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Smart Recipe Import, Private Recipes, and More

We’re excited to share some major new features that make recipe.exchange even more powerful and flexible. This update introduces smart recipe importing, private recipes, better organization tools, and improved recipe referencing.

Smart Recipe Import

Ever found a recipe online or have a treasured family recipe card you want to digitize? We’re introducing two new ways to easily import recipes:

Website Import

Simply paste a URL, and we’ll automatically extract the recipe details including ingredients, instructions, and metadata. Our smart parser works with most recipe websites and food blogs.

Photo Import

Take a photo of a printed recipe or upload an existing photo, and our OCR technology will attempt to convert it into a structured digital recipe.

Note: Both import methods are currently in beta as we work to improve their accuracy and reliability. You may need to make adjustments to imported recipes, but we’re continuously improving the extraction process based on your feedback.

Private Recipe Storage

We understand that some recipes are meant to be shared widely, while others are more personal. You can now choose to keep recipes private, perfect for:

  • Family recipes you want to digitize but keep private
  • Work-in-progress recipes
  • Personal variations of published recipes
  • Professional recipes and menus

Learn more about visibility settings →

Better Recipe Organization

Section Headers

You can now add section headers to both ingredients and instructions lists, making complex recipes easier to follow. Perfect for recipes with multiple components like:

  • Different parts of a dish (e.g., “For the filling”, “For the crust”)
  • Prep vs. cooking steps
  • Multiple cooking stages

Recipe References

Special thanks to @bmann.ca for accidentally inspiring this feature! When we saw how an AT Protocol URI looked pasted into an ingredient list, we knew we had to make it better. Now you can link directly to other recipes on recipe.exchange from within ingredients or instructions – just paste the recipe’s URL or AT Protocol URI, and it will automatically convert to a clean, clickable reference. Perfect for:

  • Base recipes that you build upon
  • Component recipes that are part of a larger dish
  • Suggesting alternative versions

What’s Next?

We’re continuing to improve these features based on your feedback. The photo import feature is currently in beta, and we’re working hard to make it even more accurate and reliable.

Happy cooking!

As always, we’d love to hear your thoughts on these new features. Share your feedback with us @recipe.exchange on Bluesky.