BigOven Blog

Parent Tested, Parent-Approved

Steve Murch — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 11:29:12 -0800

BigOven PRO membership has just earned the Parent-Tested, Parent-Approved Winners Seal of Approval designation.

In giving BigOven the award, several parents joined BigOven PRO in a blind test over the course of several weeks and explored all its key features – menu planning, grocery list making, recipe posting, customer service, the mobile apps, and more.

With independent parent volunteers evaluating products in their own homes, PTPA winners are chosen based on merit and consumer experience. The PTPA Media™ Seal has quickly gained recognition as an international leader in certifying consumer products for quality, effectiveness and value. Consumers looking for high-quality products and services rely on the PTPA Winner's Seal as evidence of product excellence.

"At PTPA Media, we are proud to play a role in certifying innovative products that families can trust, and this year, we have identified BigOven PRO Membership as such a trusted product," said Sharon Vinderine, CEO and founder of PTPA Media Inc. "When consumers search for our Seal of Approval on product packaging and web sites, they are essentially searching for validation from their peers. Their peers will have objectively tested and approved these products based on their performance in a real life environment. That type of resource for families is priceless."

Read what the reviewers said about BigOven and BigOven PRO membership:

I've really enjoyed using the BigOven app. I am not a natural cook who likes to experiment with foods so this app was made for me. This is great because I can easily plan my weekly meals and grocery lists. My favorite feature is you can enter three ingredients that you have and it will bring up a list of recipe ideas. I love this app!

BigOven Pro is a website full of ideas and opportunities. It is much more than a basic recipe database. My favorite features included the ability to meal plan, complete with a picture to remind me what my finished product could/should look like, the ability to post recipes either publicly or privately, and so much more. It also has a free app that you can download to make life in the grocery store easy! The best part of BigOven is, these recipes are posted and have been made by people just like me. I don't need to be a gourmet chef, with specialty ingredients in my pantry. Everyone can find recipes that they can make successfully, and that will taste great too! It's something that I'll be using for years to come.

I love anything that takes the guess work out of what to make for dinner. The grocery planner makes shopping easier by ensuring I get everything I need in one trip.

Thanks PTPA!

About PTPA Media Inc

PTPA Media provides an objective framework for appraising and promoting new products designed to enrich family living. The company's mission is to marry innovative companies with discerning consumers, to improve consumer access to quality products and services for their families and homes. PTPA CEO, Sharon Vinderine has appeared on over 40 morning shows as a reliable source for the latest and greatest in family products.

New My Recipes section gives you quick access to all your recipes

Steve Murch — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 10:19:28 -0800

Starting today, we’ve made it easier to see all your Favorites, Try Soons and recipes you’ve added all in one place. Simply visit the new “My Recipes” tab on BigOven.com.

Now, when you mark Favorites or Try Soons, or post new recipes, you’ll only have a couple clicks to find them again. The new “My Recipes” tab lets you easily filter through your Try Soons, Favorites and recipes you’ve added (which combines recipes you’ve posted with those you’ve RecipeScanned), narrowing it down by category if you wish.

The general “Recipes” tab is where you’ll continue to find things like Recent Raves, Random Recipes and more.

Here’s what it the new My Recipes tab looks like:

By default, it shows a handful of them at a time.

To fetch the next page, just scroll to the bottom of the page and choose “More”:

You can use the filter bars at the top to locate the recipes easily. Note that your current selection is highlighted – in this case, I’m filtering on the “Try Soon” recipes that are a Main Dish:

Example

Let’s say you’re tired of being stuck for dinner ideas. When you’ve got a few free moments, log into BigOven.com with your free account (or launch one of our free apps for iPhone, iPad, Android, Kindle Fire, or Windows Phone) – and mark a few recipes “Try Soon”.

Then, when you’re ready to cook, simply visit www.bigoven.com/myrecipes and click “Try Soons”, and then “Main Dish” or “Salad”, or whatever category you want, and you’ll see some great ideas.

When you’ve tried a recipe, and it’s a good one, be sure to flag it a Favorite. After a couple months, you’ll find you have about a hundred Favorites on the site that will help you get unstuck, wherever you are.

Be sure to categorize the recipes you post!

To edit any recipe you’ve posted, simply visit the recipe page on BigOven.com. Click on the Edit button on the right hand side (you’ll only see it when you’re logged into the site). Then, choose the recipe category and subcategory near the top of the screen.

We’d love to hear from you

I hope you find this new feature useful – I sure do! Remember, to get unstuck for dinner, just browse through BigOven.com (or any of our free recipe apps), and mark the recipes “Try Soon”. Then, you’ll never be stuck for great ideas to make.

Got an idea for making BigOven even better? Or do you want to tell us what works (or doesn’t work) for you? Be sure to drop us a note – our development team reads every one.

Happy cooking!

Resize Recipes Easily

Steve Murch — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 14:28:55 -0800

Cooking for two tonight? Or hosting crowd of 15? No worries; BigOven will resize any recipe, and recalculate the ingredient quantities required.

How to Resize a Recipe

First, find any recipe page on BigOven.com. Let’s take this one: Artichoke Mushroom Risotto.

In the ingredients section, you’ll see a resize box:

BigOven shows you the original recipe makes 6 servings, and lets you size the recipe up or down. Enter the quantity you’d like, press “resize”, and you’ll see the ingredients recalculated.

If I want to double the recipe for Artichoke Mushroom Risotto, I’d simply enter 12 and press “resize”:

Tip #1: When you resize a recipe, BigOven adjusts the ingredients, not the instructions

If you’re increasing the quantity, you often need to extend cooking times or temperatures slightly. BigOven will not attempt to make any changes to the text instructions. Instead, even after a resizing is done, it will display the originally posted instructions.

Just to help you, BigOven will show you the following tip:

Tip #2: Your resized recipe will be used for the next action you do, primarily: (a) Adding to Grocery List, (b)Printing, (c) Adding to Menu Plan and (d) Emailing a Recipe

Once you resize a recipe, if you then do one of the four actions above, BigOven will assume that you want the resized recipe to be used, not the original quantity.

If you resize a recipe then add it to the menu plan, the resized recipe will be added to the plan. When you generate a grocery list, the resized quantities will be used.

If you resize a recipe then add it to your grocery list, the resized quantities will be added to the grocery list.

Tip #3: If you want to email a resized recipe, just resize it first, then email it

As written above, once you resize a recipe, BigOven will think that the next action you do refers to the resized recipe.

Tip #4: If you’re a regular BigOven.com user and the resizing isn’t working in your browser, be sure to do a full refresh of the webpage, to ensure the latest JavaScript code is brought over.

Some new JavaScript code enables some of the features. Be sure to do a refresh in your browser to force the new code over.

Tip #5: When posting new recipes, be sure to enter the proper yield size!

“Servings” is the most helpful unit to use. You can post any recipe you’d like for free on BigOven.com.

Thanks for your help making BigOven better!

Thank you for responding to our recent survey about what you’d like to see on BigOven; this feature is a direct result of your feedback. If you have other ways to help make BigOven the best recipe organizer for you, please let us know. Thanks!

Find your Facebook friends on BigOven

Steve Murch — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 14:25:55 -0800

Cooking is social, and so is BigOven.

It’s optional, but if you link your Facebook account to BigOven (which you can do either when you join or after you’ve joined), BigOven will let you know when your Facebook friends join.

This makes it easy to share recipe ideas, request a favorite recipe from a friend, and discover each other’s favorites and try soons. In the near future, we’ll be surfacing for you when your Facebook friends post new recipes, rate recipes, and more.

As part of that, today, we released a page where you can see which of your Facebook friends are on BigOven, at www.bigoven.com/account/facebookfriends

When you visit that page, you’ll see a screen like the below. It shows you a list of those Facebook friends that you have which have linked their BigOven and Facebook accounts:

If you’d like to invite a Facebook friend to BigOven, just click on one of your friends. You’ll see an invitation link pop up, which you can customize before placing it on their wall:

When your Facebook friend joins BigOven, you’ll get an email that says your friend has joined, giving you a link to their BigOven page, where you can post a great recipe to share.

Free Android Cooking App: Now with Landscape Mode!

Steve Murch — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 10:58:19 -0800

Our latest update to BigOven for Android is rolling out to Android Market and Amazon AppStore today, and offers landscape support for better recipe viewing.

You can search over 200,000 recipes, create a list of favorites or try-soons, or enter three ingredients from your fridge or pantry to see what you can make. Like our other mobile apps, it pairs seamlessly with BigOven.com, letting you build lists on the web and see them on your smartphone with a simple login.

Download this great free recipe app today from the Android Market or Amazon Appstore!

Recipe Search and Recipe Detail

Post any recipe to BigOven.com and access it on the go. Search over 200,000 recipes. Create a Favorites list and a Try Soon list so you’re never stuck wondering what to make for dinner.

Browse the reviews from cooks who’ve made the recipe before – gain valuable tips, and share your own! Snap and upload photos for the recipes you make, and rate the recipes to return the favor.

Grocery List

Add recipes or individual items to your grocery list, and get your list at the grocery store! Edit it online at www.bigoven.com/grocery, or any of our other mobile apps – your grocery list synchronizes seamlessly with the one on BigOven.com. A PRO membership is required for grocery list functionality, but starting today you can try the web-based grocery list for up to 10 items for free on www.bigoven.com/grocery, to get a feel for the convenience it offers.

RecipeScan

Have paper recipes lying around in a kitchen drawer? Or run across a fantastic must-try recipe in a newspaper or magazine? Simply whip out your Android phone, snap a picture, and we’ll do the data entry for you. You get 3 RecipeScans for free to try it out; join as a PRO member and you’ll get 25 more. You can buy more RecipeScan credits for just $0.59 apiece (if you buy in packs of 100), or $0.99 if you buy them individually.

Other Great Time and Money-Saving Features

Use up leftovers! Enter 3 ingredients and BigOven will search over 200,000 recipes to show you what you can make
PRO members can easily customize existing recipes on the web (and access them on the go) and post recipes privately

Do you find BigOven useful? We’d love a review!

Our team works hard to deliver the best cooking app on the market. We think BigOven delivers a ton of value for free, helping millions of cooks around the world cook better and save time and money at the grocery store.

If you find BigOven’s free app useful, we sure would appreciate a nice review in the Android Market or Amazon AppStore. It’s particularly important to us on Android, since several of the reviews refer to the very first version of the app, which was a mobile version of our website – this app is fully native to Android, and we’d love for the reviews to reflect this version.

Happy cooking from your friends at BigOven!

Improvements to Recipe Data Entry

Steve Murch — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 14:11:04 -0800

Making it as easy as possible for you to digitize and organize your recipe collection is a key part of what we offer at BigOven. As you probably know, once you get your recipes on BigOven, they’re in the cloud forever, easily searchable and taggable, and as close as your nearest web browser, smartphone, or tablet via our free recipe apps. And they’re ready for creating grocery lists, menu plans and more.

After lots of feedback to our support desk after shipping our last set of improvements to the type-it-in process, we’ve just released a few important refinements. I wanted to bring them to your attention.

1. We’ve improved the “auto-fill” suggestions: they load faster and no longer “steal” keystrokes

On the “Add a Recipe” form, the auto-suggest code has been improved and tested on multiple browsers, so that it loads faster and won’t “steal keystrokes” from you. Some users reported (and we verified independently) that the old code was stealing tabs, making it a bit frustrating when entering values. Now, you get an auto-suggest for key fields that makes it go much more quickly.

TIP: After typing a few letters, use the up/down arrows on your keyboard or the mouse to select the right option. If the option isn’t listed the way you want, don’t worry, just keep typing; you’re not limited to the options in the list.

2. We’ve made the role of “Headings” in ingredients much clearer

We notice there’s been confusion about what those checkboxes are in the ingredients section.

Answer: They’re there to indicate that the line is a “heading” – a separator line – for the ingredient lines that follow (until the end of the ingredients section or the next “heading”).

In a typical recipe for a cake, you’ll have a FROSTING section and a CAKE section, and recipes are made more clear by separating out the frosting ingredients from the cake ingredients, as follows:

FROSTING

1 cup powdered sugar

1/2 stick butter

[ etc. ]

CAKE

2 cups flour, sifted

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

[ etc.]

When you create a grocery list from the recipe, you do not generally want a spurious line on your grocery list saying “CAKE” or “FROSTING”. Thus, one type of ingredient line is a special separator -- we call it a “heading”. The headings in the ingredients above are “FROSTING” and “CAKE”. They are treated by BigOven as simple text – not nutrient-linkable, and not part of the grocery creation process.

Previously, we simply tried to explain that in text. Now, there’s a tooltip that explains it, plus toggling that checkbox on and off will disable/enable certain fields, hopefully making it even clearer what it’s about.

Now, when you check the heading checkbox ON, BigOven will disable the other fields.

For instance, this Sesame Crusted Ahi Tuna Salad recipe will have a final section called “Optional Garnishes”.

With the “heading” box checked, notice how the “Quantity”, “Measure” and “Prep notes” boxes are disabled – slightly more grey and not available for input – and only the “Item” box is white and available for input:

I’ll create a heading line called “OPTIONAL GARNISHES” line, then add the actual garnishes, with the heading line unchecked.

There, that’s it.

Now, if you choose add this recipe to your grocery list or menu plan (which I recommend you do – it’s delicious!), the phrase “OPTIONAL GARNISHES” will not be added, but you’ll be prompted whether or not you’d want to add the three ingredients that follow.

TIP: Do not worry if the item you would like to type in does not appear in the list. The items there are simply to help speed your typing and reduce spelling errors.

3. You can now [Tab] through the ingredient lines you add much more smoothly

Previously, when you pressed the [Tab] key in the list of ingredient lines above, it would move field to field, but also stop on both the heading checkbox and “remove” items, which generally slowed the process down.

Now, when you press [Tab] (or [shift]+[Tab] to go back), it only moves through the text input boxes -- quantity, measure, item, and prep notes.

This should speed your typing if you use this form a lot.

4. Related new feature: Customize any recipe (PRO members only)!

We just announced that PRO members can customize any recipe.

It’s a terrific new feature to save you time in data entry.

You can now take any of the 200,000+ recipes in the archive, and with two clicks, make your own copy, and change-away. Adjust the recipe to suit your own tastes and dietary preferences.

So, if you’re going to type in your own recipe for a quiche (let’s say, from memory), why not start with a basic quiche recipe that’s close to what you want, and customize it?

(One catch – note that customized copies of recipes are currently made private, and you’ll need to make a specific request of our support team if you want to make it public. Why? Because we don’t want general searches to be flooded with near-duplicates. Our blog post on customizations explains more.)

5. Another way to enter data: RecipeScan

And, as we’ve mentioned before, a great way to enter recipes from handwritten recipes, newspaper clippings and more is with our revolutionary new RecipeScan service. We’ve gotten great feedback on that service too, and will be doing our 11,000th RecipeScan for customers this week.

RecipeScan lets you snap photos (or upload JPG images) and we’ll do the work for you. It’s a $0.99-per-recipe service ($0.59 per recipe if you buy in packs of 100) – meaning you can organize an entire kitchen drawer full of recipes fairly affordably, and get those recipes on your iPad, iPhone, Kindle Fire, Android phone or Windows Phone.

Thank you for your feedback

Our developers read every single suggestion that comes in via our feedback form. We like to hear from you, and your voice matters a great deal in our design and development process. Thank you for your ideas!

New: Customize Recipes!

Steve Murch — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 22:59:26 -0800

Ever want to make a custom version of a BigOven recipe to suit your own tastes, techniques, diet or allergy preferences? Starting today, BigOven PRO members can create custom recipes easily!

Potential uses

Cooks are always adapting ideas from others.

Often, a recipe is a great starting point of inspiration but… you’d like to bring down the calorie count by reducing sugars. Or increase the salt because you’re watching your sodium intake. Or bake it a little longer, spice it up a little, remove an ingredient you’re allergic to, or create a vegan, vegetarian, or diet-friendly adaptation. You can now do it in seconds, without having to retype in the whole recipe!

Or you might want to simply save time in data-entry. If you want to type in a chocolate chip cookie recipe that’s altered just a bit from your favorite one, why not start with one of the classic chocolate chip cookies recipes and modify from there?

How to Customize a Recipe

When you customize a recipe, BigOven makes a copy of it for you, and then lets you edit it directly, just as though you posted it.

To keep the duplicates down for recipe searchers, and to pay due respect to the original poster, the cloned recipe is made Private, which means it is visible only to you, and only when you’re logged in.

Let’s say I want to spice-up this Pad Thai recipe that’s already on the site.

Step 1: Find the recipe on www.bigoven.com from a desktop web browser

Recipe customization is easy, but it cannot currently be done from our mobile apps. It must be done on www.bigoven.com. Find the recipe, then simply click “Customize It”, in the right-hand bar. You’ll see this list of options when you log into www.bigoven.com.

Step 2

BigOven brings up a simple dialog to explain the feature and confirm your choice. Click “Customize!”

Step 3

Make your customizations! You can add or remove ingredients, modify the instructions and more. When you’re done, click the button that you’ll see at the bottom of the form.

Step 4

That’s it! Your customization is done!

Notes/Tips

A customized recipe is a brand new copy and belongs to you.

Changes you make to this recipe will not alter the original recipe in any way.
The recipe is private. Only you can see it, and only when you are logged in. (Yes, you can make this recipe public, but it requires a manual exception to do so. We do not want general searches flooded with duplicate recipes.)
You can create variations of your own recipes or anyone else’s that you see on the site.
You can create variations of recipes you post or RecipeScan.
You can use it during data entry to save time. If you have 3 cake recipes, for instance, you might consider entering the master cake recipe first, then use the “Customize It” feature to create two variations.
The recipe is created with the original title plus your username in parenthesis. That is to help you “disambiguate” between the original recipe and your (private) version in search results.
Remember, you can also search for recipes by entering a fragment of the title and your username in general keyword search – so, for instance, I’d quickly find this recipe by typing “pad thai stevemur”. (You won’t see it, as it’s private only to me.)
The customized recipe contains the original photos, because we thought you’d like to have them as a reference. You can add your own images, and they’ll only go on this copy. If you’d like to remove one or more existing photos, jot us a note with the recipe ID number and the photos you’d like removed, and we’ll be happy to help manually. Right now, there are no user-tools for this, simply due to schedule. It’s on our list for the future.
The recipe shows up in your “Recipes I’ve Posted” list, and also by searching on your username in keyword search.
On mobile devices “Recipes I’ve Posted” may need to be refreshed to see the new recipe. Note in particular that on the iPhone, iPad, and iPod, there’s a local cache and you’ll need to explicitly force a refresh to see the new recipe – simply swipe down on the “Recipes I’ve Posted” list to refresh it.

Your Top Feature Request!

Customizing recipes was our top feature request in a recent survey we sent to PRO members.

BigOven is a complete recipe organization system for you in your kitchen and on-the-go. Take any recipe and customize it to suit your tastes and needs.

Thank you for your feedback – you are helping us build a better and better recipe organization system for you!

Kindle Fire App Now Available!

Steve Murch — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 14:14:50 -0800

We are pleased to announce the immediate availability of BigOven™ for Amazon’s new Kindle Fire tablet. The Kindle Fire, at $199, is affordably-priced and brings the world of the web, movies, books and tens of thousands of apps to your fingertips.

And now, you can access 200,000+ recipes and all your BigOven information (Favorites, Try Soons, Recipes you’ve Posted, etc.) right through the free BigOven app:

Features:

Search 200,000+ recipes

Search by keyword, category, or ingredient
See Favorites, Try Soons, Recipes You’ve Posted

Get full recipe details and full-color photos of tens of thousands of recipes
Get tens of thousands of reviews from cooks, and contribute your own
Your account synchronizes fully with our website, www.bigoven.com
Email recipes to others
Browse by category – Main Dish, Dessert, etc.
See Recent Raves – recipes that have recently earned 4 or 5 stars
Post recipes from the web (www.bigoven.com/recipe/post) and get them on your Kindle Fire tablet
Use up leftovers – enter 3 ingredients from your fridge or pantry and see what you can make!
Works great in landscape or portrait
Join BigOven PRO (just $15.99/year) and get a grocery list, post private recipes, remove all advertising and more – see details at www.bigoven.com/pro

Add items to your grocery list and your grocery list is sorted by aisle
Edit your grocery list, check off items – it’s all fully synchronized with your BigOven.com grocery list at www.bigoven.com/grocery
Get nutrition facts

Get it today – it’s free!

BigOven for Kindle Fire is free, and is also currently advertising-free during our launch period.

Just turn on your Kindle Fire, tap “Apps” in the upper bar, then “Store”, then search for “BigOven”.

Please help – provide a rating!

We love building these free apps for you.

Do you find having access to 200,000+ shared recipes – all for free -- useful? If so, we sure would love a review in the Amazon App Store. Unfortunately, there are still several very out-of-date reviews in the appstore referring to the mobile website version of the Android app, which we updated many months ago. You can help new users evaluate the product by rating this all-new native app. This is misleading to many users who never take a moment to download the all-new app (and unfortunately Amazon doesn’t provide a way for developers to respond in the App Store to correct any errors.) You can help by providing a rating!

Got comments or suggestions for a future version? Please drop us a note.

Happy cooking!

BigOven iPhone App: Top 10 Tips

Steve Murch — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 13:07:15 -0800

BigOven’s free recipe apps help you get organized in the kitchen and on the go, and have been downloaded more than 5 million times. Thank you for naming BigOven “Readers Choice, 2011, Best Recipe App” on About.com, and we look forward to another great year ahead in 2012.

As 2011 draws to a close, we combed through product support inquiries regarding the iPhone app, and wanted to take a minute to surface the top tips and hidden gems in the iPhone app that you might not know about.

[ We also offer great recipe apps for Android, Windows Desktop, Windows Phone and iPad, but this post pertains specifically to the iPhone app. ]

------

Tip 1. There’s always a corresponding function on the web, at www.bigoven.com, that gives you even more power. Bookmark www.bigoven.com from every desktop you use, and you’ll find it saves you time meal-planning.

One of the ways BigOven’s recipe apps are unique is that they are backed by a very versatile and powerful website, www.bigoven.com. You can do a LOT with the iPhone app, but if you’re ONLY using the iPhone app, you’re missing out.

BigOven was designed from the beginning to be used either at a desktop computer and on-the-go, with all your recipes, menu plan, and grocery list seamlessly synchronizing for you. Everything you do on BigOven.com from a web browser is synchronized with your mobile app, and vice-versa.

A single login is all you need.

For example:

Feature	On the iPhone	On BigOven.com
Add your own recipes!	“Recipes I’ve Posted”, RecipeScan	www.bigoven.com/recipe/post, OR www.bigoven.com/recipe/scan
Grocery List (PRO)	Grocery List	www.bigoven.com/grocery
Menu Plan (PRO)	Menu Planner	www.bigoven.com/plan
Account Profile	n/a	www.bigoven.com/account/me
Favorite Recipes	Favorite Recipes	www.bigoven.com/{user}/favorites
Try Soon Recipes	Try Soon Recipes	www.bigoven.com/{user}/trysoons
Recipes I’ve Made	“Prepare” mode on a recipe	look on right side of recipe page
Edit an existing recipe	n/a	log onto website and find recipe
Add a recipe photo	Camera icon on a recipe	look near photo on a recipe page
Access your stuff	“My Kitchen”	your user profile page, e.g., www.bigoven.com/user/stevemur

Many people find that BigOven saves them time at the grocery store because they use a ten-minute break at work or during the day to fill out their Menu Plan, or add recipes to their “Try Soon” list. Then, when they’re at the grocery store, they’ve already got ideas!

Tip 2. Your iPhone and iPad app have a local database on-board. You can refresh any recipe result list by tugging down on the list and letting go.

The iOS apps sport an extra feature that other mobile apps do not currently have – a local database. This allows you to carry your recipes, menu plan, and grocery list with you wherever you go, whether it has wi-fi, 3G, or not.

The iPhone synchronizes in the background with the website every now and then. Occasionally, it is also necessary to “force a refresh” of your recipe or recipe list.

For instance, if you’ve recently posted a recipe using the website from a desktop browser, or added a new “RecipeScan”, you may need to force the “Recipes I’ve Posted” list to refresh.

To do so, simply use your fingers to swipe downward on the list, and you’ll see this (notice the “release to update”, and the arrow, at the top):

Tip 3. Want to see another random recipe? Just shake the phone.

BigOven’s “Random Recipe” feature is designed to get you unstuck. You might not make the actual recipe shown, but it can definitely inspire you to “think different” at 4:00pm if you’re out of ideas!

Just choose “Random Recipe” from the “Get Ideas” menu.

Want another choice? Simply shake the phone.

Tip 4. The Settings app on your iPhone has a “BigOven” section on it.

Just go to the iPhone’s home screen, and tap the Settings app (the gear). If BigOven is installed, you’ll find a “BigOven” section there. Tap it, and you’ll see options to:

Enter your username and password (login info)
Share location (on/off) – helps us populate “nearby recipes”, which surfaces what people are making locally
Display in metric (on/off)
Home screen recipes (on/off)
Play sounds (on/off)
Edit Photos (on/off)
Restore Views (on/off) – restores views when you load the app again, e.g., if you are interrupted by a phonecall
Beta testing (on/off) – useful for us when we go to beta testing (default is off)

Tip 5. To edit any recipe you’ve posted or RecipeScanned, use the web.

Just about every day, we get a question on how to edit a recipe.

In general, we don’t feel that the smallest mobile screens (i.e., on smartphones) are well-suited to content-creation.

Instead, to edit any recipe you’ve posted – whether it’s one you typed in or one you RecipeScanned, just visit the website. Find the recipe (either in the “Recipes I’ve Posted” list, which can be accessed easily in the upper menu bar – or by typing the title in).

While you are logged in, when you view the recipe page, you’ll see an “Edit” button on the right hand side. Click it, and you can edit (or delete) the recipe.

Tip 6. If you are actually preparing the recipe, switch to “Prepare” mode!

On any recipe page, you’ll see a toggle switch “Overview” and “Prepare”.

“Overview”: This is the normal browsing mode for a recipe. It shows all the recipe details.

“Prepare”: This tells BigOven you’re making the recipe. It will show more text on the screen (hiding the image temporarily), it will log the recipe in your “Recipes I’ve Made” list, providing handy reference later, and it will also keep the screen from timing out.

Tip 7. Viewing a recipe in “Prepare” mode adds it to your “Recipes I’ve Made” list.

You can find your “Recipes I’ve Made” list at the bottom of the “My Kitchen” section of the app.

Tip 8. Your grocery list can be edited on your iPhone and on the web.

Be sure to bookmark www.bigoven.com/grocery in any web browser! (PRO members only)

This handy link will allow you (or anyone else in your household) to add to your grocery list. It’s a huge time-saver! Be sure to refresh your grocery list while at the store. (Choose “Reload from BigOven” in the grocery list view.)

Tip 9. You can remove a recipe from your grocery list with a simple swipe.

If you’re like me, you sometimes change your mind at the grocery store about what to make, when you see what’s fresh and on-sale.

BigOven makes it simple to delete all the ingredients from a particular recipe. Just choose “Recipes on Grocery List” from the action menu on the grocery list, and swipe the recipe (to the right) to reveal the “Delete” button.

When you delete a recipe from your grocery list, all the items that pertain to that item are automatically removed from the list! (This important feature is one of the reasons we don’t currently combine quantities on the grocery list. It makes it simple to see what’s removed, and causes less confusion.)

You can also remove recipes from your grocery list on the web (www.bigoven.com/grocery) simply by clicking the “x” next to the recipe card – see the highlighted X below. Note that you can delete individual items or entire recipes at once.

Tip 10. In the “Use up Leftovers” section, you’re not limited to the quickfill items on the list!

BigOven lets you use up leftovers by entering up to three ingredients from your fridge, pantry or freezer, to see what you can make. The results are often surprising – and usually very helpful!

Now, the iPhone includes quick-fill options for the most common ingredients you might want to search for, simply to help you save time typing -- but you’re not limited to the list. Just keep typing what you’d like!

In the screenshots below, I’ve typed “kafir limes”, and pressed “Done”. Don’t be scared by the “No Results” message – that simply means that the local list of common ingredients doesn’t include “Kafir Limes” – you’ll still get great recipe suggestions if you proceed!

Download the app today!

We hope you find BigOven a useful app in your life. If you do, we'd love a "Like" on this page, so your friends know as well!

Download the app on iTunes, or here:

Your most recent ratings now displayed on your profile page

Steve Murch — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 16:19:31 -0800

As you may know, every BigOven cook gets a free profile page that keeps track of activity on the site, and lets others share comments. For instance, mine is here:

http://www.bigoven.com/user/stevemur

Your profile page provides a handy way to see the recipes you’ve posted, rated, and marked “Favorite” or “Try Soon”. It’s there to help others learn what you like, remind you what you’ve made and more. Regardless of where you’ve participated on BigOven, be it the website or free mobile apps, your activity will show up here (except for that relating to private recipes.)

NEW: See Your Most Recent Ratings on any Profile Page

Your profile page now shows your most recent comments on recipes:

Since profile pages are public, this helps you share your feedback with others, and find out what a given user likes and doesn’t like.

Tip: How to update “What’s for dinner”

You can update “What’s for dinner” simply by visiting any recipe page on BigOven.com and clicking “I’m making this tonight” on the right hand side of the recipe page.

Tip: Post a recipe on someone’s comment wall!

You can easily recommend a recipe to another user simply by posting it on their comment wall. Just visit their profile page, and start typing a recipe’s title, and click on it. When you post the comment, a link will be placed on the comment wall.