Cook'n Reviewer's Comments

Cook’n Recipe Organizer is the master program for DVO Incorporated’s line of cookbook and recipe organizing software. It comes with sample recipes from their other titles including Cook’n with Betty Crocker. One of the most important benefits of an electronic cookbook is a quick search over many recipes to find exactly what you want or easily browse similar recipes without pulling books off the shelf. Cook’n Recipe Organizer’s search function does not work properly. What should result in a narrowed search, results in a long list with irrelevant results. See Cook’n with Betty Crocker Deluxe for a description of the problem.

Ease of Use:  

Intuitive navigation allows you to move easily from one step to the next whether you’re planning meals for the week or building a family cookbook. Move recipes to different chapters or different cookbooks with the drag and drop feature.

Tip: For more accurate search results, check the Foods list found at the top of the toolbar to find the name of the ingredient used in this program, e.g. search for ground beef rather than hamburger. 

Recipe Manager:  

The recipe manager is the core of cookbook and recipe software, and Cook'n with Betty Crocker does an excellent job. This recipe manager is designed to mirror the structure of a cookbook. You’ll find the same chapters and recipes on your screen that you would find in the book itself. You may add your own cookbooks, which means you can name a file to hold your personal recipes.Each recipe is divided into three windows: view, edit and picture. You can edit any of the recipes that come with Cook'n or recipes you have added. If a recipe has a photograph, check the Picture tab. The photos are attractive, clear and give excellent examples for presentation.The recipe manager also has auto-fill to make entering recipes fast, so keep one eye on the screen. The software will automatically find the nutritional value for each recipe as long as you use the ingredients that the program recognizes. 

Menu Planner:  

Click on the menu planner and you can access the recipes by book, chapter and category. Drag the recipe to the appropriate day. When you’ve finished, you can name your menu and save it. The software will calculate the nutritional value of the meal. When it's time to do your grocery shopping, the meal planner will compile a grocery list and group the foods according to where you'll find them in the market. 

Feature Set:  

There are more than 300 recipes in the sampler with about ten from each title.  The Cook’n series covers cooking from the dorm room to the annual Bake-Off, from India to Italy, but you’ll have to buy each title separately for the full collection. Enticing, but there are other programs that come with many more recipes, and you can download recipes from the Internet.

Automatically adjust recipes according to the number of people you're going to serve. Don’t forget to edit instructions: if you increase a brownie recipe from nine servings to 20, that 9” x 9” pan is not going to work.

Share your recipes in several ways: print on recipe cards or full sized paper or email them.

A backup procedure so you don't lose your files.

Bonus Feature

Friendly and helpful videos presented by founder Dan Oaks and his wife Kathy. 

Ease of Installation:  

No problems during the installation of the program. 

Help/Support:  

The manufacturer of Cook'n is dedicated to answering any questions or concerns you have with the program as quickly as possible. They offer email, phone and live chat so you can reach customer service in a number of different ways. 

Summary:  

Buy Cook’n if you plan to add additional DVO titles to your collection. Think of it as an expandable cookbook. However, until DVO repairs the search function, this program may cause more frustration than inspiration.