MasterCook is a very powerful recipe management system and has remained a favorite tool for home and professional chefs since the early 1990s. Currently we have four MasterCook products:
- MasterCook Windows app (runs on Win 8 and above) We have many Mac customers who prefer this option. See this article.)
- MasterCook.com (works on all devices including Mac and Chromebook computers)
- Android app (available in the Google Play Store)
- iOS app (available in the Apple App Store)
You have the option to purchase just an online subscription or just the Windows product or the Pro product which is a combination of the Windows product and a 1-year subscription to MasterCook.com.
They can be used independently or together with each other.
Our Windows product is the most robust and has the most features such as printing and performing a nutritional and cost analysis of the recipes as well as printing an entire cookbook and many other features.
The mobile apps are unable to provide as much functionality. The below information mentions some differences.
If you have a Mac computer, you can either use the MasterCook.com online features or you can install Windows onto your computer, depending on your needs. MasterCook has had many Mac customers since the 1990's. They installed Windows onto their Mac computer, so they can use both Mac and Windows programs. They have never been able to find a program that has all of the features they use daily in the Windows version of MasterCook, so they can't live without MasterCook. They say they have a few other Windows programs, and they are happy they can use both Mac and Windows programs on the same computer. Contact a computer technician who can explain your options of installing Windows onto a Mac computer.
MasterCook (for Windows 8 or newer)
You can watch our Getting Started video tutorial for a brief overview of the program and see how it looks before you buy it.
Your recipes are stored within cookbooks in the program. The Windows program is the most powerful and versatile of all of our MasterCook products. You purchase this program and install it on your computer. After you install it you will notice a navigation bar at the top. This takes you to the different parts of the program. The bar along the right of the screen gives icons to common commands that you need on the screen you are viewing.
You can print and publish an entire cookbook or a selection of recipes.
You can scale your recipes to change their servings and ingredient amounts.
You can perform a cost analysis and nutritional analysis of your recipes, menus, or meal plans. It allows you to customize and add your own ingredients to the Ingredient List to give you a most accurate nutritional analysis of your recipes.
It has a robust search functionality to allow you to find recipes that meet certain nutritional criteria or include or exclude certain foods and even entire food groups like Dairy, Beef, etc.
For an extensive list of things MasterCook can do see the online MasterCook Help File. There are many detailed articles here on this support website you can browse as well.
MasterCook.com Cloud
This works with any computer or mobile device that can connect to the internet, including Mac computers, Google Chromebooks, Kindle Fire tablets, etc. You can register an account at MasterCook.com. A FREE account allows you to try it out for 30 days with a limit of 25 recipes and gives you complete functionality. This has two components: (1) web functionality and (2) sync and storage.
Web Functionality
MasterCook.com contains some basic functionality and allows you to input your own recipes and add them to online shopping lists. It has a search feature for your recipes too. Its printing ability is limited to your web browser's Print command. From your My MasterCook Home screen you will see links to your recipes, cookbooks, shopping lists, trending recipes, your account info, and some other helpful links.
One important, powerful feature is the MasterCook.com Web Importer. You can easily grab recipes and collect from other websites to add to your personal account at MasterCook.com.
All of your content is private in your account. If you wish to share something, there are sharing options and links when you view one of your online recipes.
Sync/Storage
The difference between the free account and a paid account is the number of recipes you can store in your account. The free account allows for up to 25 recipes and unlimited shopping lists. Your MasterCook.com account is where you store all of your online data. When you sync all of your MasterCook for Windows data to MasterCook.com you have a backup in the cloud at MasterCook.com. If your computer gets damaged or stolen, you data is safely stored online as well. This makes it great when you get a new computer. Just sync all of your data down to the new computer after installing MasterCook on your computer.
The MasterCook.com subscription allows you to sync your data to MasterCook for Windows and the mobile apps and keep it all connected together.
MasterCook Mobile Apps
Note: The mobile apps are available in the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store. Visit those stores from your device to download and install the app to your device.
The mobile apps access and edit your online content at MasterCook.com.
In the MasterCook mobile app you can create cookbooks and recipes. You can import recipes directly from your favorite websites. You can add those recipes to shopping lists. You can scale your recipes. You can print your recipes from the mobile apps. You can share a recipe with someone else from the mobile apps.
If you have the latest MasterCook Windows product you can use it to sync with your online account and its content.
For more info on using the MasterCook mobile apps please see the MasterCook Mobile Apps Overview.
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