Mela – Recipe Manager

Mela – Recipe Manager

By Silvio Rizzi

  • Category: Lifestyle
  • Release Date: 2021-08-15
  • Current Version: 2.6.1
  • Adult Rating: 17+
  • File Size: 10.98 MB
  • Developer: Silvio Rizzi
  • Compatibility: Android, iOS 12.0

Description

Mela is a simple, elegant and modern recipe manager that syncs with iCloud. SYNC Sync your recipes with iCloud, either privately (default) or by sharing a recipe library with other iCloud users. IN-APP BROWSER WITH LIVE PREVIEW Quickly save a recipe while browsing: If Mela detects a recipe on the currently viewed page, it will be displayed in Mela's native recipe viewer*, on the same screen. Want to add or view a recipe from outside of Mela? No problem, just use Mela's sharing extension. FEEDS Subscribe to your favorite recipe blogs to view all the recipes in Mela's native recipe viewer*. COOK MODE The cook mode makes it easy to follow all steps while cooking, displayed using a larger font to make sure everything stays readable even when you're not right in front of your device. You can add multiple recipes to the cook mode, easily letting you switch between them. TIMERS No need to switch to another app for setting up a timer. When in cooking mode, Mela let's you easily create and manage timers. SCANNER Scan a recipe from a book: With the help of text recognition, you can just add it to your personal collection and view it in Mela's native recipe viewer, as any other recipe. GROCERIES Mela uses the Reminders.app to manage your grocery list. This has the advantage that you’re always able to access your grocery list on all your devices even if Mela is not installed on a specific device. CALENDAR Do your meal planning by using Mela's built-in calendar. It's managed by Calendar.app which also has the advantage that you're always able to access it on all your devices. There's also a widget, showing you the next planned meal from your calendar. ORGANIZING Recipes can be organized in categories, marked as “Favorite” or as “Want to Cook”. PRINTING Of course, Mela supports printing in case there’s a recipe you want to have on paper or save as PDF. Please note: If iCloud Sync is enabled (default), Mela will sync these items with iCloud: - Recipes - Browser bookmarks - Subscription list (feeds) Not synced: - Feed recipe entries - Browser history Groceries are always stored in Reminders.app Mela is free to download but will require a one-time purchase to unlock all features. * Extracting recipes only works for websites that support this, most of them do.

Screenshots

Reviews

  • Stunning app with generous terms

    5
    By rradarr
    I find Mela to be a an outstanding recipe keeper with a simple, elegant design and impressive power and ease of use. Web import allows one to edit a recipe before saving. Importing from scans is stunningly well done: the mac app prompts you to use a nearby phone to take the scan, you then select regions of the scan for ingredients, etc., and it all works quickly and smoothly. The iPad app can keep the screen awake (it is a setting). Sync uses iCloud so I don’t have to worry about a developer-specific cloud going away, and it’s very fast (at least with my small number of recipes so far). It is surprisingly affordable and with generous terms: a one-time in-app purchase covers all family members. You can even sync your collection of recipes with other iCloud users (though it is all recipes or none, which is fine with me because it avoids the need to deal with multiple libraries of recipes). Tagging is quick and easy (just start typing to see tags that match, and if the tag doesn’t exist it is created). It also has a grocery list, feeds tab and calendar integration, none of which I have tried yet.

  • My Go To Recipe App

    5
    By TxTeacher25
    I have tried several recipe apps througout the years, and this is the one I feel like works the best for my needs. The thing that tips the scales for me is the "want to cook" option vs a calendar. All the other apps I've used you have to assign it to a calendar. Our life doesn't work that way. I will shop for about 3-4 recipeis worth of food at a time but I may not know exactly what day I'll cook them. The calendars became a hassle when plans changed. I just wanted to flag a few recipes at a time. I love the "add ingredient to the shopping list" and that you can easily mark what you already have on hand. I also love the way the IOS and the MAC versions sync seamlessly. I use AI to menu plan for 3 months at a time and having the recipies easily available on my computer makes that part easy, and having the recipeis on my phone/ipad helps when I'm cooking! I love the multiple timers. This one just checks all the right boxes for my needs.

  • Handsome interface, but lacking key features vs Paprika

    3
    By LLHB
    I am a fan of this developer and have used his RSS app for many years, which is the only reason I even tried to switch my recipe library away from Paprika in the first place. However he was not repsonsive to my email questions when I was first setting up Mela, but I was successful in importing my 1200+ recipes from Paprika into Mela. In the months since, I have been trying very hard to love this app, but for me the prettier interface isn’t enough to make up for the Paprika features that I really love and rely on and that Mela is missing: 1. Nested categories!! Mela’s category management is VERY poor compared Paprika, and the lack of a nested category structure is a major nuisance for the way I have come to use Paprika. 2. Edit a recipe’s title and assign categories during import (from the iPhone “Share” pane). Again, two critical Paprika features that I use nearly every time I import a recipe, both of which are lacking in Mela. 3. Make the Search field fixed/persistent at the top of the screen, so you don’t have keep scrolling all the way back to the top of the recipes list to change your search. Again, this is how Paprika works, and it’s very clearly a better interface than always having the search field disappearing when you scroll. 4. This is not a missing Paprika feature (because that app doesn’t have this feature either), but it would be super handy to be able to select/copy text when looking at a recipe, without having to go into Edit mode first to do it. I continue to try to love this app and to make it my sole recipe manager, but these missing features end up annoying me every single time I use the app, and I’m getting close to giving up on it. I’m REALLY hoping the developer will give it a little more love and add these key missing features.

  • One missing feature

    3
    By aaaaaaaaaa-aaa
    This would be the perfect recipe keeper if it allowed you to organize your recipes by nested folders instead of categories. If you want any sort of complexity to your categories you end up having a longgg list of categories on the left panel and it is difficult to find what you are looking for.

  • Beautiful & Simple (want a few more features)

    5
    By Atreyu20
    A beautiful and simple app that I find much more pleasurable to use than Paprika. A few upgrades I would like in the future include: nested tags, search multiple tags at a time, categories (aka “tags”) menu collapses every time you select one so you have to open it again and scroll through all your non-nested tags to select another one. I would definitely pay more for this app for more frequent updates. Seeing how much more frequently his Reeder app gets updated, I would happily pay the $10/year for this app to get the same treatment (or a $50-$70 lifetime).

  • One of my favorite apps

    5
    By mraldan
    I didn’t even know I needed a recipe manager until I tried this one. Then I imported and added all my old recipes and I will never go back. Recipes importer from web works great, especially with the big recipe web sites (NYTworks great). Import from a scan also worked pretty well, even when scanning a book with a multi-column layout. And I love having all my recipe blogs subscribed in one place. The cooking mode is fantastic and a big helper in the kitchen. And I love being able to export my ingredients list to a shopping list in my Reminders app.

  • PLEASE NEVER QUIT THIS APP

    5
    By Lakhota EM
    I love it for the simplicity of use. I can grab recipies, by scanning or manual entering or from a website etc. And I can share the recipie easly in many different formats. I love the organization of this app....the sky is the limit. It makes cooking fun again. I have transfered all my receipies here to have them all in one spot. PLEASE NEVER QUIT THIS APP. I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT. It makes cooking fun!

  • Like it, but...

    4
    By DerralVL
    I do really like the interface and syncing options. I've been using the other spice keeper app for a few years now. I tried importing 2 recipes from the web and Mela failed pretty hard. This alone has me at least waiting since that is an important function for me. I really liked the import scanning feature, but the couple hand written recipes I tried it on needed some work to fix. I felt like it needs some improvement in both of these areas. I did notice it said scan a recipe from a book, so that may work better, but I didn't try that yet. I also liked the Cook mode, although I use an iPad for that and both viewing modes looked great. I want to like this app, but there's a few improvements needed before I can justify converting. The star rating would also be a great improvement as I have used that in the past. Update: Mela uses tags instead of categories, which are doable, but unfortunately there’s no nesting which was a really nice feature of the other app. For instance there could be a top tag of Deserts, but then sub tags of cookies, pies, cheesecakes, etc. Update 2: After doing some imports, I’ve found a major drawback is no way to edit the recipe before importing. You must import and save the recipe and then go into the app and open the recipe to edit it. Another app I use also imports, but allows you to edit the recipe to make corrections, choose categories, etc before saving it.

  • Easy To Use, No Subscription, No Data Collection

    5
    By JPoirx
    First and foremost the app does everything it says it does, easily. It also has a well designed user experience. I’ve seen some other reviews with minor gripes but I’m guessing they got the kinks out because my experience has been great especially sharing it with family so we can all work together to make a meal plan. 100% The cherry on top is that this supports a business model I agree with. No subscription, you buy the app and it just works. And no data collection, you are not the product! I like it so much I bought the iOS and Mac apps. Thank You!

  • No longer works at all

    1
    By Rtr0mdrn
    I paid for this app and enjoyed it for over a year. After the last update, which auto-installed to my M2 Air with Sequoia 15.3 latest, it will no longer open with the error stating this app is “not supported on this Mac”. I’m left with only the apps working, but prefer to use a real computer / Mac to edit, create new recipes or tag/classify things. I cannot uninstall or do anything - a real bummer.

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