CORKROOM  A decent organisational tool, but there are several flaws. Unfortunately, the developers haven't responded to emailed feedback, which always makes me wary of future development of a paid product.

Some issues are quite frustrating. The shopping list is often incapable of adding ingredients of different units correctly. For example, if one recipe calls for 200 g of flour, and another for an ounce, the shopping list totals these to 201 g. Perhaps a user-defined unit equivalence list would be useful, or at least a list of what MacGourmet's pre-defined conversions are.

The chef view is useless. Many recipe instructions refer to the ingredients for quantities, but the chef view forces you to scroll up to the top. Not good when you have a handful of raw chicken. The chef view really needs a split view to allow simultaneous viewing of ingredients and instructions.

The shopping lists could be formatted more intelligently, with page breaks at logical spots, such as between shops. Alternatively, user-defined page breaks would be helpful. Also, depending on the name of ingredients listed in different recipes, the shopping list can produce separate listings for flour, plain flour, and flour (plain), etc. Some other programs I have used also allow user-defined ingredients. While this is more fiddly, this option prevents this confusion.

UI issues are abundant. For example, the default "OK" button is often highlighted, but pressing "return" on the keyboard does not click it, as expected under OS X. Also, command-~ normally switches windows, but this does not work in MacGourmet. This prevents comparison of recipes.

Finally, I'm not really sure, but I couldn't find a way to create smart recipe lists based on preparation/cooking times. Given that this is an editable field in recipes, it would be useful to search by this! Again, since the developers do not reply to emails, I'm not sure if there is a solution.  
(Version 2.4.3)

EMET1  I got MacGourmet as part of a bundle (Dec 2008) and it's become one of my favorite apps. I'm boosting recipes from everywhere to add to my repertoire and creating a family recipe collection so we don't fight about what goes in Bubbie's Brisket.

This morning I downloaded and started playing with Pantry, a free app to track what's in your kitchen, create shopping lists, sync to the cloud and there's an iPhone app you can buy for 2.00 to download lists to your phone. I'm not going to keep it, but I can see some potential there, it's just missing some deal breaking features and it feels like a work in progress.

I've also found a website: supercook.com where you create an account, add in the stuff in your pantry and it will find recipes based on those ingredients. Excellently cool, but you can bog it down by adding too much stuff like too many kinds of cheese, too many spices and condiments. You have to remove items to winnow down the results. It works best with just a basic set of items. And you can get some bizarre results: based on my ingredients, I searched for a first course and dog bones appeared as #1 in the results followed by butterscotch filling. Now anyone with any common sense knows butterscotch filling is a main course and dog bones go with the after-dinner liquors. I mean, really!

Anyone see where I'm going?

I have a dream.

The absolute all-time, full-on, crazy cool cooking app in the entire known universe!

Step 1: Food: Add in the stuff you have (ooh, with a barcode scanner that uses your iSight camera and connects to an all-knowing database in the sky, I have a dream.) Expiration dates a must. (If I believe in it, the baking powder will work on the sheer force of my will! Wait, those raisins are HOW old?) I'll add dates myself, I'm not a total slacker.

Step 2: Recipes: Add your own or grab off the web. (Done. It's called MacGourmet. Dreams can come true.)

Step 3: Use Step 1 with Step 2 to find recipes you do have that use the ingredients you already have or (wait, it gets better)

Step 4: Search for recipes you don't have with the ingredients you do. (Galactically cool.)

Step 5: Shopping lists. Two kinds: What I need to restock from Step 1 because I'm running out and/or What I need to make recipes from Step 3 or Step 4. (That's it, I can die happy.)

Who's with me?

Anyway, thanks to:

Apple for the laptop and

MacGourmet Deluxe 1.2 or

MacGourmet 2.4 with

Nutrition 1.3.0

Cookbook 1.1.0

Meal Plan 1.1.0

or whatever goofy nomenclature the developers use for letting me dream.

And no, I'm not sharing Bubbie's Brisket recipe.  
(Version 2.4)

FABULASSY  BEWARE if you have a problem!!! I enjoy the program, it does have limitations, including the plug-ins for certain websites don't work all the time (Cooking Light is one).

However, when my hard drive recently died and I had to replace it, I could not longer simply enter my serial number, but instead I need a key of some sort. I contacted the company and they did not respond at all. Luckily, I figured out how to get the "key" of my other hard drive but it wasn't easy. This was my LEGAL version.

Customer Service is not great, if you have a problem.   
(Version 2.4)

SLOB  This company is confusing. There's an iPod touch app at $5 which I'd like which apparently requires MacGourmet 2.4 or MacGourmet deluxe 1.1. I happen to have registered the latter which says I have the latest version - 1.05. No further info on the site.  
(Version 2.4)

KRYSIA  Just an FYI, taken from the MacGourmet FAQ section of their website (http://macgourmet.com/faq.html):

"Q: What is the difference between MacGourmet and MacGourmet Deluxe?

A: Mariner Software is redistributing MacGourmet and its plug-ins as a discounted retail bundle, all in one convenient package, at one price, called MacGourmet Deluxe. The standard version of MacGourmet (still available here for $24.95), which you can add optional plug-ins to, is exactly the same as what is in the "boxed" Deluxe version, and it is still available as it always has been.

So, you can buy a bundle (Deluxe) with everything: Mealplan, Cookbook and Nutrition, or, if you just want a simpler product, buy MacGourmet from macgourmet.com and add a plug-in, or not, it's up to you."  
(Version 2.3.6)

DAI YI  I've been using this application for over one year and enjoy it immensely. I've imported a few thousand recipes from the developer's forum, and added many others from websites. Being able to do so from within the services menu is brilliant. Nice design and features.   
(Version 2.2.5)

GHOSTWRITER  The Related Links under "YumConverter, which allows you to convert your Yum! recipes to MacGourmet recipes, is available here" does not seem to do anything or go anywhere?  
(Version 2.2.2)

BCWINTERS  If anyone is looking at the new screenshot for v2, please don't be scared away by the recipe display with the weird background and gold "frames" around each section. That thing looks like a Geocities page from 1997!

MacGourmet also comes with several clean, modern stylesheets--I use one that makes it look a lot like NetNewsWire, for instance. And they're all customizable HTML templates so you can make your own, too.  
(Version 2.0.1)

BCWINTERS  After years and years using MasterCook, I finally got tired of being stuck in Classic every time I wanted to cook. I tried out every OS X recipe program I could get my hands on and have finally decided that MacGourmet's the one to go with.

Some pros: Clean, easy to understand cocoa-y interface with iTunes-style smart lists. Uses WebKit for recipe display, "chef's view" (with huge fonts so you can keep your computer far away from your kitchen mess), and printing styles--this means you can edit these to your heart's content in your favorite HTML editor. Has great keyword & notes support. Imports and exports like a champ, including a nice plain-text email export and a wonderful integration with Services that lets you send recipes to the program from your web browser for easy integration.

Some cons: I *have* found a few bugs including one that erases the quantity field in your ingredients and one that causes an application crash (I notified the developer of these bugs and he wrote back very quickly--I have no doubt they will be fixed in the next update). Lacks features that were in MasterCook a decade ago, including built-in quantity & ingredient lists (once you enter a quantity or ingredient, it does have MasterCook-like autofill, though). Uses a single-cookbook metaphor rather than a multiple-document one (personally, I like this and I think it fits in with the iTunes-like style, but for some people it just isn't the right thing). Printer stylesheets are kind of lackluster (but since I can edit them myself this is not a deal breaker--plus if users make nice ones I bet the developer will roll them into future versions).

I've been putting MacGourmet through the paces for the last month and despite my minor complaints it has performed like a champ. This is a great little application that I believe will improve with time--I'd almost go so far as to say it's the NetNewsWire of recipe programs. I'm trusting it with my data from this point on.  
(Version 1.1.4)

CAMáN  Don't forget to help her in the kitchen as well :-)  
(Version 1.1.4)