In the last few weeks, an app that is being appreciated is Pestle and as the name suggests, it targets home cooks. The “kitchen recipe book” is from indie developer Will Bishop, who already has to his credit a few other apps, like Chirp (brings the Twitter experience to Apple Watch) and Nano for Reddit, and is a former WWDC scholar.
The idea
The Internet is a great resource for recipes but it comes with quite a few problems and challenges. Most recipes are uploaded in a way that you have to scroll through a page to arrive at what you want. This is done to ensure more page views. Second, there are too many websites offering recipes but you want only a few of them, so keeping track is tough. Third, once you select a recipe, you may want to make tweaks to it, which can be done by copying the text to a word processor or notepad and then making changes, which then needs to be saved methodically.
Integration with Safari
When you come upon a recipe that you like using the iOS browser, choose the share button. Next, tap on Pestle from the list of apps that appears. Pestle automatically imports the recipe, separating ingredients and instructions. Everything gets imported to the app.
You can browse your list of recipes at leisure and make notes to mirror the tweaks you want. At the same time, Pestle retains the attribution link under the three-dot “more” menu at the top of the recipe’s page, ensuring you know the website to refer back to.
Consider the app to complement recipe websites. “When you share a recipe to Pestle, you have to already be on their page. Meaning you’ve loaded their ads, their ranking improves, and so on. Pestle is akin to clicking the print button in recipe websites,” Bishop has told TechCrunch. Recipes can be shared with one another but if you share it with someone who doesn’t have Pestle, the recipe will load the original site or source.
There is another helpful feature. While working in the kitchen you don’t want to put fingerprints on the screen. You can navigate the app hands-free using voice commands like “Back” and “Next”. Equally helpful is the ability to set unlimited timers.
In case you opt for the premium version, there is a discover section for finding new cooking inspiration, handoff and sync between iPhone and iPad devices, 14-day meal planning support and more.