How does searching recipes work? Can I search multiple ingredients at once, or search by cuisine?

CookShelf lets you search across all the cookbooks on your shelf at once – that's the core of what we do.

Basic search: Type any ingredient, recipe name, dish type, or cuisine into the search bar. CookShelf searches across all your books and shows matching recipes.

Searching just your books: By default, search results show recipes from your shelf. You can also explore results from books you don't own if you want to discover new cookbooks.

Multiple ingredients: Yes, you can search for multiple ingredients to narrow your results. This is great for using up what you have on hand – search "chicken thighs lemon" and you'll see recipes that use both.

Beyond your shelf: If there are no results for your search query from your books, you'll see a section for results from beyond your shelf, which might help with inspiration or even selecting a new cookbook to add to your collection!

Tips for better results:

• Use simple ingredient names ("chicken" rather than "boneless skinless chicken thighs")
• Search by cuisine to explore a specific style of cooking ("Thai," "Mexican," "Japanese")
• Try broader terms if you're not finding enough results ("pasta" instead of "rigatoni")
• Search by dish type when you know what you're craving ("soup," "salad," "stir-fry")
• If you're searching for books and not recipes, toggle between those right below the search bar. If you're not seeing any results, double check you're on the right recipes/books toggle for your search query.
• If you're not seeing any results from your shelf, make sure you've added your books to your shelf already, and make sure they are indexed (just go to My Shelf, tap Books, and then tap Indexed to see which ones are indexed). If they aren't indexed, that is why you aren't seeing results.