YummySoup!

by Diane Petersen, Kachemacs

Distributor: Hungry Seacow
Distributor URL: www.hungryseacow.com
Price: $20, download

Pros: Solid and versatile database, excellent importation features, simple interface.
Cons: No scaling mechanism, no way to record nutritional information, some popular recipe sites not supported in the auto population.

“The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach…”
So they say. I’m thinking there is more to it than that, but satisfying the stomach thing doesn’t hurt. I strive to be a good cook. Because I’m also a geek, I use the internet to help me find new and unusual recipes to keep my husband happy. I also do well for myself in cleaning out the fridge gracefully.

But what if that husband of mine wants to reciprocate? How do I help him create my signature recipes with the least amount of effort? Give him YummySoup!, of course!

Recipe maintenance seems to be one of the more popular applications of the Macintosh computer. Many Mac users I know are very into their food. I remember when HyperCard stacks were the latest in recipe management. YummySoup! far surpasses the flexibility the defunct HyperCard system in recipe management.

When I was a teenager, my Mom gave me a stack of index cards and told me to copy all her recipes for my favorite foods, so that I could recreate my favorite foods when on my own. I still have those cards, stained and smeared. I was looking for a better way to preserve and redistribute those favorites without the soy sauce splotches.

YummySoup! to the rescue! With the easy to use form based entry screen, I hand typed all the handwritten recipes into the interface. An autocomplete feature which is configurable to your favorite ingredients makes it easy. Now I can search them by genre, rate them, and publish them to paper with my printer or create an e-mail in one step so my friends can enjoy them. I even have field to enter a yummy photo! If you’re like me and only go to the store when I HAVE to, YummySoup! can make your shopping list for you. I can even keep track of my liquors and wines to go with my meals.
But what if I want to make a foray into a new culinary adventure? Dear Mom doesn’t have all the answers. YummySoup! can help me in a number of ways. YummySoup! has an online database of users’ favorites. They all appear right in my YummySoup! If I still can’t find what I want, I can go to certain websites and do a one-step import of recipes! If the recipe site is one that is not supported by YummySoup!, one can do a step by step select and import. It’s still easier than copy/paste or hand typing. If I am very proud of one of my creations, I can publish a recipe to the YummySoup! database and become famous with other users for my delicious yummy soup.

Once you have your database in order, there are a number of ways the recipes can be sorted. There is an option to select already prepared items, and a rating system similar to iTunes. Just like Mail, you have Smart Folder sorts. These are features which are desirable in any database system, and YummySoup! takes these into consideration.

I would like to see the developer work on some other features to round out the delivery of YummySoup! What if you want to have a dinner party, and all your recipes are for two? Most of us can do calculations, I hope, but it would really be nice if YummySoup! could provide that service. The developer has informed me that this is an imminent enhancement. For those dieters out there, it would be great to be able to enter nutrition information. This could be a feature which has fields that could be populated from info created outside YummySoup!, but for a major enhancement I’d love to see communication with online nutrition databases to compile this info. HungrySeacow, you’ve got your work cut out for you with that one!

I found YummySoup! very easy to install and go. There was an issue with data entry and tab delineations when I started, but developer Ken Humbard swiftly corrected those issues.

In summary:
Concept: 4 (recipe management is nothing new)
Ease of installation: 5 (effortless)
Delivery: 4 (consider the enhancements to a great program)
Efficiency: 5 (thanks to auto-import and the fix with the data entry)
Stability: 4 (Very few lockup/crashes)
Support: 5
Potential: 5 (software is frequently updated, showing the developer’s dedication)

Overall, this is a 4.6. HungrySeacow is dedicated to listening to users and improving the software. There are so many recipe programs for Mac out there, but for the price of $20 compares to the features offered, I’m finding YummySoup! to be the best value. From my experience with shareware, response time is just a bit slower than average, but I always get helpful answers which are worth the wait. Bon Appetit!