Cook’n with Betty Crocker Deluxe includes all of the recipes from eight Betty Crocker Cookbooks—over 2000—with the same features as the standard edition Cook'n with Betty Crocker . It is as close as you will get to a cookbook: you’ll see terms like bookshelf where all of the cookbooks are located—click for specific chapters, click again for recipes. You won’t thumb through pages, but it will feel familiar. Photos are big and beautiful. Convenient, automated features like generating a grocery list, give it advantages over the traditional cookbook. With plenty of reliable recipes, this is a great gift for someone with their first kitchen or newlyweds.
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.
Use the search function to filter the recipes by keywords or ingredients to find the recipe you want. Good in theory, but not in practice for Cook’n with Betty Crocker Deluxe. Search by ingredient and every recipe in the database that mentions the ingredient is shown in the results.
An example to better understand this problem:
Results: All cookbooks are included in the search so chicken has been dropped. Every recipe that has rice somewhere in the text is on the list, including Train Cake because licorice is a garnish and Angel Food Cake because rice pudding is suggested as a use for leftover egg yolks. To be useful, this feature must be fixed.
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.
Betty Crocker's 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 with Betty Crocker Deluxe 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.
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.
The recipes are reliable, simple and traditional. You will find recipes from international cuisines, but they are Americanized. This recipe collection is a solid foundation for the home cook, not the epicurean.Cook’n with Betty Crocker Deluxe includes:
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.
Cook'n with Betty Crocker Deluxe comes with over 2000 recipes and you can download an unlimited number from the web in a variety of formats.
Share your recipes in several ways: print on recipe cards or full sized paper or email them.
A simple backup procedure so you don't lose your files.
Bonus Feature
Friendly and helpful videos presented by founder Dan Oaks and his wife Kathy.
No problems during the installation of the program.
The manufacturer of Cook'n with Betty Crocker 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. And, at your request, you may receive e-newsletters with new recipes and more cooking advice.
Cook’n with Betty Crocker Deluxe has the widest selection of family recipes, informative tutorials with personality, and the intuitive structure of a cookbook. If you have the patience to work around the search problem, Cook’n with Betty Crocker Deluxe is a good source of inspiration, information and organization for the new cook.
Manufacturer: DVO Enterprises
©2008 TopTenREVIEWS, Inc.
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