Frequently Asked Questions

A digital cookbook: recipes can be imported from a link, photo, or text and are automatically structured (ingredients, steps, servings, nutrition, categories) and saved – searchable, ad-free, with no endless scrolling past life stories.

“Add recipe” offers three ways: a link to a recipe page (including YouTube/Instagram/TikTok videos), one or more photos (e.g. of a cookbook page or handwritten notes), or pasted text (such as a copied caption). You can also enter a recipe completely by hand, without importing anything.

Photo imports can process up to 16 pages at once, e.g. a recipe spread across several cookbook pages. The first photo becomes the cover image, the others go into the recipe gallery (at most 4 images in total). An author name in the title such as “… by cookinglove” is dropped automatically during import.

RecipeChamber's pinch unit. Every successful recipe import costs 1 pinch (8 cents) – regardless of whether it was imported via link, photo, or text. New accounts start with 10 free pinches. A failed import (e.g. because the source contains no recipe) usually costs nothing – only after 5 free failed attempts within a short time does a pinch get charged for those too, as a safeguard against abuse.

Some extras cost more:

• Deep Import: +0.5 pinches per import
• Photo imports with more than 4 pages: +1 pinch per additional 4 pages started
• Ingredient substitutes and drink pairings: 0.5 pinches per suggestion each
• Translating a recipe and re-estimating nutrition: 1 pinch each

You can top up your balance at any time under “Manage balance” via PayPal or credit card, in fixed packages: 50 Pinches (4.00 €), 100 Pinches (8.00 €), 200 Pinches (16.00 €). An input field also lets you top up any amount between 50 and 1000 pinches.

Some features only become usable after a credit top-up – free pinches alone aren't enough. This currently applies to creating or joining a chamber, and to sharing a recipe with another user by email address (details further below).

A chamber is a shared recipe collection for multiple people – e.g. for a shared flat or family. Recipes that are imported into a chamber or copied there are independent copies: changes to them don't affect a private original, and vice versa. Every active member may edit and delete all recipes in the chamber, regardless of who added them.

One shared chamber is free to use. Every additional membership beyond that costs a one-time 30 pinches, whether by creating a new chamber or accepting an invitation.

Invitations are sent by email address. If the address is already registered, the invited person must first accept the invitation (visible under “Pending invitations” on the Chambers page); if it isn't registered with anyone yet, they receive an invitation email and automatically become a member right after registering.

Recipes from a chamber can always be copied into your own private collection for free (via the share dialog on the recipe page) – this too is an independent copy, separate from the original in the chamber.

Categories can also be created for a chamber – every member sees and uses the same category tree.

Using the share dialog on the recipe page, you can share a single recipe with specific people without putting it into a whole chamber. Only people you already share a chamber with are suggested – for privacy reasons, this can't be used to see the site's full user list. You can also generate a public link that lets people without an account view the recipe.

A recipe can also be shared by email address with any registered user, even without a shared chamber – this requires at least one top-up of your own credit balance though (see “What are pinches?” above). The invited person can copy the shared recipe into their own collection for free at any time.

There's a separate shopping list per environment (one private list, plus one for each chamber). Ingredients can be added directly from a saved recipe or entered by hand, with quantity, item, and an optional note. Completed items are checked off rather than deleted, so they can be restored if needed before “Remove completed” removes them for good.

Categories can be nested as deeply as you like (e.g. “Main course” → “Pasta & rice”) and assigned to a recipe multiple times. New accounts start with a ready-made category tree that can be renamed, moved, or deleted freely. Every chamber gets the same starting tree when created, independent of its members' private categories.

An optional switch when importing (+0.5 pinches). On top of the regular recognition, a separate, more thorough analysis checks whether the recipe is vegan or vegetarian and labels the 14 main EU allergens (e.g. gluten, milk, nuts). Under “Account” → “Behaviour” you can make the switch enabled by default.

Allergens are detected automatically from the ingredient list – with no guarantee of completeness. If you need to watch out for allergies, always check the ingredients yourself. Incorrectly detected allergens can be corrected by hand when editing a recipe; the recipe page then shows “Manually adjusted”.

Simply enter what you currently have in the fridge or pantry – amounts don’t matter. The page then shows your own recipes that match best, along with what is still missing.

Matching uses the base ingredient, not the exact wording: “onion” also finds recipes with “onions, finely diced” or “large onion”. Genuinely different varieties stay separate – “onion” does not count for spring onions or onion powder, feta does not count for gouda.

For common cases the page suggests a sensible substitute and marks it, e.g. “pecorino instead of parmesan” or “shallot instead of onion”.

Cooking mode (button on the recipe page) shows the instructions step by step in full screen; swipe or tap to continue. Times in the text such as “10 minutes” are offered as a timer that ends with an alert sound and can be extended or shortened by minutes while running. The screen stays on (can be turned off under “Account” → “Behaviour”).

If push notifications are enabled on the device, the timer also alerts you while the screen is locked. In browsers with speech recognition, cooking mode can also be controlled by voice (“next”, “how much flour?”).

On the recipe page you can ask for a suitable substitute for any ingredient, e.g. if something is missing or doesn’t agree with you. The drink pairing suggests one alcoholic and one non-alcoholic drink for the dish and stays visible afterwards to everyone who can see the recipe. Each costs 0.5 pinches – the page asks before charging.

Recipes can be marked as favourites and rated with 1–5 stars. Both apply only to you; even in a shared chamber every member has their own favourites and ratings. Stars can be hidden under “Account” → “Behaviour”.

Search covers titles, ingredients and tags. It also understands <500 as a calorie limit per serving and >=4 as a minimum rating – combinable, e.g. pasta <600 >=4.

Under “Account” → “Behaviour”, among others: automatic categories on import, keeping the screen on while cooking, calories in the overview, star ratings, the recipe carousel on the home page and Deep Import by default. Further down in your account you can also set the interface language and the unit conversion on import (metric, US or as in the source).

Yes, between German and English: via “Translate” in the edit form (1 pinch). Title, ingredients and steps are translated; amounts are kept.

RecipeChamber can be installed from the browser like an app on your home screen (iPhone: Share → “Add to Home Screen”; Android: menu → “Install app”). Push notifications, e.g. for chamber invitations or the cooking mode timer, can then be enabled per device under “Account”.

On Android the installed app also appears in other apps’ share menu: a link from Instagram, TikTok or the browser goes straight into the import form. On iPhone, copy the link and paste it under “Add recipe”.

Calories, protein, fat, carbohydrates, sugar, and salt are estimated automatically based on the ingredient list – an approximation, not a lab analysis. You can correct the values by hand at any time while editing a recipe, for free. If ingredients or the serving count change, the page offers a fresh estimate for 1 pinch when you save – without your consent, the existing values stay unchanged.

With an email address and password. After registering, the address must first be verified via a link in a confirmation email before you can log in for the first time. Forgot your password? “Forgot password?” on the login page sends a reset link to the address on file. Alternatively, you can also log in directly with an existing Google account, without a password of your own.