Frequently Asked Questions about My Recipe Download Site

 

 How do I download the recipes from your site?

Click on the recipe category box you wish to download, example, click on the box Chinese.  Your browser will open a download dialog box.  You must tell the browser where on your computer's hard drive you wish to save the file.  Select the drive letter, example c:/, and the folder, example, c:/recipe_downloads.  Press OK and your browser will download the file to the selected folder with the file name I have given it, example, Chinese_1.zip.

Note: you will first have to open your Windows Explorer program and create a new folder called "recipe_downloads"

 

 How are the recipes I can download formatted?

The recipes available for downloading are in MasterCook version 4.0 export format.  This data format is straight ASCII text.  The files are also zipped (compressed) to reduce storage requirements and download times.  This file format will allow you to import the recipes into the MasterCook recipe management program, versions II through 6.0.  The recipes were edited to work with MasterCook version 4.0, there are no long recipe fields like there are in MasterCook 6.0.  When these recipes are downloaded and imported into any version of MasterCook, there will be no loss  of any data due to truncating fields.

 

 Have your tried all the recipes on your web site?

I have over 50,000 recipes available for downloading.  If I tried three new recipes a day, it would take over 45 years and thousands of dollars in materials to try them all.   The recipes were collected from various sources: cookbooks, magazines, newspapers, product packages, flyers and from Mom and Aunt Sally and Uncle Ned (and a few other sources I'm sure).  The recipes are provided to you free of charge and with no guarantee that they are fit for any purpose.

 

 What is MasterCook?

MasterCook is a recipe management program by Sierra-On-Line.   It will cost you between $5-$30 to buy a copy depending on the version and where you get it.  Sierra-On-Line has recently sold the Sierra-Home line of their software to ValueSoft http://www.valusoft.com/.

 

 What is a file with a *.zip extension?

To save disk storage space on the web server and to make the download times quicker, I have chosen to use a compression program called WinZip.  This program will take a 1,000,000 byte recipe file and compress it down to about 200,000 bytes or less.  Files so compressed have the extension .zip.

 

  How do I unzip the downloaded recipes?

 You will need a copy of the program WinZip.exe.  You can get an evaluation shareware program: Click here

Run WinZip and open the archive (file name) you want to unzip.  You will have to browse to the folder where the file resides, example, c:\recipe-downloads.  Select the file, example, Chinese.zip.

You must now tell WinZip where to put the unzipped file.  Just select the same folder as the zipped file is in, example, c:\recipe-downloads.

Now click on the Extract button and WinZip will do everything else.

You will now find a file named, for example,Chinese.mxp as well as the file Chinese.zip in the folder.

 

 What does the "mxp" mean on the end of the file name?

The original version of MasterCook used the file extension "MXP" for the ability to swap recipes between the Macintosh and PCs.  So the file "MXP" stood for Macintosh to (X) Pc.  Today, the "MXP" file extension is used to mean a file in "Mastercook eXPort format".  A recipe file with an extension of *.mxp is an ASCII coded file that can be read by PCs or Macintosh computers.  The *.mxp file can also be read by Notepad.exe, Wordpad.exe and most word processing programs.

 

  How do I import the recipes into MasterCook?

These instructions may vary somewhat from version to version of MasterCook.

Let's assume you have downloaded and unzipped the file Chinese.zip.

1. Start your MasterCook program.

If you do not have a new cookbook called Chinese, you will have to create a new cookbook.

2. From the menu bar, select "File" , then select "New Cookbook".  Close any dialog boxes that come up for categories or templates.

3. Now from menu bar, click "File",  then "Import Recipes" or "Import".  For MC version 5 or 6, do not use the Import Assistant.

4. Now  and browse to the C:\recipe-download folder

5. Click on the file Chinese.mxp.

6. Then click on OK.

7. You will see a list of all the recipes in the file Chinese.mxp in the left box.

If you are using MasterCook version 5 or 6, be sure and check the button "Include categories" or the new recipes will be imported without categories.

8. Click on Select All and then click OK.

This action will import all the recipes in the selected file into the new cookbook.

If you already have a cookbook named Chinese, then open that cookbook and begin on step 3.

If the import routine finds any recipes in the imported file that have the same name as a recipe in your existing cookbook called Chinese, for example, "General Tso Chicken" the import routine will name the new recipe "General Tso Chicken2".

After all the recipes have been imported, you can go through the cookbook and look at each recipe pair (or triple or more) that have a "2" or "3" etc. at the end of the name and see if the recipes are the same.  If they are different recipes, the you can rename the recipe "General Tso Chicken - 2" etc.

Another way I that I import recipes is to open a cookbook called Temp.  I do not keep recipe in this cookbook, but only use it for importing.  Follow the above directions and import the recipes into Temp.  Then with the Temp cookbook open, open the Chinese cookbook.  Then select all the recipes in Temp and drag them to Chinese.  Mastercook will open a dialog box and ask you if you want to rename, replace or ignore duplicate recipes.  I usually rename duplicates with an "-x" on the end of the name.  If there are more than one duplicate name, you will have to rename them "-x2, -x3" etc." When this is complete, delete all the recipes in the cookbook Temp and also delete all categories and close the Temp cookbook. Now go through the Chinese cookbook and look for recipes ending with "-x".   When you find one, compare it with the recipe(s) with the same name to see if they are the same.  If so, I delete the recipe with the "-x".  If they are not the same recipe, but just have the same name, rename the recipe, for example, "General Tso Chicken - 2" etc.

 

 Here are some other resources for helping import and export recipes with MasterCook.

Pat Hanneman, aka Kitpath, has a great MasterCook page. Click here.


One of Kitpath's pages about using the generic format: Click here


Sooz' Buster Lessons: Click here


About importing and exporting: Click here


More importing help: Click here


  Some of the  recipes I imported into MasterCook don't look right in the 'Ingredient' fields.

Some MasterCook uses have downloaded recipes from this collection and reported that for some recipes the ingredient lines are not right.  They see recipes where all or part of the ingredient description is in the preparation field and there are lines with only a single word in the preparation field.   They want to know if they did something wrong?

No, they did not do anything wrong.  I used MS Word (as a text editor) to clean up and edit all the recipes in the collections.   Using MS Word makes it possible for me to work with all the recipes within a large file at once, i.e.  when I need to do a search and replace.  Recipe editing within all version of MasterCook is very tedious and I would have never edited the recipe collections that way.  I do my best to make the MS Word formatted recipes import into MasterCook correctly, but despite my doing the best job I can, different versions (and updates within each version) import the mxp formatted recipes a little differently. 

For example, some versions and releases of MasterCook will import this line correctly like this:

Amount Unit         Ingredient               Preparation Method

  1            12 oz bottle          Tobasco sauce   

Some versions and releases will import this line incorectly like this:

Amount Unit         Ingredient               Preparation Method

1                                             12 oz bottle                                       Tobasco sauce  

 

For example, some versions and releases of MasterCook will import this line correctly like this:

Amount Unit         Ingredient               Preparation Method

  1             pound                  raw shrimp                                        shelled and cleaned   

Some versions and releases will import this line like this:

Amount Unit         Ingredient               Preparation Method

  1            pound                    raw shrimp                                       shelled

                                                                                                           and cleaned   

 

For example, some versions and releases of MasterCook will import this line correctly like this:

Amount Unit         Ingredient               Preparation Method

  1             whole                    chicken (3 1/2 to 4 pounds)         split in half   

Some versions and releases will import this line like this:

Amount Unit         Ingredient               Preparation Method

  1             whole                    chicken       (3 1/2 to                          4 pounds)

                                                                                                                split in half   

I know of no fix for these problems. I can only suggest that when you view a recipe in MasterCook, and find that the ingredient line is not formatted correctly, that you correct it.

The newest version of MasterCook (6.0) has a longer "Ingredient Description" and "Preparation Method" field lengths and many of these importing problems are eliminated.

 

 How can I view and print the recipes if I don't have MasterCook?

You can view and print the unzipped recipes with any word processing program.  If you use a word processor, be sure and set the font to a fixed-pitch font (like Courier) and make it 10 points, so all the recipes will print out with the correct column spacing. If you use a proportional font, such as Times Roman, then the recipe columns will not line up.  Just select the entire document and change the font to Courier.

There is a freeware program written by Ryan Walberg called MasterCook *.MXP Viewer that will allow you to view and print the contents of an *.mxp file (MasterCook export format) alphabetically or by category.  You can download the program here: 

 

 Why should I get MasterCook?

If you are serious about collecting recipes, then I strongly suggest you buy a copy of MasterCook.  The current version of MasterCook is version 6.0 and the street price at discount stores is currently around $20.  http://www.vlauesoft.com

Using this recipe archive with MasterCook will allow you to group the recipes by category, search recipes by key words and phrases, print recipes and scale recipes.  You will also be able to have Mastercook calculate a nutritional analysis for each recipe.

If you use "MealMaster" or "Now You're Cooking" programs to manage your recipes, you can run this recipe file through a program called MM_BUSTR.  This is a freeware program by Glen Hosey that will take a MasterCook mxp format file and convert it into a MealMaster-formatted text file that will import to "MealMaster" or "Now You're Cooking".  You can download the MM_BUSTR program here:   http://home.mgfairfax.rr.com/hosey/

Many of the recipes in this archive were converted from text format to MasterCook format by Glen Hosey's great freeware MC_Buster program (available at the address above).

 

 I notice that you have edited and corrected many of the recipe archives you have on your page.  What did you edit out and correct?

Many of the recipes in this archive were typed, formatted and posted in the late1980's and early 1990's to various bulletin boards before the Internet came into being.  These recipes were often formatted for a recipe management program called MealMaster.  During the years, the recipes have been posted and reposted to various mailing lists and newsgroups on the Internet.  They often pick up errors during reformatting and reposting.  I have converted many of these recipes from Web page format and MealMaster format to MasterCook format.  This conversion process often introduces errors into the recipe.  I have attempted to correct the conversion errors.  In those recipe archives I have gone through, I have also removed the names of the people who typed, formatted and posted these recipes.  I feel that this information is just taking up disk space.  If this practice bothers you, then please feel free to move on to another recipe archive site.  I have kept the recipe author or creator where known.  I have also removed duplicate recipes and I have attempted to make some sense out of the recipes categories. 

 

 I notice that you have removed all the nutrition data from the recipes in your collection.  Why did you do this?

Since many of the recipes in this archive were typed and formatted several years ago and they often contain conflicting nutrition information, I have decided to strip out the nutritional data from all the recipes I edit.  If you have a current version of MasterCook (6.0) it will calculate nutritional data more accurately than the older versions.  So after you import the recipes into your copy of MasterCook, you will have up-to-date nutritional data available.  If nutritional data is important to you, make sure that the serving size looks reasonable.  Many recipes have a serving size set to the MasterCook default setting of '1'.  So nutritional data would assume the entire recipe is one serving and report the data incorrectly.  I have tired, as I edited the recipes, to correct the serving size if it was set to "1" to a reasonable serving size based on the recipes ingredient amounts.