Cook with Kre

How to Get Just the Recipe From Any Website

Updated

To get just the recipe from a website, look first for a “Jump to recipe” button near the top of the page, then try the site’s print view or your browser’s reader view. If you cook from the same sites often, a recipe app that imports a link does it once and keeps the clean version. When a site resists all of that, copy the ingredients and method as text.

Why recipe pages are long

A recipe page usually does several jobs at once. It tells a story about the dish, answers common questions, shows step photos, and carries the ads that pay for the site. Many cooks enjoy the writing and the tips in it, and the notes about why a step matters are often the most useful part.

The ingredients and method are usually in a recipe card further down. Behind that card, many sites also publish the recipe in a structured format called schema.org Recipe: the ingredient list, the instructions, prep and cook times and the yield, each marked up so software can read them. That structure is why the shortcuts below work as often as they do. Browsers, search engines and recipe apps can find the recipe itself without guessing.

Jump-to-recipe and print view

Start with what the site gives you.

  • Jump to recipe. Most recipe blogs put a button or link near the title that scrolls straight to the card. On a phone, it is often just below the first photo.
  • Print view. The recipe card usually has a Print button. It opens a stripped-down page with only the ingredients, method and notes. You don’t have to print it; the print page itself is often the cleanest version to cook from on a screen.
  • Ingredient checklists. Some cards let you tick ingredients off. Handy for gathering, less so once you’re at the stove.

Before you leave the full page, skim the notes and the comments for corrections. A reader pointing out that the bake took longer in their oven is worth knowing before you start.

Reader view in your browser

Every major browser has a reading mode that strips a page down to its main text and pictures.

On iPhone, Safari calls it Reader. Apple describes it as formatting a webpage “to show just the relevant text and images”. On a supported site, open the page menu in the address bar and choose Show Reader; choose Hide Reader to go back. You can also set a site to use Reader automatically, or turn it on for every site that supports it in Settings > Apps > Safari > Reader.

Reader works well on recipe pages because the recipe is text. It sometimes drops the recipe card if the card is built unusually, so check that the ingredients made it before you rely on it.

If you cook from web recipes often, a recipe app saves you doing this every time. You paste or share the page’s link, the app reads the recipe from the page, and keeps a clean copy with the ingredients and steps separated.

When you choose one, check:

  • What it keeps. Ingredients and steps at minimum; some apps also keep the source link so you can return to the author’s notes.
  • How it handles failures. No importer reads every site. A good app tells you when it couldn’t, rather than filling in gaps.
  • What it does once you’re cooking. Some apps stop at a tidy page. Others help you cook from it.

Cook with Kre takes a recipe by its web link. If the link can’t be read, you paste the recipe text instead, and Kre never guesses at a recipe it couldn’t read. From there, Kre talks you through it one step at a time. See how Kre cooks with you.

When a site blocks import

Some sites stop apps from reading their pages, require a login, or put the recipe somewhere a reader can’t reach. When that happens:

  1. Try the print view. It’s often readable even when the main page isn’t.
  2. Copy the text yourself. Select the ingredients and method from the recipe card and paste them into your notes or your recipe app as plain text. Keep the source link alongside so you can credit the author and find the notes again.
  3. Keep it simple. Ingredients first, then numbered steps. You don’t need the photos to cook.

If you’re reading it on your phone at the counter, it’s worth a quick pass through before you start: read the recipe once before you start covers what to look for. Cooking for more or fewer people than the recipe says? See how to scale a recipe up or down.

Sources

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