BigOven 1.8.977

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License: Free to try; $29.95 to buy (Buy it now)
Editor's Rating: Average
User Rating: (out of 21 votes) Rate it!
Downloads: 29,354
Requirements: Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP/Vista
Limitations: 30-day trial
Date Added: August 12, 2007

Publisher's description of BigOven
view larger From Lakefront Software:
BigOven recipe software is an easy new way for you to discover great recipes, organize your collection, and share your recipes online with others. Only BigOven gives you one-click, instant access to more than 160,000 recipes via our searchable online recipe archive. Just choose your recipes, import them with a single click, drag and drop them onto a shopping list, and get a printed grocery list in seconds. Drag recipe cards onto a meal calendar to plan your coming days, weeks, or months. Capture recipes from other text files and Web sites with point-and-click functionality. Get nutritional values such as calories, carbohydrates, or fats, from any recipe. An unlimited number of keywords makes organization and quick access easy. Add photos to any recipe. Import files in MMF, MXP, MX2, Cook'n, and other recipe formats. Free Palm OS and Windows Mobile companions let you bring your recipes and shopping lists with you.

Version 1.8.977 contains several enhancements to make it easier to use and search the 160,000+ recipe archive.

See more CNET content tagged:
recipe, ingredient, nutrition, database, function

Editor's review of BigOven

Except for a few annoyances, BigOven works well as a recipe database. The interface includes views for recipe details, shopping lists, meal planning, and nutritional values. As we would expect with this type of application, you can schedule dishes for different days of the week and have it automatically compile a shopping list. To avoid duplicate entries, you have to click a button to combine them, and even then it can't tell the difference between single and plural items, so you may end up with "1 egg" and "2 eggs" as separate items on the list. However, the program will automatically combine items on the printed list.

The recipe-details view comes with a number of ways to sort, filter, and search. Each recipe is displayed with ingredients, instructions, servings, and a picture, if one is available. The edit screen lets you modify recipes or add new ones. We found the nutrition function difficult to use, as it requires you to manually link each ingredient to a separate database entry. We like the way Big Oven handles shopping lists, letting you drag-and-drop a recipe name to automatically generate a list of the appropriate ingredients. We also like the Web function, which lets you browse the BigOven database and seamlessly import new recipes, but only after you register the program. BigOven includes all the functions we find necessary in a recipe database and wraps them in a useful interface, but minor problems may frustrate users.