How to use Rendition

User guide

Recipes, the way you actually make them. Here's how the app works, including the parts that aren't obvious.

• Getting recipes in
• Today
• Recipes
• Plan
• Shop: groceries and pantry
• Sharing a kitchen
• Statistics and cook history
• Settings and Rendition Pro

Getting recipes in

Rendition reads recipes rather than making you type them. Every route lands on the same review screen, where you can fix an amount or a unit before the first save.

• Paste a link. On the Recipes tab, tap Import and paste the page's address. Rendition fetches the page and reads the recipe out of it.
• Share from Safari or any app. On a recipe page, tap Share and choose Rendition. The import opens the next time you're in the app, even if it was closed.
• Import from a recipe's source. Open any imported recipe, scroll to Source, and tap it. The site opens inside Rendition with an Import button in the toolbar: browse to another recipe on the same site and bring it in with one tap, no share sheet needed.
• Paste text. A recipe someone texted you, or a note, works too: paste it into the import box and Rendition sorts it into ingredients and steps.
• Paprika. A Paprika export imports whole, its nutrition text included; the same format is available under Export to Paprika on any recipe.
• Cooking videos (Rendition Pro): paste a link to a reel or a video and Rendition turns the caption and the spoken steps into a recipe. If the video never says the amounts, paste them and Rendition fills them in.
• Another language? Rendition notices and offers the recipe in yours (Pro). The publisher's own wording is kept as the untouched Original.

Today

The Today tab is tonight. The big card is the meal planned for today: tap Start cooking to cook it step by step, tap the card itself to open the recipe, or use the checkmark to Log a cook without stepping through. With nothing planned, Today suggests something, and says why: how many ingredients you'd buy, how long it takes, how recently you made it.

• The kitchen menu (the "…" at the top) holds Statistics, Cook history, and the rest of the household's tools.
• Outdoor cooking weather. If you grill, Today shows the evening's window and whether it's a good night for it, from Apple Weather for your location.

Recipes

Every recipe keeps its history. The Original is what you imported, untouched; your version is what you actually make. Edits save as new versions, and nothing is ever overwritten.

• Scale. The servings stepper under the title rescales the ingredients; you can save the scaled version or keep it just for tonight.
• Highlight my changes shows your version and the Original side by side, with what you changed marked.
• Version history (in the recipe's "…" menu) lists every save. Restoring an older one writes a new version, so the path back is always there.
• Save as variation when a change is really a different dish: the weeknight version, the one for the kids. Variations sit beside the recipe they came from.
• Log a cook (the checkmark beside Start cooking) records that you made it, with servings, leftovers, a rating and a note, and asks whether anything in the pantry ran low. Cook mode logs the same thing when you finish.
• Optional for this recipe. Long-press an ingredient on the recipe page and choose Optional for this recipe: it stops counting toward what you're missing and never lands on the list for this dish, while every other recipe and the pantry are untouched. Tap its Optional chip to make it needed again.
• Makes leftovers. Tap the chip under a recipe's numbers and Rendition treats it as a two-night meal: the plan offers a leftovers night after it in one tap.
• Move off the table for recipes you're keeping but won't cook soon. They leave the main library for the Someday shelf and stop being suggested.
• Turn into a full recipe when you jotted only a title as a placeholder.
• Send a copy shares your version first, then what you changed, then the Original, so the person you send it to gets the useful answer.
• Nutrition. When the source states it, a Nutrition card sits under the recipe's numbers: per serving, with a switch to the whole batch. Energy follows your region (calories, kilojoules, or both) and "% of a day" uses your region's reference intakes.
• Re-import from source pulls the page again if the site changed, keeps your edits, and fills in nutrition for a recipe saved before Rendition read it.

Plan

The Plan tab is the week. Tap Plan a meal on a day and pick from your library, or take one of the suggestions. Each suggestion reads out its reason: the number of ingredients you would need to buy, the cooking time, when you last made it, whether it shares a protein with something already on the week (one pack of chicken covers both), and whether it leaves leftovers.

• Variety or Save money. The switch above the suggestions leans the ranking toward recipes you haven't made lately, or toward the fewest new ingredients.
• Leftovers night. When a planned meal usually leaves plenty, the next free day offers it back as leftovers. One tap.
• Grocery count on every plan. Each night's line says what you'd actually buy, and the week's list builds itself from the exact versions and servings you planned.

Shop: groceries and pantry

Groceries

• The list writes itself from the plan, minus what the pantry already has, grouped by aisle in shopping order. Checking an item off marks it bought and puts it in the pantry; unchecking a mistake takes it back. When the name is one that several pantry foods share (a "neutral oil" that could be canola or sunflower), Rendition asks which one you bought.
• Add items the way you'd text them. Add items opens a box where each line is an item, no amounts or aisles required. You can also select a texted list in Messages and share it straight into your groceries.
• The "…" on every row (also a long-press) has Move to aisle, which is remembered for that item's name from then on, Change type to mark something as household, personal care or pet, and rename.

Pantry

• Levels, not amounts. Each food is Out, Low or Well-stocked. Tap the chip on a row to change it. Staples you never want on a list, like salt, just stay Well-stocked.
• Add to pantry adds a food by name and level, nothing else.
• Laid out like your kitchen. The pantry groups by storage location: Fridge, Freezer, Pantry, in the order you set under Manage locations.
• Sort by what you buy. The Sort button offers Inventory level, Recently bought, Frequently bought and Most bought. Under a "bought" sort every food shows how many times you've checked it off and carries an add-to-list button, so the shelf stays useful even if you never keep levels current.
• Non-food items at the foot of the pantry gathers the paper towels, dish soap and litter you buy, most bought first, each a tap from the list.
• A food's page has its level, its location, Also known as for the other names recipes use for it (add "shoyu" to "Soy Sauce" and recipes recognize it as stocked), and Not a food… for the straws that snuck in. Several foods can share a name: give canola, sunflower and grapeseed oil the alias "neutral oil" and a recipe calling for it is covered when any of them is on hand.

Sharing a kitchen

Under Settings → Household, invite up to ten people through your own iCloud. Everyone sees the same recipes, plan, grocery list and pantry, with names on who added, bought or cooked what. Leaving a household keeps your own recipes with you.

Statistics and cook history

Statistics (in the Today menu) breaks the library down by cuisine and category, lists the ingredients the most recipes are waiting on, and counts your grocery purchases: how many foods you've bought this year, month by month, and the ones you buy most. Cook history ranks what you actually make, by count or by recency, with the notes and ratings from every log.

Settings and Rendition Pro

• Appearance. Pick a colour theme in Settings; every screen, chip and button follows it, in light and dark.
• Energy. Under Measurements, show nutrition in calories, kilojoules or both. The default follows your region.
• Rendition Pro adds the expensive reads: turning cooking videos into recipes and translating a recipe into your language. Importing from web pages, planning, groceries, the pantry and household sharing are part of Rendition for everyone. See pricing.

More

• Changelog — what changed, build by build.
• Support — answers to the questions people write in with.
• Terms of use and privacy policy.