The other day, I found myself home alone with two packages of instant chocolate pudding. As a fan of over-indulgence, I naturally went online to look for ways to turn my pudding into brownies. I found a decent recipe, but I could hardly stand the website I found it on!

After scrolling through a needlessly long brownie intro, the author finally coughed up the recipe to reveal that it was poorly organized and hardly legible. I scrolled up and down a few times, dodging ads and reading around a bad formatting. In exasperation, I nearly gave up. But then I remembered Cook’n.

Perhaps it was last week’s Thanksgiving spirit getting to me, but I was suddenly flooded with gratitude for Cook’n; I never thought I would love it as much as I do! As I opened the brownie recipe in my Cook’n app, I found at least five reasons why the Cook’n mobile app has changed my cooking experience.

For anyone reading this article, this might just be a reminder of why Cook’n is so great. However, the first and second things that I love about Cook’n might be tools that you’ve never heard of. So pay attention!

Easy Capturing

Honestly, if I had been around when Cook’n first came out, I wouldn’t have been interested in it. But Cook’n is like a really good wine – it has gotten a lot better with age.

One of the latest innovations is my Android phone’s ability to find recipes on any web browser, then tap Share Webpage and send it directly to my Cook’n app. Capturing my brownie recipe was as easy as tapping a few buttons, then voila, I had instantly converted an illegible recipe into a simple, easily-read format.

Capturing recipes has never been easier! To learn more about it, just watch this video.

Modifying Serving Size

The brownie recipe I found only calls for one package of chocolate pudding mix. But like I said, I’m a fan of over-indulgence, so I wanted to use both packages. The only problem is I’m bad at math, even if I’m just multiplying everything in a recipe by two.

This isn’t a problem with Cook’n. Before I started baking, I just tapped the “Serves” button and changed the recipe from “serves 4” to “serves 8.” Once I did that, Cook’n doubled all of my ingredients for me!

Readability

On the one hand, Cook’n is a useful database that makes every recipe easy to find. But on the other hand, Cook’n is an incredible cookbook that makes every recipe easy to read. I no longer had to hopelessly scroll up and down between directions and ingredients; ads were out of my way; no weird fonts; no small text. Just cooking.

Smart Directions

When Dan first released the Smart Directions feature, I was dubious. The idea is to help Cook’n users by including the quantity of each ingredient in parentheses as they get mentioned in the directions. I wasn’t used to seeing a bunch of numbers as I read the recipe’s directions. As you see the Smart Directions being put to work below, perhaps you can understand why I didn’t like it at first.

Despite my doubts, I took a whack at cooking with the Smart Directions, and now I’m never going back. With Smart Directions, I didn’t have to scroll back up to the ingredients list even once because everything I needed was plainly written in the directions.

No Screen-lock

Perhaps the biggest problem with cooking from your phone is that it likes to turn itself off. But this isn’t a problem with Cook’n. Instead of letting my screen lock itself, Cook’n keeps the screen lit for as long as I need it. Thus, when my right hand was sticky with brownie batter and my left was covered in flour, I didn’t need to get my phone dirty by turning it back on.

To get to the next step in my recipe, all I had to do was glance at my phone, and with the help of the Smart Directions, I didn’t even have to scroll up or down. No more sticky phones for me!

Finally – Saving Time!!!

Cook’n has upgraded my entire cooking experience. It has made a fundamental part of my life easier and more pleasurable. With all the time Cook’n has saved me, I’ve learned to juggle, program robots, and speak in seven different languages.

Okay, that last part wasn’t true. But Cook’n is definitely the best recipe software on the market. It’s the best Christmas present I could give myself.