Cooklang Blog on Cooklang: recipe markup language

Building a Recipe API with Cooklang

hello@cooklang.org (Alexey) — Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Skip the third-party recipe APIs. With CookCLI, your plain-text .cook files become a structured JSON backend you own and control.

Chef (the Esoteric Programming Language) vs Cooklang: What's the Difference?

hello@cooklang.org (Alexey) — Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Two languages that look like recipes — but only one of them helps you cook dinner. A light-hearted comparison of Chef, the joke programming language, and Cooklang.

Cooklang + Home Assistant: Smart Kitchen Integration

hello@cooklang.org (Alexey) — Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Turn Home Assistant into a smart kitchen hub by integrating CookCLI — display today's recipe, trigger shopping lists, track expiring pantry items, and fire smart timers from your recipes.

Cooklang for Food Bloggers: Write Once, Publish Everywhere

hello@cooklang.org (Alexey) — Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

One .cook file can generate your blog post, Google-ready Schema.org markup, a printable PDF, and a shopping list — without reformatting anything by hand.

How to Scale Recipes Without Mistakes

hello@cooklang.org (Alexey) — Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Scaling recipes sounds like simple math until your cookies come out flat or your soup is inedibly salty. Here's why scaling fails and how to do it right.

Migrating Your Recipes to Cooklang (From Any App or Format)

hello@cooklang.org (Alexey) — Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Stuck in a recipe app you can't escape? Here's how to migrate your recipes to plain .cook files from websites, Paprika, Mealie, photos, and Markdown — without doing it all at once.

Publishing Your Recipe Collection as a Website

hello@cooklang.org (Alexey) — Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Your .cook files are already structured data. Here's how to turn them into a real website — static, fast, free to host, and readable by Google's recipe search.

The Complete CookCLI Guide: From Install to Daily Use

hello@cooklang.org (Alexey) — Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A hands-on walkthrough of CookCLI covering installation, parsing recipes, generating shopping lists, scaling servings, and every command you'll actually use.

Try Cooklang in Your Browser: Playground Walkthrough

hello@cooklang.org (Alexey) — Sat, 28 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The fastest way to try Cooklang requires nothing but a browser tab. This walkthrough shows you exactly what to expect when you open the playground.

Build a Raspberry Pi Kitchen Display for Your Recipes

hello@cooklang.org (Alexey) — Wed, 25 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Turn a Raspberry Pi into a dedicated kitchen recipe display. Run CookCLI's web server on the Pi, sync your Cooklang recipes, and browse them from a touchscreen or any device on your network.

Cooking for Programmers: Why Recipes Are Just Algorithms

hello@cooklang.org (Alexey) — Wed, 25 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Recipes are algorithms. Ingredients are variables. Techniques are functions. If you can read code, you can cook — and if you think about cooking like programming, your food gets better.

How to Manage Recipes in Obsidian with Cooklang

hello@cooklang.org (Alexey) — Wed, 25 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A step-by-step guide to using the Cooklang plugin for Obsidian. Turn your vault into a recipe manager with syntax highlighting, interactive timers, shopping lists, and a beautiful preview mode.

How to Save Recipes from Social Media and Keep Them Forever

hello@cooklang.org (Alexey) — Wed, 25 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Recipes you save on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook disappear when creators delete posts or platforms change. Here's a workflow to capture social media recipes and store them permanently as plain text files you control.

Recipe Discovery Without the Ads and Life Stories

hello@cooklang.org (Alexey) — Wed, 25 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Modern recipe sites bury recipes under ads, pop-ups, and SEO filler. Cooklang Federation offers a different approach — a searchable index of community-tested recipes with no ads, no tracking, and no stories about someone's trip to Tuscany.

Recipe File Formats Compared: Cooklang vs Markdown vs JSON-LD vs MealMaster

hello@cooklang.org (Alexey) — Wed, 25 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A side-by-side comparison of recipe file formats — Cooklang, plain Markdown, Schema.org JSON-LD, MealMaster, RecipeML, and Open Recipe Format. The same recipe in each format, with pros, cons, and when to use each.

Self-Hosting Your Recipe Collection with Docker and CookCLI

hello@cooklang.org (Alexey) — Wed, 25 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Set up a self-hosted recipe server in minutes with Docker and CookCLI. Browse recipes from any device, generate shopping lists, and keep your data private — no cloud accounts required.

The Best Open Source Recipe Managers in 2026

hello@cooklang.org (Alexey) — Wed, 25 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A practical comparison of the best open source recipe managers — Cooklang, Mealie, KitchenOwl, Tandoor, and more. What each does well, where they fall short, and which one fits your workflow.

Building the Perfect Pantry with CookCLI: How the Greedy Coverage Algorithm Works

hello@cooklang.org (Alexey) — Sat, 06 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

A practical deep dive into how CookCLI uses algorithmic coverage analysis to help users build the most efficient pantry for their recipe collection.

The Dishwasher Salmon Problem

hello@cooklang.org (Alexey) — Sun, 26 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Recipe blogs prioritize ads over quality, creating bizarre dishes like dishwasher salmon. Cooklang Federation solves this by connecting you to tried and true community recipes.

Meal Planning as Compilation

hello@cooklang.org (Alexey) — Fri, 05 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I used to think meal planning was for people with too much time. Then I realized I was spending more time not planning meals than it would take to plan them.

Let me be clear: what I'm about to describe isn't fully built yet. It's how I want meal planning to work, how it should work. Some pieces exist in Cooklang today, others are still being developed. Think of this as a design document for the future of meal planning, not a manual for current software.

Why Plain Text Recipes Beat Databases Every Time

hello@cooklang.org (Alexey) — Mon, 20 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

After years of building recipe apps with databases, I discovered that plain text files solve the real problems better. Here's why the future of digital recipes isn't in the cloud - it's in your text editor.

The Pantry Problem

hello@cooklang.org (Alexey) — Thu, 04 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I realized something was wrong with how we manage food when I opened my third jar of cumin. Not because I love cumin that much, but because I'd forgotten about the other two.

This is embarrassing for someone who writes software. I've built systems that track millions of data points, but I couldn't track twelve spice jars. The problem wasn't intelligence or organization. It was that I was using the wrong tools for the job.

David A. Mundie on Cooking and Technology

hello@cooklang.org (Alexey) — Thu, 26 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

An interview with David A. Mundie, creator of RxOL - the first programming language for recipes in 1985. He shares his vision of simplifying cooking through technology, his thoughts on recipe formats, and perspectives on the future of kitchen automation.

How Nutrients Change During Cooking

hello@cooklang.org (Alexey) — Mon, 16 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Cooking transforms the nutritional content of food — sometimes for better, sometimes for worse. Understanding these changes is the first step toward recipes that optimize for both flavor and nutrition.

Developing file sync library

hello@cooklang.org (Alexey) — Fri, 29 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Alexey on a quest of solving recipe sync problem for Cooklang apps.

Understanding Recipes as Stack Machines

hello@cooklang.org (Alexey) — Fri, 29 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Recipes push ingredients onto a workspace, transform them through operations, and produce a finished dish — the same way a stack machine pushes data, applies functions, and returns results.

What Is a Standardized Recipe and Why It Matters

hello@cooklang.org (Alexey) — Sat, 09 Nov 2024 21:27:37 +0000

A standardized recipe uses a consistent format for ingredients, quantities, and instructions so anyone can reproduce the same dish reliably. Learn what standardized recipes are, why they matter, and how Cooklang provides a practical standard for the digital age.

Generating a Recipe Graph with ChatGPT

hello@cooklang.org (Alexey) — Fri, 26 May 2023 19:27:37 +1000

Using GPT-4 to trace ingredients through cooking steps and generate a recipe graph — a visual representation of how raw ingredients transform into a finished dish.

Recipe Manager Showdown: Cooklang vs. Paprika vs. Mealie vs. KitchenOwl

hello@cooklang.org (Alexey) — Sat, 04 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Comparing four popular recipe management solutions — the minimalist text-based Cooklang, the polished commercial Paprika, the open-source self-hosted Mealie, and the household-friendly KitchenOwl. Find out which one fits your cooking workflow best.

Automated Grocery List: Save Time and Money with Meal Planning

hello@cooklang.org (Alexey) — Thu, 20 May 2021 19:27:37 +1000

Build an automated grocery list from your meal plan using Cooklang. Practical tips for shopping list automation, reducing food waste, and cutting your grocery bill.

How to Automate Grocery Shopping with Plain Text Recipes

hello@cooklang.org (Alexey) — Thu, 20 May 2021 19:27:37 +1000

How I automated my grocery shopping by creating Cooklang — a markup language that turns recipe files into shopping lists. From sticky notes to command-line automation.