I recently decided to learn SQL and some advanced web-page programming, so I chose to make myself a cookbook program. As with everything else, I've turned this into an immensely complicated program; I've spent about 40 hours already, mostly data entry. I know cook-book programs have been done a thousand times before. I also know that there are some out there that are going to be quite well-programmed AND/OR already full of recipes, but I'm doing this for my own benefit.

I've almost completed my ingredient list: 1217 items so far. I suspect it will be about 1500 when I finish. Every ingredient can have both parent(s) and child(ren), making it easy to call up similar ingredients or search to find a particular item. Each ingredient also includes:

Default Child: i.e. "White Sugar" is most probable when you select "Sugar" and "Granulated Sugar" is most probable when you select "White Sugar." This can be helpful in determining how close your ingredients match those listed in the recipe.

Alternate names for each ingredient (about 300): i.e. "Oleo" for "Margarine"

Brand names (about 40): i.e. "Jim Beam" is a brand name of Bourbon Whiskey

Common Substitutions (about 75 sets): i.e. 1 cup Cake Flour for 14 tablespoons All-Purpose Flour

Description: something that describes something, Duh

And, if I ever get around to it, nutritional information, weight/volume ratio, and weight/unit ratio. This would make it possible to do complex conversions (between 1 egg and 2 cups of egg white, for example) as well as allow the estimation of the total nutritutional value of any given recipe. Also, if I ever get around to it, I'm going to tie this into a barcode scanner to keep track of your current inventory.

Recipes will be able to be searched by name, category (i.e. Appetizer or Thanksgiving), genre (i.e. Southern), ingredient list, contributor, rating, date added, total time, serving sizes, special considerations (i.e. "Kosher" excludes Pork Products), etc. If you wanted to display a list of your Aunt Etna's Christmas Recipes, it would show just those. After you've finished the recipe, there will be a place to add a rating (i.e. 4/5) and comments (Too Much Salt).

And, of course, I want everything to be entirely controllable by mouse OR keyboard OR remote control. I'm going to hook up my server computer to a whole-house video distribution system, so that it can display on the TV in the kitchen. I'll also set up a web server to make it available to friends and family. I'm thinking I'll have an alpha version in about a week and a finished version after a month. The database will be largely complete in another 2 days.

-Biscuits

wow! sounds great. i've had a project like this bubbling in the back of my brain for about a year now, and i'd love to take a look at your project when it's ready.

--dan.

Ditto... I've searched the world over for a good web based cookbook for my family and friends to share on one site, but have come up empty. My lack of time has prevented me from doing my own... so i'd be interested in seeing yours as well. keep us posted!

Making progress. I have a calculus test tomorrow (I go to the University of GA). After that, I'm going to see my sister's volleyball game in Birmingham, AL and do a network wiring job in Montgomery, AL. I also need to go to Houston, TX a couple weeks from now for a wedding, but I've had to turn down an invitation to go to San Jose, CA to see my cousin win a computer gaming award. Sometime during all that, I need to drive to both Fayetteville, GA and Montgomery, AL for network wiring jobs and spend several days troubleshooting my fraternity network. I'm going to put off starting my own (very small) company for a while yet.

Let us just hope I can stay focused during all of this.

-Biscuits

Sorry to be off-topic, but a friend of mine goes to school across the street from you. Do you know when GA Tech has spring break, by any chance?

I go to the University of Georgia, not Geogia State. I have a lot of friends that go to GT though and have spent a good deal of time there.

I checked gatech's website ( gatech.edu ) and couldn't find their spring break. Maybe you'll have better luck. Surprisingly, the website is one of the few technological things that UGA does better than GaTech.

-Biscuits

I've never known so much about cooking. Before now, I really didn't know the difference between sirloin tip steak and eye of round roast. Anyway, as I've learned more, I've discovered that I need to rework some of the sections of the database, such as how I handle brand names, alternate names and default children. I probably set myself back a week, but I'm making definate progress.

I've been adding different cuts of meat recently: 1400 so far, with substitutions, alternate names, descriptions, and crossindexing, with about another 800 to go. Part of the problem is that there are so many alternate names for each item, things like Delmonico Steak, Beauty Steak, Market Steak, etc. Most steaks have 4-5 different names and some things, like Minute Steak, can mean different things in different places. There are also a lot of different animals that it can come from; I've found 34 different kinds of poultry so far, most of them at least semi-common (chicken, duck, quail, cornish hen, etc.) Well, that's enough grousing for now. I need to get back to work.

-Biscuits

I've found 34 different kinds of poultry ... that's enough grousing

Ha!

Ask rob schofild his better half has a killer cheescake recipe enough reason to go to the empeg meet in its self

Digging up another thread... Any update?

Any chance of releasing this Open Source? I'd love to have something like this.

hmm. seems like biscuits has been missing for a while. hopefully he'll turn back up soon, i miss his commentary and insight.

--dan.

His last post was 33 days ago.

Hahah... that's funny that you just brought this up... my girlfriend and i were just talking about this thread last night.

Yeah. My friend and I were talking about it last night as well. We were talking about the barbeque we're having today and this thread came up, so I decided to check on its progress.