iOS App of the Day: Taste of Home

You don’t have to be a professional chef to cook like one or at least try to cook like one in my case. Now with so many smartphone apps out there dedicated to recipes it’s easy to find new ways to spice up your boring dinner routine. The hard part is finding out which app is robust enough and truly worth the download. Sure I have my go-to recipes that are always a hit, but where I live you can’t always find the ingredients you need depending on what season it is. This has left me stumped many nights asking myself in a panic “what the heck do I cook now?”. With the Taste of Home app for iOS it not only gives you instant access to thousands of recipes, but as the seasons change so do the recipe collections. Each recipe always comes with a delicious looking photo and simple how-to instructions. This app has gotten me through many family functions, kid’s birthday parties, and holiday events. Anyone who has a passion for cooking and likes to keep it fresh will fall in love with this app.

Pros:

  • Thousands of recipes in data base
  • Each recipe has photo and easy how-to instructions
  • Browse by category (course, ingredients, holiday, or cooking style)
  • Recipes feature top picks from farmer’s market ingredients related to current season
  • Find locally grown ingredients in your state
  • Vote for favorite recipes in weekly showdown
Cons:
  • Collections feature can take a while to load
  • I wish there were additional photos of recipes available to view
  • Limited user feedback posted on each recipe (besides short description)
  • Users can not rate recipes unless they are featured in weekly showdown
How it works:
After a quick download and no sign-up necessary, Taste of Home welcomes you to its beautifully designed home screen. You can swipe left or right to browse through the app’s different featured options. The first option to appear is the “featured collection” of the day followed by the “featured recipe” of the day. The “recipe showdown” is next, which pins two recipes against each other and encourages users to vote for their favorite recipe. Simply tap on the recipe’s photo to cast your vote. Next is the “what’s in season” which prompts the user to tap on their state to see what ingredients are in season near your location. The last option is a preview of upcoming recipe collection, in this case it is a collection of Memorial day recipes.
You can also tap on any of the five icons to access the app’s features displayed on the bottom of the scree. I explore all five icons below.
  1.  In Season will bring you to the “featured collection” of the season. This collection showcases 20 recipes for Mother’s Day. You can view the collection either by rating (highest rated to lowest) or alphabetically by title. To view a specific recipe tap on the recipe’s image and you will see a summary including a photo, title, description, and necessary ingredients. Tap on the directions to view easy-to-follow instructions. If the recipe is something you want to share you can tap on the share icon (upper right corner) and you can either share the recipe on Facebook, add to favorites, or email the recipe to a friend.
  2. Collections is like having instant access to a library of cookbooks sorted by occasion. The collections are displayed in a visually appealing format similar to a bookstore fee. Currently there are 31 different collections to choose from. Collections range from fish & seafood recipes to taste of summer. Tapping on the picture of a specific collection will bring up all the recipes in that collection. Occasionally I do notice a lag time when loading the collection feature. I’ve waited as long as ten minutes from some collections to load, which can get annoying.
  3. Search offers a robust search field allowing you to search using a keyword and filters. You can choose to apply a course filter, cooking style, cuisine, ingredients, or holidays to your search.
  4. Favorites is where all you favorite recipes are stored. To add a recipe to your favorites tap on the share icon found in the top right corner of the screen and select Add to Favorites. I use this feature frequently as I have quite the collection of my favorite recipes saved here. This feature saves time when I know exactly what I want to cook and need to jump directly to the recipe.
  5. Facebook sends you to the Taste of Home official Facebook page and also gives you the option of logging in with your own Facebook account to share recipes from the app with your friends. Currently, Facebook is the only social network available to share recipes on.
Conclusion: 
Taste of Home for iOS is a dream for the home chef. The user interface is simple  and designed with a clean layout. I found it easy to navigate without having distracting advertisements or annoying pop-up ads. I like that you can either swipe through the home screen to access different recipes or use the icons at the bottom of the screen. As with most things we encounter, “variety is the spice of life” and this app captures that philosophy. The changing recipe collections appropriate to whatever season you are in is a welcome change to the other recipe apps on the market. I wish there was more user feedback on each recipe or a place to rate recipes. I enjoy reading through other people’s experiences and if they can offer their own flare to a recipe I enjoy seeing that as well. Overall, this app has saved me on several occasions and continues to be one of my favorite recipe apps for iOS. What are you waiting for? Download it now and get to cooking!
Taste of Home is available for free in the iTunes Store. Requirements: Compatible with iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad.Requires iOS 3.1.3 or later. iTunes Link
This is part of our iOS App of the Day series. We take our favorite app for iOS for each day and post it here for you to check out. Feel free to check out all of our App of the Day posts here.

1 thought on “iOS App of the Day: Taste of Home”

  1. Belinda Eichelberg

    After reading your article, I downloaded this app. It was a very easy download and pretty simple to navigate. It’s nice having a variety of recipes all in one place, in the past I would scour the internet for the right recipe. That was very time consuming, from now on I will be using this app instead of a web browser.

    Thanks for the good tip, I look forward to reading future daily app reviews. 🙂

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