CookShelf: Search Cookbooks

This is a great app, but the new update that promotes their partnership with CKBK (a paid cookbook subscription service) is obnoxious. The whole point of the app is to make looking for recipes in the books you own easy. Now, the first results you see all come from this paid service with the recipes you ACTUALLY have access to nowhere in sight. There is a way to filter out CKBK recipes hidden in the filtering options, but you have to reselect this filter EVERY TIME you search. This is the opposite of user-friendly, especially for a service I’m already paying for. Shame on the CookShelf team for prioritizing profits over the user experience!

I had issues with this app not adding my cookbooks so I asked for a refund. Now that it is working better I attempted to use a discount code and was not allowed a discount code to purchase the app. I didn’t use a discount when I previously asked for a refund. Seems awful pricey they charge annually for the app. Not all my cookbooks are in the database. Not a personable company, just money grabbers.

Please stop turning this into a social media app. You’re ruining EatYourBooks.

Not a useful app at all.

So I bought a bunch of cookbooks and now you want to charge me a fee to read them on my phone or iPad? Most useless paid app ever.

You see 1/2 the ingredients and can’t access the recipe!! Most of the books aren’t even index! Very cumbersome!!

The free version is so limited it’s useless. I downloaded and signed up all excited then immediately deleted it. You can only scan in five books with the free version. I wish they had been up front that “in-app purchases” actually means a pretty necessary subscription.

Some caveats. They do not mention where I could see it this BUT The CookShelf app does not display full recipes or step-by-step methods, nor does it show exact ingredient amounts, to avoid copyright infringement. YOU GET AN INGREDIENT LIST ONLY. Some cookbooks in which I am interested are not present in the app. Disappointing because that means they cannot be searched. You can ask they be scanned, but that is no guarantee. Get the app only to search for that situation before buying into a subscription. Sad.

For a subscription service I have access to all the recipes on my book shelf. In the 30 seconds that I navigated the app I looked to see if I could find my way into a new book. It was difficult and clunky and I have a lot easier time searching through book stores than I do this service. It appears that they are attempting to create some sort of community by offering a social media aspect to their platform. I’m really not interested in anything related to this than discovering new cookbooks and it didn’t do the job for me, plus I’d never pay to have a worse experience with a written recipe

Only provides the ingredients with no amounts listed. You still have to keep the book and utilize it for the actual recipe. I thought this kept all recipes in one location. Waste of money IMO.

I like this app but $40/year is a bit too much. I’d pay if it was half that much per year.

I can go right to my cookbooks to find the info I need. It’s all fine and dandy but the app doesn’t show amount of the ingredients or the recipes, so what’s the purpose? I still have to open the cookbook to see how much of everything I need and how to make the recipe. I’ll be getting the app that allows you to scan the barcodes and then copies the “whole” book to the app. Maybe the developer can redevelop this app to include amounts and how to instructions!?!

Good idea for an app. A handful of my cookbooks don’t have page numbers indexed. To update, I have to report each individual and suggest the correct one. I would hope that for the yearly price, either all indexing complete, or it was treated as a crowd sourced app with a price that reflects this.

This app came highly recommended by a friend so I gave it a chance. I should have done better research. It’s basically just a glorified search of (some of) your cookbooks. Not all of mine were indexed. I know how to use a table of contents, so I don’t need this app. I incorrectly assumed my phone would replace my cookbooks, and that I could view recipes on my phone. I don’t want both my phone and a cookbook, it’s just an extra unneeded step. Unless you have a ton of similar cookbooks, save your money and just scan your the indexes and tables of contents in your books with your eyes instead of your phone.

This app basically gives you a searchable database of your cookbooks. Which is very cool. However there are missing key features that would make this more than a database. Example: ingredient lists have no quantities. Yes. You can make a grocery list. But a grocery list with no quantities is useless. Do you need one sweet potato? Or 4? It also does not import any cooking instructions. So you still have to go back to your cookbook to make a proper grocery list and to know how to make the recipe. If they could combine these features - you’d have something that rivals the Paprika app

I scanned in six of my Modern cookbooks and not a single one of them is “indexed” So pretty useless to me

I tried this app and found in order for my cookbooks to be seen once scanned they have to be indexed manually. That means mine may never get put in because they are that popular. Not really worth the money to have to wait for your book to be put in there system manually.

This should be a free app- it doesn’t even show the entire recipe!

I downloaded the app. The first three cookbooks I tried to scan were not in their library. I deleted the app.

I bought year subscription anytime I want to add after 5 it keeps looping around to the subscription page. I select subscription and it tells me I’m already subscribing WTF

I downloaded 26 cookbooks. Out of those 26 cookbooks only four had indexes. If you don’t have the index the cookbook is useless through the app. I put in a request for the index, but I don’t feel like paying for a useless app.

I scanned 5 books before I got one that didn’t say not indexed. However when you open the recipe it just shows the ingredients but not how much of the ingredient or the instructions that go along with it.

Out of the 20 cookbooks I have and use, only 3 were available in the indexed library. The rest were either not indexed or unrecognized.

I was so looking forward to upload my favorite books and use the recipes from my phone or tablet. There are no measurements/ingredient amounts showing in the recipes and it admittedly could leave out ingredients. The recipes direct you back to the cookbook. With upgrades, this is a great idea but without the full recipes, it’s not practical at all.

I saw this advertised on social media and downloaded it immediately—what an awesome idea!! However, I was disappointed to realize you have a 5 book limit for the free version… why would I even pay monthly for the premium? For my own cookbooks? For indexing? The app doesn’t even include the recipes, the UI isn’t great, and the fact that there’s a monthly cost is enraging. I’d rather pay $10 or even $15 upfront if I had to as opposed to $40/year forever. Ended up deleting because I can’t add all my cookbooks and feels ridiculous to pay for it.