Most importantly, my review of this app has changed from one star to five, based upon the efforts of the developer to resolve my issues through multiple emails, and a customized tutorial based upon my issue. He was incredibly fast to respond, and helped me to import 1000 recipes in a matter of minutes. For those who purchase this app, please understand the it comes with NO recipes. It's essentially a tool to organize, modify, and export to other apps like grocery gadget (works very well). I didn't realize this before making the purchase, so I ended up with a seemingly useless app. After a single request for help, the developer guided me through the process to load recipes from online, and it has worked flawlessly since. Exports info very well to grocery gadget to generate shopping lists, and has seemingly an endless supply of recipes to upload,so I plan on getting a lot of use out of this app. Very impressed overall.

Initially, we couldn't get the app to import recipes from our PC based Mastercook. The developer followed up within 24 hours and emailed us clear instructions, which allowed us to import the recipes. I would give this app five stars if the initial instructions that came with the app had been as clear as what the developer emailed to us the next day. We appreciated the good follow-up from the developer.

I like this app a lot and use it almost every day. The only reason I gave it 4 stars is because of the limited choice of catagories. In future upgrades, please include catagories such as: Appetizers, Soups. Breakfast, and Miscellaneous (to name a few).

I LOVED this app until I purchased my new iPad. Now I too have a problem with my fractions. What gives?!! Extremely annoying but I have over 1,000 recipes in this app. Until this happened, I would have given this a 5 plus rating. Please help us out Carlo with a bug fix.

This does about everything on would want with a personal cookbook. I love the fact that I can sync it with my Mac, iPad, iPod and iPhone. The shopping list is a nice touch; though do not use it much. Love the fact that I can create and change the categories I need. And, I love the fact it does not come loaded with many useless receipts - my book contains my receipts and not some cook-cutters receipts. A few improvements I would like to see: 1.Either a “begin ahead time:” field (preferred), or a “sit/marinade time” (field). This is because I have a number of recipes with short Prep Time, and cooking time, however a long marinade time (in a few cases a long sit time before serving.) 2.As I said having flexible categories is very nice, however what would make it great is the ability to assign multiple category to a receipt. Take a simple receipt: Macaroni & Cheese with Ham this receipt could be in three different categories. (Can be done by having multi-copies of the receipts, but it far better and easier to make changes if there were one copy of the receipt with alias in other categories.) 3.To allow for least two images with the receipt. A “cover” picture and at least one location with the Preparation to include pictures of “key” Prep steps. (Using an image program, one could make one picture contain images for several steps.) 4.A stat section for Calories, Fat, Sodium etc. Even lacking these enhancements – this is the best cookbook I have seen and used.

Lots of new features...so easy to trade recipes with other iphones/family members/ neighbors.

How can one print a recipe from an iPad using handy cookbook? Can't seem to find the 'print' button.

This has been my favorite app for years. I really hope it gets updated so we can keep enjoying the great features!

Has anyone else had problems using wifi and the web server to sync recipes. I keep typing in the IP address but nothing. I really liked the app when I could do this (5) but for some reason I can't do that anymore(hence a 3). I can't figure out if it's not compatible with upgraded Firefox, upgraded MAC OS, upgraded iOS or what. I have contacted the developer, but keep getting asked if I have done things that I have done. I hope/wish someone has a better suggestion, or guess I will be looking for another app.

Love this app but I would like more categories. Such as breakfast, appetizers, sauces and dips, and crockpot to name a few. This would be greatly appreciated in the next update. It would also be cool if you could check off ingredients and steps as you're going along so you can see right where you are in your recipe.

I use Living Cookbook on the PC and this app is the easiest and most flexible iPod/iPhone app that I have found, to sync my recipes. It allows you to import .mxp, .mx2 (MasterCook) and .mmf (Meal Master) files, individually or in bulk. Now that the developer has upgraded the app. to sync recipes using iTunes, it is much easier to use (although the old sync worked for me, I had to keep looking up how to do it - the new method is much easier to remember!). This application is stable and flexible: you can create your own recipe categories, import pictures & photos to accompany the recipes, and search by recipe or by ingredient. It has a shopping basket, where you can just select a recipe and it automatically adds the right quantity of ingredients to your list. It also saves the nutrition information with my recipes, so I can see how much damage I'm going to do, with that Genocide-By-Chocolate recipe ;-) The interface could be a little more intuitive in odd places - for example, you have to enter the recipes list view to search; you cannot do this from the category view. But it's not a big deal - the app. allows you to search by recipe-name or by ingredient, in a really flexible way. Finally, I'm really impressed by how responsive the developer is. I have not had to ask him questions directly, but just looking at the app. blog and comments shows how fast he responds to even minor issues. It makes me feel comfortable that my treasured recipes are safe. I've been using this app for about 2 years now - I can't say enough good things about it. Especially if you are using Living Cookbook - the best PC recipe organizer - who don't have a mobile app. themselves.

As a Living Cookbook user this app was exactly what I was looking for. It took a minute to figure out the Import aspect of the app, after that, importing all my recipies took a couple of minutes without any problems. So far only one problem.....when I organize recipes into new cookbooks on the app, I loose the ability to assign a category and it looses the one it had. Maybe I'm doing something wrong as that doesn't make a lot of sense to me, a cook book needs category's . If this is the app and not me I hope it will be fixed in the future but either way this is still a great app....thanks

I've been using it successfully and haven't had any issues, however, I would like to have the option to forward a recipe via text. You can send recipes via email, but people don't check their email as often as they check their texts. Thanks.

No longer works. Nowhere to go for help. App now useless.

I need help. Ever since the update the keyboard doesn't pop up to type in my password. It's been weeks and I really need my recipes! Please help me!

I have loved using this App for years. Thank you for the great app! It is wonderful being able to carry my recipes with me wherever I go!

Seemed like a nice app to get my Mastercook recipes onto the iPad, but it crashes every time I try to import a recipe. I noticed there are no recent updates--I wouldn't recommend buying this app until it is updated for the new iOS.

I love this app but I am getting messages that it will not work in future versions of the ios. Please provide an update. I hate the idea of not being able to collect and cook from this great utility.

Every time I try to import a recipe/recipes the app crashes!! Please fix it!

How do I convert from PDF files to MXP? Otherwise, this looks like exactly what I wanted.

I would not recommend this app. I spent hours trying to get this program to work to import master cook recipes to my iphone4s. I could not get it to connect to the supplied address. I wrote to The creator of this useless program 3 times and got little help. He did not even respond to my last email.

I love this app. I needed an app to sort and sort my own recipes. I have been using this app for years. It is one of my most used apps. I can see where some may struggle with entering recipes but make a little effort to learn how to copy and paste from web pages and it is easy enough. Look at the support page for instructions on how to use your computer to enter recipes. My only fear is that this app has not been updated for a couple of years and I'm afraid my extensive collection is in danger of getting lost to an out of date app.

Bought this to use with grocery gadget and the web app has been down for days.. no way to contact the developer on their site so you woul dhave to type in all your ingredients and directions on your iphone - SAVE YOUR MONEY

This app is wonderful! I love having all of my recipes in a single place and being able to use them on multiple devices. I also love being able to share a recipe when it is requested. The developer has made a very user-friendly app in my opinion!

Love this app, but latest update doesn't install on iPad 2 running iOS 9.3.5!

I have been using this app for over 2 years now and find it extremely useful to keep all my recipes at hand. I love that you can customize the categories, upload photos instantly from the Internet, and create PDF books to export. I just wish the app was updated more often with new functionalities.

I rarely write reviews but I LOVE this app! If I had to give up my iPhone THIS is the app I would miss the most. Seriously! I use it all the time for planning a meal, shopping (I don't use the shopping list in this app but refer to this app ALL the time while in the store.), and preparing recipes. I am not a planted review. I'm sincere. Very helpful app!

I loved this app until the new upgrade. Now when I tap to go to a recipe, I get a gigantic photo and have to scroll down to get to the recipe. I KNOW what the dish looks like - I don't need or want a photo, and the new color scheme is hard for me to read. Please give me a way to shut this off and go back to the classic look.

This will not connect to the "web server" so that I can add recipes. It doesn't matter what I do and I have read the support a zillion times. Want my money back!!! Why does it not just have a website where I make an account, like in other apps?

I love this app and use it almost every day. It read my Master Cook file and is easy to use. I have almost 200 recipes in it and it is easy to add pictures, email recipes, and scale recipes when you want to make a recipe for 12 people instead of 4 or 6. Grazie Mille, Carlo !

I love this application, as any cook (or chef) would. It has all of my favorite recipes and all of our "family" recipes, and, it's on my iPhone and my iPad. A few added features, simple, but useful to any good cook, would make this app a 5-star plus! It really needs: Multiple categories for certain recipes. That would be great. As an example; Mac 'n Cheese could be under a side dish and a pasta dish. Add hours AND minutes to cooking times. Some recipes call for overnight marinating - - while that is inactive cooking time, or, prep time - it is still time. In a perfect world, a section to add a suggested (or favorite) wine, or two, would be great. Most good recipes have one or two ideal wines that pair well - it would be great if there was a place to add them . . . Maybe soon?

I gave it only 4 stars for one issue I experienced and I hope it can get resolved. On two occasions my iPhone had a major crash and had to be reset and I also did a software upgrade which required a full backup, installation of software and restore and all my recipes were gone. The last time with the upgrade I was really disappointed because I had just loaded several family recipes that I now have to re-find and reload them. I hope I can still get them. If this was fixed it would be a five star for me.

Have used Mastercook for years. It's a bit cumbersome, but I know all its quirks. I have saved all of my own recipes (400+) on there. When I got an iPad I was disappointed to learn that there was no Mastercook app. I definitely didn't want to retype them all. There are a few steps involved in uploading into Handy Cookbook (using iTunes), but it worked easily and without a hitch.

I'm so glad you are still supporting this app. Thank you for the import and export. A notes section in the recipe would be nice addition. Thanks!

I have used this app to for quite awhile to store recipes on my iPhone and have been pleased with its simplicity. The recent update caused a few problems retrieving my recipes, so I contacted the developer with my questions. He was timely in his response, and provided simple instructions for getting my recipes to load properly again. I was very impressed by his quick response and attention to my questions - the entire problem was solved in less than 24 hours. This is a great choice for recipe storage: I find it easy to add items via my desktop, easy to email recipes to others, you can add your own categories and photos, and (very important) the developer was helpful when I had problems.