• About
• Features
• Recipes Tab
• Parties Tab
• Guests Tab
• Information Tab
• Sample Recipes

General Features

• Cook’s Memory is a personal recipe index/catalog and menu planner. It does not contain actual recipes (yours or anyone else’s).
  
• Cook’s Memory is a universal app. That is, you can use it on iPhone (all models that run iOS 11 or later) and iPad.
  
  Cook's Memory supports dark mode on iOS 13 or later.
  
• The program provides consistency in the description of recipes and parties. A number of lists (of ingredients, party types, menu courses, etc.) are included in the program. Users fill in information by selected from these lists.
  
• Searching is easy and straightforward. When searching the list of defined recipes, you can enter a part of the recipe's name and/or a key ingredient. Parties can be searched by title, date, the type of party, what was served or who attended it.
  
• Many panels contain help tips (dark circle with a white question mark). Tapping on a help tip displays some information about using the panel. In addition, there is a Frequently Asked Questions item on the Information Tab, which provides a lot of additional information, as does this web site.
  
• The program contains a reporting function, which can generate a number of predefined reports displays. Each of them can be printed, emailed, etc.
  

Recipe Features

The Recipes tab displays a list of recipe references you have entered and can display detailed information about each one.

• A recipe reference does not contain a list of ingredients or preparation instructions.
  
• Instead, it contains information about where to find the recipe (such as in a cookbook, a magazine, a box of recipe cards, a notebook of clippings, etc.) and a minimum of additional information to help you decide if you want to make it for some occasion.
  
• In the master recipe list, recipes are sorted by type. This means that all of the appetizers are grouped together, as a desserts, pasta dishes, chicken dishes, etc.
  
• You can include a few key ingredients with each recipe. When searching for a recipe, you enter a scrap of text in the search field and the program will match that text against both the recipe titles and the key ingredients. For example, you could enter “saffron” in the search box. In the results list, you might find Paella, even though that search term is not in the dish’s title.
  
• You can (optionally) store your personal rating of the recipe, comments about it (such as how well your guests liked it), notes to yourself and a food photo.
  

Go to the Recipe Tab page for more information, screenshots, etc.

Party Features

A party is any occasion where food is served, from a sleepy breakfast for one to a raucous pot-luck for a multitude.

Parties have a name, date, type of party (dinner, picnic, brunch, etc), a menu and a guest list.

• Parties are sorted by date and grouped by year.
  
• You can perform a number of different types of searches on the party list.
  • Title - a descriptive title you’ve given the party. The more descriptive the better — George’s 30th birthday is more descriptive than birthday, for example.
  • Food - a recipe or key ingredient. This search will show all parties where you served this item.
  • Guest - you can show all parties attended by a particular person
  • Date - you can find parties for a specified month or year
  • Start time and location of the party
  • Type - you can find parties by thier kind. For example, you can show all picnics or all pot-lucks.
  • General notes about the party — anything you want.
  • A gallery of party photes.
  
  
• The program provides a button that allows you to add the party to your calendar from within Cook's Memory, using the date, time and location information specified above.
  
• Menus are sorted by menu course, so the system keeps the dishes organized for you.
  
• Menus may include both dishes which are referenced in the Recipes Tab and menu items which are not. For example, if you're serving Beef Stroganoff, that dish may be in your Recipe Tab. But you’re unlikely to have a recipe for the noodles you serve it over or the wine you serve it with. But both can be included in your party’s menu.
  
• The program maintains a list of potential guests (see below) that acts as a pool from which you can select people for your guest list. This pool can be populated from your Address Book, but is can also include people who are not in your Address Book.
  
• Guests can be selected by name or entered as ‘unnamed.’ This means you can include people who are not currently in your guest pool (such as +1s, children of friends, etc.) and name them later.
  
• You probably attend all of your parties. And so may others (such as a spouse or partner or significant other). You can build a special list for these names called “Us”. Then, you can add ‘us’ to the guest list with a single tap.
  

Go to the Party Tab page for more information, screenshots, etc.

Guest Features

Guests are the people who attend your parties.

We’re interested in storing information about guests for two reasons.

1. It is interesting (and useful) to keep track of who attended your parties. Besides helping you remember your parties, we provide reports which use the guest list to help you keep track of what foods you’ve served to whom, who have attended parties together, etc.
   
2. More importantly, some of your guests may have food allergies, dietary restrictions, food preferences, etc. This information is not typically stored in your Address Book or anywhere else. But it is stored in Cook’s Memory and can be very useful when figuring out whether a particular menu will work with your intended guest list.
   

Go to the Guest Tab page for more information, screenshots, etc.

Information Tab

The Information Tab is the place in Cook’s Memory where information about the program itself is kept, as well as utility functions.

• About Box shows version information about the program.
  
• Frequently Asked Questions contains information about using Cook’s Memory. It is part on-line help, part an attempt to anticipate things you might want to know about the program, part suggestions and tips.
  
• Software License is the legal mumbo-jumbo associated with your use of the program. (Not to worry, it isn't very restrictive.)
  
• Privacy Statement describes what private information we collect about you and what we do with it. Bottom line — we don’t collect any.
  
• Credits are a list of acknowledgements of the people and software packages which were included in the program or which influenced code that was included in the program. We could’nt have done it with their help, and it’s only fair to say thank you.
  
• Define ‘Us’ allows you to create a list of perennial attendees at your fêtes. This will certainly include yourself, as well as a spouse, partner, significant other, etc. The nice thing about using this feature is that you can add ‘us’ to a guest list with a single tap.
  
• Import/Export allows you to save and restore copies of your Cook's Memory data. This allows you to maintain manual backups of your data, or to manually synchronize your data on different devices.
  

Go to the Information Tab page for more information, screenshots, etc.