Ah, the ripe old days of paper books. For better or for worse, those days are getting left behind. When I visit someone’s kitchen and see their greasy, crinkled, tomato-stained cookbook with handwriting scrawled all around the margins, I’m reminded why Cook’n isn’t just a cute and convenient app. It offers a lot of things that paper books (and even other recipe programs) do not. Here are just a few:

Mobile Compatibility

This one is the most obvious, so let’s just get it out of the way. How often do you walk around with your favorite cookbook crammed into your jeans pocket? Well, if you’re like me, you walk around with that and plenty of other cookbooks with the Cook’n mobile app.

I can’t tell you how many times a conversation has led me to pulling out my cookbook to find a recipe. I couldn’t do that without Cook’n!

Categories

Why are categories so great? Lots of reasons (and a paper cookbook can’t do any of this)!

• You can organize, and re-organize your recipes however you want.

• You can put the same recipe in multiple categories instead of sticking it in just one “sub-chapter.”

• Categories don’t waste a ton of space like the complicating indexing system of other cookbooks and software.

• You can pool recipes from multiple cookbooks.

Categories are a pretty special feature of Cook’n. So special, in fact, that Dan Oaks even released a video about them almost two years ago. Check it out!

Editability

Okay, this one isn’t so obvious until you think about it: you can edit cookbooks. Let’s take a moment and appreciate this.

Have you ever written in a new recipe in the margins of one of your paper cookbooks?

Have you ever tried to tape a recipe card into one of your cookbooks?

Have you ever scratched out an ingredient or a quantity in your cookbook and written something else?

Have you ever scribbled notes at the bottom of a recipe explaining how your prefer to make it?

Then Cook’n has drastically changed your life already. It was a game changer for my mom, and I’m still trying to talk my grandma into trying it out, too!

Sociability

I get it, Cook’n’s social features don’t interest everyone. But here are a few reasons why they interest me:

• I have friends in several countries around the world. With the Cook’n social features, I’ve gotten some incredible foreign recipes that Olive Garden has never even heard of.

• I’m from a family of foodies, and we can use the Cook’n social features to collaborate. With ample time, we’ve created a breathtaking family cookbook, full of our traditional recipes, family photos and cherished memories.

• Lastly, because of my foodie family, when I invent an incredible recipe, I can rub it in their faces by sharing it through the Cook’n social features.

Nearly Invincible

All in all, Cook’n keeps your recipes safe like no paper cookbook and few recipe programs can. Digital recipes are safe from fire, water, and other physical hazards (try to get your three-year-old to tear a page out of your Cook’n program). Cook’n is also safe from computer mishaps; it backs itself up frequently, and saves itself online.

This feature of Cook’n is important for me. It’s valuable to know that my recipes are in good hands.

Can you think of any other benefits of having your recipes in Cook’n instead of somewhere else? Let me know in the comments below!