MacGourmet Deluxe is among the most well-known kitchen software programs on the market. Many other programs even let users import recipes from MacGourmet, presumably to allow people with the program share recipes with less fortunate friends who have lower-quality programs. From its simple user interface and drag and drop capability to its smart lists and highly advanced search options, MacGourmet offers everything a cook could want and more in one program. MacGourmet’s advanced features, combined with its ease of use, made it our top choice among the Mac recipe software we reviewed.
MacGourmet was the only piece of Mac recipe software we reviewed that met all 20 of our rating criteria for this category. Certainly, this program is well worth the big bucks. The recipe photographs are stunning, quite easily of professional quality, and the recipes themselves are as elegant as they are easy to follow. Users can add their own ratings according to preference, and can rate the recipes based on difficulty after preparing them. Once a recipe has been prepared, users can take note in a special section of the recipe, turning the database into a sort of to-do list of recipes.
Recipes can be saved to an iPhone or iPod touch, as a text or .rtf file and even can be exported for use with some other recipe programs. Recipes can be imported from websites, text files and other recipe program files.
The text in the cooking view is enormous, which makes it easy to read a recipe from across the room, but also looks a bit cluttered. The large text does help protect your computer from drops and spills, however, so sacrificing a little aesthetic value for safety should not be an issue.
In terms of overall aesthetics, the main window of MacGourmet is simple and chic. Users will have no problem navigating within the program; in other programs we reviewed, getting lost was just a click away.
MacGourmet offers Notes for recording cooking tips, and Wine Notes for recording wine-tasting information. Both of these features are completely unique to this program, and add a touch of class and convenience that simply cannot be matched.
This program also features Smart Lists, which filter information according to user-specified criteria. The Smart Recipe list makes it easy to create a group of 20-minute meals, for example, or recipes containing seafood. The concept of smart groups or smart lists for recipes is found in several other Mac recipe software programs we reviewed, but MacGourmet was the only one that featured Smart Wine Note lists and Smart Note lists. These help filter and organize the previously mentioned wine notes and general cooking notes.
For more standard searches, MacGourmet offers both a typical keyword search (that can be changed to search nearly any field of a recipe) and a “Find” option, found in the “Edit” drop-down menu. There are several types of Finds: potluck, cupboard and duplicate, as well as recipe/note/wine note (the latter being an advanced search option that searches several criteria at once). The Potluck Find generates a random list of five recipes from the database. Not a vital feature, but it is an interesting way to decide which recipes to try next. The Cupboard Find locates recipes a user can make according to what he or she already has on hand. The Duplicate Find locates duplicate recipes, so users can delete extraneous recipes and reduce clutter.
While this is an optional add-on for standard MacGourmet users, it is included in the price of the Deluxe version. We highly recommend purchasing the add-on for users who only purchased the standard version of this software. The menu planner is essentially a calendar tool, which allows users to create menus for breakfast, brunch, lunch, snack, dinner and/or user-added meals (snack number two, anyone?), which can be dragged and dropped onto specific dates for planning. The planner even lets users set a time for the meal and attach labels (such as Mom’s Birthday or Wedding Anniversary) to the days. Recipes are added to meals are added via drag and drop functionality, and more than one recipe can be added to a meal. To top it all off, the meal planner calendar syncs with iCal for added convenience.
Planned meals can be added to a new shopping list through the drop-down menu, and the shopping list automatically combines ingredients that are found in more than one recipe. If the user wants to combine the planned meals shopping list with another existing list (one that has personal products, for example), he or she can simply drag one list and drop it into the other to combine them. Individual items can be added or deleted from a shopping list by double-clicking on the list, then editing the items in the window.
MacGourmet also features a “favorites” sublist within the shopping lists. This is a master list, visible from every shopping list, for commonly used items such as pantry staples. These items can be quickly added to any grocery list through drag and drop functionality, so users don’t have to retype the item into a list every time they need it.
The nutritional add-on displays estimated nutritional information for individual ingredients in the database. This information should not be used for medical nutrition therapy, as stated in the MacGourmet User Guide, but is an excellent resource for approximating dietary needs for users who want to eat healthier.
The information displayed includes calories, saturated fat, monounsaturated fat, polyunsaturated fat, total fat, calories from fat, cholesterol, carbohydrates, fiber, protein and various vitamins and minerals.
Unlike many other Mac recipe software programs we reviewed, MacGourmet can use this information to estimate nutritional information for an entire recipe. Again, this information is only an estimate, but it is accurate enough for healthy individuals to estimate their dietary needs. The Nutrition Calculation Details window explains how nutritional calculations were made.
With its drag and drop functionality, MacGourmet is by far the easiest of all the Mac recipe software programs we reviewed in terms of usage. Once again, MacGourmet was the only program we reviewed that met all of the rating criteria in this category. Between the standard keyword and the advanced Find search, users can search criteria in every field of a recipe.
MacGourmet also has a superb chef’s reference tool, which is split into cooking reference and wine reference. The cooking reference includes guides on conversions, cooking temperatures, shelf lives for common items, quick tips (like how to tell if an egg is fresh, or how to tone down a too-salty soup or stew), and a roasting guide. The wine reference has guides on grape facts and flavor profiles, serving temperature guidelines, and wine label decoding and a glossary for French and Italian labels.
With such an easy-to-use program, help and support options seem almost unnecessary. But with the level of detail and the intricacy that MacGourmet provides, even the most advanced computer users and cooks might need help from time to time. Fortunately, MacGourmet offers excellent support, including a short help reference, a full user guide, a user message board, FAQs, a blog, a user recipe swap forum and of course, a developer email for questions that can’t be answered through any of the aforementioned features. There is even an AIM chat option; something that no other Mac recipe software we reviewed offers.
Overall, there is a reason why MacGourmet Deluxe makes the top of our list. Its features, options and interface take the cake — pun definitely intended — making it the only piece of recipe software you’ll ever need. If the price tag is a bit out of your budget, check out our side-by-side comparison of Mac recipe software to find a program that suits your needs.
