The iPhone is annoying for some, addictive for others. Love or hate it, the phone has won over a lot of us. And it's only natural that among the thousands of applications made for it, there would be many catering to cooks and food lovers. Though you might not be using these every day, you'd be surprised at how they randomly come in handy. Here our favorite five.
5. Wine Ph.D ($4.99)
Serious wine lovers can search the database by wine name, producer,
varietal, region, and food pairings. For the less wine savvy, it comes
in handy at the store if you want to see tasting notes and ratings on
what you're about to buy or if you need a wine that pairs well with what you're eating later.
Runnerup: Fromage ($2.99). For the cheese lover, this database
tells you what you need to know about a particular cheese and which
wines it pairs with.
4. Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch (free)
For conscious eaters. The Seafood Watch app is the
electronic version of the mini-brochure put out by the Monterey Bay
Aquarium that helps you avoid eating seafood that's overfished and
caught in an irresponsible manner. We don't see anyone pulling this out
at a restaurant for guidance on what to order, but it comes in handy at
the supermarket.
Runnerup: Locavore ($2.99). Tells you what's in season
by zip code and suggests recipes using those ingredients.
3. Ratio by Michael Ruhlman ($4.99)
A companion to Michael Ruhlman's book of the same name, this might be
more for the serious cook who bakes bread and makes stocks at home. It contains the 32 essential ratios that
Ruhlman calls the "backbone of culinary arts" and allows you to
calculate how much of each ingredient you need to make a given recipe.
2. Epicurious Recipes and Shopping List (free)
You're at the grocery store and decide to buy halibut. What to do with
it? Search for recipes, choose one, click "add to shopping
list," and check off the ingredients as you put them in your cart -- all
in this app.
Runnerup: Whole Foods Market Recipes (free). It has similar
functionality to Epicurious. Bonus: It tells you whether a recipe is
vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, dairy-free, low-fat, low-sodium, etc.
1. Kitchen Pro Calculator ($3.99)
How many teaspoons are in three tablespoons? This app will tell you.
And it works with volume, weight, and temperature. It even does
distance, which makes little sense in a kitchen setting but, hey, we're
not complaining. You can also search by ingredient if you must know,
for example, how many grams of chili powder are in one teaspoon. It's
simple but useful.
