Thanks! I have indexed about a million recipes with associated ingredients. When someone does a search it retrieves 500 recipes with associated ingredients, using the same algorithm I use for my ingredient search engine. It then counts the ingredient occurrence and factors in ingredient rarity.
I am not sure about the degree of the algorithm for the initial search(using sphinx and its fast enough for me not to care). I believe my algorithm is at worst n^2 because I have to sort the ingredients.
I was curious about this as well, as it looked to me like a ripoff of "The Flavor Bible", by Page and Dornenburg (Same method of using bold all caps, then bold, etc for showing the important ingredients). However, from the book link, apparently: The data for this book was obtained by programitally[SIC] examining just under a million publicly available recipes.
That method of acquiring the data shows in the less useful results. For example, with basil, it includes in the top pairings SALT, GARLIC, ONIONS, BLACK PEPPER. Which, of course, would be found in pretty much any recipe involving basil. Yet, it misses the more classic pairings like mozzarella cheese, eggs, lamb, pizza, etc.
Which of course, is still owned and operated by the submittee... but still, it starts to make it feel like a link-farm. I'm a bit confused as to why you don't just have a single URL for it all, some kind of coherent high level interface to encapsulate it all.
Hey, this is the missing part of my cooking web app, centered around ingredients you have at home.
This can become ultra powerful with some sort of an API. Is there any?
Showed it to a non techie friend who loves to cook. Here's his amusing feedback...
foodnetwork has an app where u can search a recipe then make a shopping list
that's useful
an app that spits out random ingredients based on a search term does not impress me so much
search the term 'poo' in this amazing app then 'pee'
then 'shit'
no i know that bacon goes well with everything....but c'mon now
Initial thoughts having not paid for the app but review screen shots and the website.
Advanced warning - these comments aren't particularly positive. If you're looking for a pep talk, look away now.
Let's start with first impressions before I dig into functionality and actual results:
1) It needs to look nicer. People who like to cook tend to like things to look appealing, particularly as a $1.99 app.
2) Garlic isn't a great example to have as your screen shot - it's not inspiring and it's the sort of thing you have in a draw anyway, not something you pick to make a meal out of. Try something more substantial and interesting - Aubergine / Eggplant say (though the main point below relates to the result for Egg plant).
3) Speaking personally, you need a vegetarian flag which culls all meat and fish (or ideally options to remove meat, fish, poultry individually.)
All of that is simple to fix and you could possibly do in a day or so (most of which would be tagging things as vegetarian or not).
Getting on to the actual results, your main problem is that your data sucks big time, as in unusable, pointless big time in it's current form.
Look at the screen shot which shows matches for garlic and includes cornstarch.
Huh?
Cornstarch is a thickener, it goes with things you want to be thicker, it doesn't go with things you don't want to be thicker. I have no idea why it would or wouldn't go with garlic specifically (especially as garlic is solid and therefore needs no thickening).
I'm guessing that you've automatically mined this data but however you've got it you need a human to review it as I suspect that there are things in there you have to cull because they make no sense and undermine the credibility of the rest of the data.
Do a search on egg plant and you'll get among the results cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, black and white pepper (too common), salt (ditto), flour, butter and vegetable oil. These are not things you match with an ingredient, they're things you season, prepare or use to cook an ingredient. In terms of what you're doing they're meaningless and should be hidden.
Again, that's all easily fixable, you just need to skim the data and pull together an exclude list and edit these out of the results set.
But it then lists semi-sweet chocolate chips, banana, raisins and vanilla extract. Now these may go with egg plant and there may be recipes that use both but they're not natural matches (in the way that say tomatoes - not including on the list incidentally - are). The average user is going to look at them and go "seriously? what am I meant to cook with Egg Plant and Banana".
Fortunately you have a link for that. Sort of. Click on banana in the egg plant results and you get a list of things that go with egg plant and banana (same issues as above) but also a link to recipe puppy for those ingredients. This is good in theory but have you looked at it?
Try it. The link is for egg (rather than egg plant) and banana. Not sure if the issue is yours or recipe puppy's (though I think the later - plant is in the URL). Even if it didn't drop the plant, recipe puppy thinks eggplant is one word, you think it's two so they'd never match.
But worst of all, recipe puppy seems to do an "or" search rather than an "and" one. In any case it certainly can't find me these supposed aubergine and banana recipes which means I'm none the wiser as to what I'm meant to be cooking and makes me ask again where the data is from.
Sorry to be harsh but I wouldn't be selling this in it's current form, I think you're going to damage your brand if you don't work out some of these issues before it gets out there and if that happens you're in the sort of trouble you can't undo easily.
You should look at the results for properly entering 'eggplant' instead of the incorrect 'egg plant'. It shows the issue is that it looked for egg when you meant eggplant, which is a different problem to solve entirely.
If egg plant is wrong (and I'm happy to accept that it is - I'm English, I was translating aubergine to North American and failing...) then it shouldn't show me results for it and it certainly it shouldn't show the results for egg without saying "did you mean..." at the very least.
As you say that's a relatively easy fix (and one that should be made) but I think there is still a deeper underlying issue with the data.
I agree that the eggplant list is lots better (though still includes kosher salt, water, vegetable oil and a load of other meaningless things) but my issues about the data returned for egg is still valid - I don't care about half of the list whether it's for egg, eggplant or something else altogether.
It all comes back to the same overall point - the data is mined and needs some serious work to make it useful. The occasional oddity is one thing but there are too many here.
I'm not saying I don't like the idea, I do, and I don't think the work needed is major, it's just that I don't think it's something that should be released in it's current form.
Thanks for your feedback. I already added the exclusion list and definitely will be working on my design and screenshots. I did have plans to add vegetarian, vegan, and gluten free flags(I am also a vegetarian)
The problem with the "egg plant" search is that it is guessing the ingredient incorrectly. Unfortunately, the data is not perfect and this does happen sometimes. I fixed this instance, and continue to fix errors as I find them/ am told of them.
Recipe Pupppy does an "OR" search but the most relevant recipes do show up first. Now that I fixed the error with "egg plant" being interpreted as "egg", it will find the right recipes: http://www.recipepuppy.com/?i=egg+plant%2C+banana&q=eggp...
this app is total scam!
First: graphics make me think it was done by an 8 years old child. Cooking is a great opportunity to show some amazing apps designs.
Second: they took an english dictionary, not even worried about filtering only "cooking word" and made some results based on some wired fixed algo.
Maybe you should check out how the app works, before you make derogatory statements like: It is a scam!
Anyway, you are not getting any of my curry made from: Cocos, Chicken, Garlic, Jalapeno, Onions, Tomato, Olive Oil, Coriander, Cumin, Chili Powder, Green Pepper, Red Onions, Garam Masala, Ginger, Lime Juice, Saffron, Rice, Kosher Salt
My initial thoughts on the results page is that they are not really intuitive, and a bit hard to look at. Without reading the description, I was confused why some were in caps, other's bold, etc.
It might be worthwhile to experiment with a font-size scaling cloud - it's more intuitive. Instantly I would know tamarind paste goes really well with chicken and coconut, and less so with tangerine.
It's an interesting idea though - I was looking for something like this the other day when I had a bag of parsley I didn't know what to do with... but unfortunately, like the other commenters are saying, if I had used it, I would have been told I need to do something with breadcrumbs and butter, which isn't really that helpful.
Keep working on it - I am keen to see how it unfolds.
I've had it on my 'early stages ideas' board for a while for an app that suggests replacement ingredients, groups of ingredients, or techniques. I often have something in mind to cook and then realise at the last minute that I have no parsley, white pepper, lemon juice (etc). Any thoughts on that?
Suggestions:
* I'd like an easy way to link to a related ingredient by itself. I.e., If I initially search for basil, I'd like to easily rabbit trail to olive oil, irrespective of basil.
* It would be cool to also link through to some of the matching recipes you've indexed.
35 comments
[ 5.3 ms ] story [ 69.3 ms ] thread(I suppose/believe/hope this is a significant market size.)
I would like to know more about the algorithm/science, behind the pairings (and its degree).
I am not sure about the degree of the algorithm for the initial search(using sphinx and its fast enough for me not to care). I believe my algorithm is at worst n^2 because I have to sort the ingredients.
That method of acquiring the data shows in the less useful results. For example, with basil, it includes in the top pairings SALT, GARLIC, ONIONS, BLACK PEPPER. Which, of course, would be found in pretty much any recipe involving basil. Yet, it misses the more classic pairings like mozzarella cheese, eggs, lamb, pizza, etc.
My recommendation -- buy "The Flavor Bible".
Both the original link and the above are powered by http://www.recipepuppy.com/
Which of course, is still owned and operated by the submittee... but still, it starts to make it feel like a link-farm. I'm a bit confused as to why you don't just have a single URL for it all, some kind of coherent high level interface to encapsulate it all.
The android app came before this website. I just haven't switched the link over yet.
Unless you're a vegetarian or vegan, of course. :-)
Feature request: it would be great if not only it told you what would work well, but also what to avoid.
Advanced warning - these comments aren't particularly positive. If you're looking for a pep talk, look away now.
Let's start with first impressions before I dig into functionality and actual results:
1) It needs to look nicer. People who like to cook tend to like things to look appealing, particularly as a $1.99 app.
2) Garlic isn't a great example to have as your screen shot - it's not inspiring and it's the sort of thing you have in a draw anyway, not something you pick to make a meal out of. Try something more substantial and interesting - Aubergine / Eggplant say (though the main point below relates to the result for Egg plant).
3) Speaking personally, you need a vegetarian flag which culls all meat and fish (or ideally options to remove meat, fish, poultry individually.)
All of that is simple to fix and you could possibly do in a day or so (most of which would be tagging things as vegetarian or not).
Getting on to the actual results, your main problem is that your data sucks big time, as in unusable, pointless big time in it's current form.
Look at the screen shot which shows matches for garlic and includes cornstarch.
Huh?
Cornstarch is a thickener, it goes with things you want to be thicker, it doesn't go with things you don't want to be thicker. I have no idea why it would or wouldn't go with garlic specifically (especially as garlic is solid and therefore needs no thickening).
I'm guessing that you've automatically mined this data but however you've got it you need a human to review it as I suspect that there are things in there you have to cull because they make no sense and undermine the credibility of the rest of the data.
Do a search on egg plant and you'll get among the results cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, black and white pepper (too common), salt (ditto), flour, butter and vegetable oil. These are not things you match with an ingredient, they're things you season, prepare or use to cook an ingredient. In terms of what you're doing they're meaningless and should be hidden.
Again, that's all easily fixable, you just need to skim the data and pull together an exclude list and edit these out of the results set.
But it then lists semi-sweet chocolate chips, banana, raisins and vanilla extract. Now these may go with egg plant and there may be recipes that use both but they're not natural matches (in the way that say tomatoes - not including on the list incidentally - are). The average user is going to look at them and go "seriously? what am I meant to cook with Egg Plant and Banana".
Fortunately you have a link for that. Sort of. Click on banana in the egg plant results and you get a list of things that go with egg plant and banana (same issues as above) but also a link to recipe puppy for those ingredients. This is good in theory but have you looked at it?
Try it. The link is for egg (rather than egg plant) and banana. Not sure if the issue is yours or recipe puppy's (though I think the later - plant is in the URL). Even if it didn't drop the plant, recipe puppy thinks eggplant is one word, you think it's two so they'd never match.
But worst of all, recipe puppy seems to do an "or" search rather than an "and" one. In any case it certainly can't find me these supposed aubergine and banana recipes which means I'm none the wiser as to what I'm meant to be cooking and makes me ask again where the data is from.
Sorry to be harsh but I wouldn't be selling this in it's current form, I think you're going to damage your brand if you don't work out some of these issues before it gets out there and if that happens you're in the sort of trouble you can't undo easily.
As you say that's a relatively easy fix (and one that should be made) but I think there is still a deeper underlying issue with the data.
I agree that the eggplant list is lots better (though still includes kosher salt, water, vegetable oil and a load of other meaningless things) but my issues about the data returned for egg is still valid - I don't care about half of the list whether it's for egg, eggplant or something else altogether.
It all comes back to the same overall point - the data is mined and needs some serious work to make it useful. The occasional oddity is one thing but there are too many here.
I'm not saying I don't like the idea, I do, and I don't think the work needed is major, it's just that I don't think it's something that should be released in it's current form.
The problem with the "egg plant" search is that it is guessing the ingredient incorrectly. Unfortunately, the data is not perfect and this does happen sometimes. I fixed this instance, and continue to fix errors as I find them/ am told of them.
Recipe Pupppy does an "OR" search but the most relevant recipes do show up first. Now that I fixed the error with "egg plant" being interpreted as "egg", it will find the right recipes: http://www.recipepuppy.com/?i=egg+plant%2C+banana&q=eggp...
Another option for keto/Atkins diet where all sugars and sweets get removed is needed.
Don't think only vegans are picky about their food!
http://www.ingredientpairings.com/?i=grandma
http://www.ingredientpairings.com/?i=basketball
http://www.ingredientpairings.com/?i=japan
http://www.ingredientpairings.com/?i=space
http://www.ingredientpairings.com/?i=running
http://www.ingredientpairings.com/?i=diving
i say SCAM.
Anyway, you are not getting any of my curry made from: Cocos, Chicken, Garlic, Jalapeno, Onions, Tomato, Olive Oil, Coriander, Cumin, Chili Powder, Green Pepper, Red Onions, Garam Masala, Ginger, Lime Juice, Saffron, Rice, Kosher Salt
It might be worthwhile to experiment with a font-size scaling cloud - it's more intuitive. Instantly I would know tamarind paste goes really well with chicken and coconut, and less so with tangerine.
It's an interesting idea though - I was looking for something like this the other day when I had a bag of parsley I didn't know what to do with... but unfortunately, like the other commenters are saying, if I had used it, I would have been told I need to do something with breadcrumbs and butter, which isn't really that helpful.
Keep working on it - I am keen to see how it unfolds.
Suggestions: * I'd like an easy way to link to a related ingredient by itself. I.e., If I initially search for basil, I'd like to easily rabbit trail to olive oil, irrespective of basil. * It would be cool to also link through to some of the matching recipes you've indexed.