App where you input ingredients

Hack your way to dinner with these apps that make sense of your fridge

Epicurious iPhone app

“What’s for dinner?” is a question as old as time itself – and it’s one of the most frustrating. Now, technology has an answer. A slew of Web and phone apps take into account what you have in your fridge, what you’re in the mood for, and how much time you have before answering that question. Many, also offer great grocery list features so that even when you’re at the grocery store, you’ll know that a bunch of fresh basil and take you from roast chicken breasts to Caprese salad.

Mobile apps  

When it comes to well-vetted recipes, Epicurious’ free app offers the best of the best with recipes from Bon Appetit, Gourmet (R.I.P.), and star chefs from around the world. Choose from a variety of categories from “Low-Carb Mains” and “Family Reunions” to recipes based on skill levels, including “I Can Barely Cook.”

Or, start with a main ingredient, then choose a course, cuisine style, dietary restrictions, and even season or occasion. While some recipes require a well-stocked fridge and pantry, many are easy enough for a weeknight meal. But with its limited features for the pantry and fridge specifics, this is more of a “What can I make with X?” app than “What can I make with what I have?” app.

Ratio iPhone app

Based on the Michael Ruhlman book Ratio: The Simples Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking, this is a great choice for the kitchen enthusiast who doesn’t need a lot of hand-holding but likes a lot of options and creativity.

The $4.99 app provides 32 ratios (sugar to fat to flour, for example) on how to make doughs, batters and sauces as well as a calculator that makes it easy to determine how much of everything you need and how many servings you’ll have based on it. But again, not for someone who’s wondering if lard would be a good fat in a cookie, at least not for most cookies.

Much like the Epicurious app, the essential recipe features of this are: Choose a type of dish and choose a main ingredient (as well as up to seven other ones). Time is on the front page of the app as well so you can decide between a 20 minute meal or a slow-cooker set it and forget it morning.

There’s a robust grocery function as well as a recipe box to keep the fan favorites in. Dietary filters such as low sodium, low fat, no dairy, vegan, vegetarian, and no wheat are also available.

Whole Foods iPhone app

Whole Foods offers a collection of 3,000 plus recipes, all of which you can filter through its “On-Hand” function (of three ingredients). The free app, though made by the notoriously pricey grocery store, even has an entire section dedicated to “Budget-Friendly” meals like Braised Chicken with Mangoes and Risotto with Asparagus which help you prepare meals within your price range and not just Gwyneth Paltrow’s.

And while the main course is important and all, when it comes to cocktails, Cocktail Flow takes into account your booze pantry to suggest drinks (with recipes, of course). Some of its features are a little gimmicky (like the ability to browse recipes by color) and its cocktail library not the most comprehensive nor sophisticated, it’s shopping feature which shows which ingredients you need for specific recipes and even about how much they’ll cost makes this free app a worthy addition to your Android or iPhone.