# Fond — Recipe Manager & Meal Planner

> Fond is a recipe manager and meal planning app with an AI cooking assistant called August. Fond is in pre-launch: the app is not publicly available yet, and people can join the waitlist at https://fond.kitchen/. The free cooking tools and all articles on this site are available now.

Last-Updated: 2026-10-12
License: CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)

## About Fond

Fond (the app, not the culinary term for browned bits in a pan) is being built for home cooks. At launch it will:

- Import recipes from links, social posts, pasted text, photos, and screenshots
- Keep a searchable recipe library with collections, notes, and scaling
- Plan the week's meals and build one merged grocery list from them
- Include August, an AI cooking assistant that answers from your own recipes and plan
- Offer Cook Mode and specialized tools such as the Pizza Workshop dough calculator

Planned platforms: web, iOS, Android, and desktop. Plans at launch: Free, and Cook (see https://fond.kitchen/pricing/).

Website: https://fond.kitchen/

## Guides

Practical guides for cooking, recipe management, and meal planning.

- [The 8 best grocery list apps in 2026, compared](https://fond.kitchen/guides/best-grocery-list-apps/): A comparison of eight grocery list apps, from lists that build themselves from your recipes to free shared lists. What each does well, what they cost, and which suits a household that shops together.
- [The 8 best meal planning apps in 2026, compared](https://fond.kitchen/guides/best-meal-planning-apps/): A comparison of eight meal planning apps, from free options to paid planners. Which ones plan from your own recipes, which hand you a catalogue, and which turn a week of meals into one grocery list.
- [The 7 best recipe apps in 2026 (tested and compared)](https://fond.kitchen/guides/best-recipe-apps/): An honest comparison of the top recipe manager apps — Fond, Paprika, Mealime, Plan to Eat, Mealie, Crouton, and Copy Me That. What each does well, where they fall short, and which one fits your cooking style.
- [How to digitize old family recipes (without losing what makes them special)](https://fond.kitchen/guides/digitize-family-recipes/): A practical guide to turning handwritten recipe cards, cookbook annotations, and family recipe collections into searchable digital copies you can cook from. Covers photo scanning, AI import, and preserving the originals.
- [The Complete Food Storage Guide: Fridge, Freezer, and Pantry](https://fond.kitchen/guides/food-storage-guide/): A practical guide to storing food properly at home, covering fridge zones, freezer wrapping, pantry conditions, the temperature danger zone, safe timing windows, containers, and how to tell when food has gone bad.
- [Grocery shopping tips that actually save money](https://fond.kitchen/guides/grocery-shopping-tips/): A practical guide to saving money on groceries through meal planning, smart list-building, the 6-to-1 shopping method, understanding store layout psychology, buying smarter (unit prices, store brands, frozen produce), strategic shopping timing, and reducing waste. Includes USDA spending benchmarks and FAQ.
- [How to Make Fresh Pasta from Scratch](https://fond.kitchen/guides/homemade-pasta-guide/): A complete guide to making fresh pasta at home, covering flour choice (00 vs all-purpose), the base egg dough recipe, kneading and resting, rolling by machine or hand, shaping, cooking times, storage and freezing, and troubleshooting common dough problems.
- [How to Cook Dried Beans: Every Method, Every Bean](https://fond.kitchen/guides/how-to-cook-dried-beans/): A complete guide to cooking dried beans: soaking options (overnight, brine, quick-soak, no-soak), stovetop, slow cooker and pressure cooker methods, a cooking-time chart for 12 varieties, the kidney bean safety rule, why salting early is fine, storage and freezing, and fixes for hard beans and split skins.
- [How to import recipes from websites into a recipe app](https://fond.kitchen/guides/import-recipes-from-websites/): A practical guide to importing web recipes by URL, pasted text, photo, browser extension, or manual entry, with the tradeoffs of each method.
- [How to meal plan using your recipe collection (a system that sticks)](https://fond.kitchen/guides/meal-planning-with-recipes/): A realistic approach to weekly meal planning built around recipes you already have. Covers picking recipes, building a flexible weekly template, generating shopping lists, and avoiding the common traps that make people quit.
- [How to organize recipes: digitally, by category or in a binder](https://fond.kitchen/guides/organize-recipes-digitally/): A practical system for getting your recipes out of screenshots, bookmarks, and kitchen drawers into one searchable place. Covers tagging, collections, and what to look for in a recipe organizer app.
- [How to Scale a Recipe Up or Down](https://fond.kitchen/guides/recipe-scaling-tips/): A practical guide to scaling any recipe for more or fewer servings. Covers the conversion factor method, ingredients that don't scale linearly (spices, leaveners, eggs), baking-specific rules, pan size adjustments, and common mistakes.
- [How to save recipes from websites, TikTok and Instagram (without the ads)](https://fond.kitchen/guides/save-recipes-from-websites/): Four ways to save a recipe so you actually find it again: a recipe manager with AI import, an extraction site, browser reader mode, and an ad blocker. What each one keeps, what it loses, and how to save recipes from TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and your iPhone.
- [Weekly meal planning for beginners: a practical guide to getting started](https://fond.kitchen/guides/weekly-meal-planning-beginners/): A no-nonsense starter guide to weekly meal planning. Covers why it works, how to begin with just a few meals, building a shopping list, common beginner mistakes, and the tools that actually help.

## Pizza Dough Guides

In-depth guides for making pizza dough at home.

- [Beginner Pizza Dough](https://fond.kitchen/guides/pizza-dough/beginner-pizza-dough/): Your first homemade pizza dough, from scratch. A simple same-day recipe with 4 ingredients, plus everything you need to know about mixing, kneading, and shaping.
- [Cold Fermentation Pizza Dough Guide](https://fond.kitchen/guides/pizza-dough/cold-fermentation-pizza/): A practical guide to cold fermenting pizza dough for 24, 48, or 72 hours, with a 48-hour formula, fridge guidance, handling cues, and fixes for common problems.
- [Detroit-Style Pizza Dough](https://fond.kitchen/guides/pizza-dough/detroit-pizza-dough/): Rectangular pan pizza with a shatteringly crispy caramelized cheese edge and an open, focaccia-like crumb. 70% hydration dough, Wisconsin brick cheese, and cold sauce stripes applied after baking.
- [Neapolitan Pizza Dough](https://fond.kitchen/guides/pizza-dough/neapolitan-pizza-dough/): Neapolitan dough the way Naples does it: 00 flour, 60-62% hydration, long fermentation, and extreme heat. This guide follows AVPN standards and adapts them for home ovens, including flour brands, fermentation schedules, and a full troubleshooting section.
- [No-Knead Pizza Dough](https://fond.kitchen/guides/pizza-dough/no-knead-pizza-dough/): Skip the kneading entirely. Mix flour, water, salt, and a pinch of yeast, then wait 12-18 hours. Time does the gluten development for you, and the crust turns out light and airy with about 5 minutes of actual work.
- [New York Style Pizza Dough](https://fond.kitchen/guides/pizza-dough/ny-style-pizza-dough/): Big, foldable slices with a crispy bottom and chewy bite. NY-style dough uses high-gluten flour, a touch of oil and sugar, and a 48-hour cold ferment for that classic slice-shop flavor.
- [Overnight Pizza Dough](https://fond.kitchen/guides/pizza-dough/overnight-pizza-dough/): Mix the dough before bed, refrigerate it, bake pizza the next day. 10 minutes of work the night before, and you get better flavor than same-day dough with zero extra effort.
- [Pizza Dough FAQ](https://fond.kitchen/guides/pizza-dough/pizza-dough-faq/): Quick answers to 25+ pizza dough questions. How long to let it rise, can you freeze it, what to do when it's too sticky, how to store it. Each answer leads with the "what to do" before the "why."
- [Pizza Dough Fermentation: Room Temperature vs Cold Fermentation](https://fond.kitchen/guides/pizza-dough/pizza-dough-fermentation/): Room temp or fridge, 4 hours or 72, and how to tell when the dough is actually ready. Time and temperature are the two levers, and yeast dose is what ties them together.
- [Pizza dough hydration: complete guide to water ratios](https://fond.kitchen/guides/pizza-dough/pizza-dough-hydration/): Pizza dough hydration is the weight of water as a percentage of flour. Most home ovens do best at 60-65%; the AVPN Neapolitan standard works out to 55-62.5%; pan styles run 70-85%. Ranges by style, a decision framework, bassinage, fermentation interaction and troubleshooting.
- [Pizza Dough Troubleshooting: Common Problems & Fixes](https://fond.kitchen/guides/pizza-dough/pizza-dough-troubleshooting/): Dough too sticky? Not rising? Won't stretch? Bland crust? This guide covers the most common pizza dough problems, what is going wrong underneath, and the quick fix for each one.
- [Essential Pizza Equipment: What You Actually Need](https://fond.kitchen/guides/pizza-dough/pizza-equipment-guide/): Stop wasting money on gadgets. A baking steel, a digital scale and an infrared thermometer are the upgrades that matter most for home pizza. Everything else is a bonus.
- [Pizza Flour Guide: 00, Bread Flour, AP & Protein Content](https://fond.kitchen/guides/pizza-dough/pizza-flour-guide/): 00 vs. bread flour vs. all-purpose: what actually matters is protein content and gluten strength, and how they match your pizza style. Includes the AVPN flour specification, what a W value really measures, and a style-to-flour matching table.
- [Pizza water and key ingredients: what actually matters](https://fond.kitchen/guides/pizza-dough/pizza-water-ingredients/): The stuff beyond flour that quietly affects your dough: water hardness, salt percentage, yeast types (instant vs. fresh vs. active dry), diastatic malt, oil, and why a $15 scale beats measuring cups.
- [Poolish vs Biga: Which Pizza Pre-Ferment to Use](https://fond.kitchen/guides/pizza-dough/poolish-vs-biga/): Poolish is the liquid one at 100% hydration, biga is the stiff one at roughly 50-60%. The handling difference is real and immediate. The flavor difference is smaller than the internet suggests once you account for the water each one brings.
- [Roman pizza al taglio](https://fond.kitchen/guides/pizza-dough/roman-pizza-al-taglio/): Rome's iconic sheet pizza, sold by weight and eaten standing up. An ultra-light, airy crumb with a crispy bottom, made with poolish and ~80% hydration over 2-3 days.
- [Sourdough Pizza Dough](https://fond.kitchen/guides/pizza-dough/sourdough-pizza-dough/): Make pizza with your sourdough starter for a crust with real complexity: mild tang, open crumb, and excellent browning. Plan for 8-72 hours of fermentation depending on your schedule.

## Blog

Articles on cooking fundamentals, techniques, and kitchen tips.

- [Baking powder substitute: what to use for 1 teaspoon](https://fond.kitchen/blog/baking-powder-substitute/): The closest baking powder substitute is 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda plus 1/2 teaspoon of cream of tartar for each teaspoon of baking powder. Lemon juice or buttermilk can take the place of the cream of tartar, and self-rising flour or whipped egg whites can lift some recipes with no baking soda at all.
- [Baking soda vs baking powder: the difference and how to swap them](https://fond.kitchen/blog/baking-soda-vs-baking-powder/): Baking soda is pure sodium bicarbonate and only lifts a batter when the recipe supplies an acid. Baking powder is baking soda already mixed with a dry acid and starch, so it works on its own. Soda is roughly three to four times stronger, which is why the two never swap one for one.
- [Batch cooking for beginners: how to cook once and eat all week](https://fond.kitchen/blog/batch-cooking-guide/): Batch cooking means spending a few hours cooking large quantities of versatile components (grains, proteins, roasted vegetables, sauces) that you portion, store, and combine into different meals all week. This guide covers what it is, how it differs from meal prep, how to plan a session, what to cook, how to store it safely, and a sample Sunday plan.
- [The best marinade for chicken (6 recipes that actually work)](https://fond.kitchen/blog/best-marinade-for-chicken/): The best marinade for chicken combines acid, oil, salt, and aromatics in roughly a 1:3 acid-to-oil ratio. Here are 6 marinades, how long to marinate each cut, which ones suit the grill, and what to never put in the bowl.
- [The best seasoning for chicken (1 master blend + 6 variations)](https://fond.kitchen/blog/best-seasoning-for-chicken/): The best all-purpose seasoning for chicken is salt, garlic powder, smoked paprika, onion powder, black pepper, and dried oregano. Here is the master blend, a spice-by-spice guide, and how to adapt it for grilling, baking, frying, and each cut.
- [Bread baking for beginners: your first loaf, start to finish](https://fond.kitchen/blog/bread-baking-for-beginners/): A complete walkthrough for baking your first loaf of bread at home. Covers the four core ingredients, kneading by hand or mixer, proofing, shaping, and baking, with temperatures, times, and troubleshooting for every step.
- [Brown sugar substitutes: what to use and how much](https://fond.kitchen/blog/brown-sugar-substitute/): The closest brown sugar substitute is white sugar plus molasses: 1 cup (198 g) of granulated sugar with 2 teaspoons (14 g) of molasses for light brown sugar, or 1 tablespoon (21 g) for dark. Without molasses, muscovado or coconut sugar can stand in by weight, and plain white sugar works with crisper, paler results.
- [Butter vs oil: when to use each in cooking and baking](https://fond.kitchen/blog/butter-vs-oil/): Butter and oil each have strengths in the kitchen. Butter brings flavor, browning, and flaky pastry. Oil brings higher heat tolerance, moisture, and a longer shelf life. Knowing when to reach for each — and when to combine them — makes every dish better.
- [Charcoal vs Gas Grill: Which One Fits How You Cook?](https://fond.kitchen/blog/charcoal-vs-gas-grill/): A practical comparison of charcoal and gas grills across flavor, heat control, cleanup, ongoing cost, storage, and safety. Choose from the way you cook instead of a universal winner.
- [Cooking oil smoke points: a practical chart and guide](https://fond.kitchen/blog/cooking-oil-smoke-points/): Smoke-point charts are useful only when their numbers are treated as approximate. Learn how refinement, oil condition, and cooking method affect the oil you should choose.
- [Cornstarch substitutes: what to use instead, and how much](https://fond.kitchen/blog/cornstarch-substitute/): The easiest cornstarch substitute is all-purpose flour: use 2 tablespoons of flour for every tablespoon of cornstarch and expect a cloudier sauce. Arrowroot and potato starch swap in at about the same amount and tapioca at 1 to 2 tablespoons, but each has limits, mostly with dairy and long cooking.
- [Dutch oven cooking: techniques, temperatures, times, and recipes](https://fond.kitchen/blog/dutch-oven-recipes/): A Dutch oven is the most versatile pot in your kitchen. This guide covers every technique it does best, braising, simmering, bread baking, roasting, and frying, with a complete temperature and timing chart, plus 20 recipes organized by method.
- [Egg substitutes for baking: ratios by recipe](https://fond.kitchen/blog/egg-substitutes-baking/): A practical guide to egg substitutes for baking, with starting ratios for flax, applesauce, aquafaba, tofu, and more. Match each option to the egg's role and the type of bake.
- [Essential spices for home cooking: build your flavor arsenal](https://fond.kitchen/blog/essential-spices-for-home-cooking/): A practical guide to the 15 spices every home cook should own, organized by priority tier. Covers flavor profiles, best pairings, storage advice, and how to build a collection without wasting money on jars you'll never open.
- [How to ferment vegetables at home: a beginner's guide](https://fond.kitchen/blog/fermentation-beginners-guide/): A practical guide to home fermentation that starts with a 2% salt sauerkraut and builds to pickles, yogurt, kombucha, and sourdough. Covers the science, the equipment you actually need, safety rules, and troubleshooting.
- [The chemical reactions behind everyday cooking](https://fond.kitchen/blog/food-science-cooking/): Cooking runs on a short list of chemical reactions: Maillard browning, caramelization, protein denaturation, starch gelatinization, emulsification and fermentation. This food science guide charts each one against the temperature where it gets going, explains which kitchen changes are chemical and which are only physical, and sorts the reliable cooking rules from the myths.
- [Grilling for beginners: a no-nonsense starter guide](https://fond.kitchen/blog/grilling-for-beginners/): Everything you need to start grilling with confidence. Covers choosing between charcoal and gas, setting up heat zones, essential tools, first-cook recipes, and the mistakes that trip up every beginner.
- [12 grilling mistakes that ruin your food (and how to fix them)](https://fond.kitchen/blog/grilling-mistakes/): Twelve fixable mistakes cause most ruined cookouts: skipped preheats, a single heat zone, sauce applied too early, no thermometer. Here is the symptom, the fix, and the grill science behind each one.
- [Grilling temperature guide for every meat](https://fond.kitchen/blog/grilling-temperature-guide/): A complete meat temperature chart for grilling. Internal target temps for beef, chicken, pork, burgers, and fish, the grill temperature to use for chicken and steak, official safe minimums, and carryover cooking explained.
- [How long to boil eggs for soft, jammy, and hard yolks](https://fond.kitchen/blog/how-long-to-boil-eggs/): For large refrigerated eggs lowered into boiling water, start at 6 minutes for a runny yolk, 8 minutes for jammy, or 11-12 minutes for hard-cooked.
- [How to braise meat: the complete guide to low and slow cooking](https://fond.kitchen/blog/how-to-braise-meat/): Everything you need to braise meat at home. Covers the best cuts for braising, step-by-step technique, braising liquids, equipment, and global traditions from French daube to Korean galbi-jjim — with times, temperatures, and troubleshooting.
- [How to cook rice: the rice to water ratio for every type](https://fond.kitchen/blog/how-to-cook-rice/): On the stovetop, use 1 cup of rinsed rice to 1.5 cups of water for white long grain and basmati, 1.25 cups for jasmine and short grain, and 2 cups for brown rice. Then calibrate to your own pot, because the lid seal, rinsing, and batch size all move the number.
- [How to grill chicken breast without drying it out](https://fond.kitchen/blog/how-to-grill-chicken-breast/): A technique guide for grilling chicken breast that stays juicy. Covers even thickness, two-zone heat, pull temperature, brining, and timing for gas and charcoal grills.
- [How to Grill Vegetables: The Complete Guide](https://fond.kitchen/blog/how-to-grill-vegetables/): A practical guide to grilling vegetables: how to prep, oil, and marinate them, the right heat for each type, timing by vegetable, skewers, grill basket vs foil, and the mistakes that lead to soggy or charred results.
- [How to make a pan sauce: deglazing 101](https://fond.kitchen/blog/how-to-make-pan-sauce/): A pan sauce turns the browned bits stuck to your skillet into a rich, flavorful sauce in under five minutes. Learn the technique, choose your deglazing liquid, and master pan sauces for chicken, steak, pork chops, and mushrooms.
- [How to make your own spice blends: ratios, recipes and technique](https://fond.kitchen/blog/how-to-make-spice-blends/): Homemade spice blends come down to one ratio: 4 parts base, 2 parts middle, 1 part accent. This guide covers the formula, 10 blend recipes with exact parts, toasting, and how long each blend keeps.
- [How to meal prep: a practical guide for beginners](https://fond.kitchen/blog/how-to-meal-prep/): Classic meal prep means dedicating about 2 hours on a Sunday to planning, cooking, and portioning complete meals for the week ahead. Unlike batch cooking, which produces versatile components you mix and match, meal prep gives you finished meals ready to grab and eat. This guide covers everything from equipment and shopping lists to a minute-by-minute prep day timeline and safe storage practices.
- [How to pickle vegetables: fermented and quick-pickle methods](https://fond.kitchen/blog/how-to-pickle-vegetables/): A complete guide to pickling vegetables at home, both lacto-fermented pickles (salt brine, no vinegar) and quick pickled vegetables in vinegar. Covers the best vegetables to pickle, brine ratios, spice combinations, storage times, and step-by-step recipes.
- [How to read a recipe: a complete guide for confident cooking](https://fond.kitchen/blog/how-to-read-a-recipe/): Reading a recipe well means understanding structure, decoding measurements, spotting hidden time requirements, and setting yourself up before a single burner clicks on. This guide breaks down every part of a recipe, from ingredient lists and abbreviations to doneness cues and digital tools, so you can cook with confidence every time.
- [How to reduce food waste at home (practical tips that work)](https://fond.kitchen/blog/how-to-reduce-food-waste/): Food waste costs a US household of four about $2,913 a year, according to the EPA. This guide covers the habits that cut it: meal planning, smarter fridge storage, an eat-me-first bin, cooking with scraps and leftovers, reading date labels correctly, composting, and a one-week waste log.
- [How to season a cast iron skillet: the complete guide](https://fond.kitchen/blog/how-to-season-cast-iron/): Seasoning is what makes cast iron nonstick, rust-proof, and better with every use. Learn the oven method, stovetop method, best oils for seasoning, and how to fix common problems like sticky residue, flaking, and rust.
- [How to sharpen kitchen knives (the right way)](https://fond.kitchen/blog/how-to-sharpen-kitchen-knives/): A dull knife needs far more force than a sharp one, which makes it unpredictable. Learn when to hone, when to sharpen, and how to use a whetstone, electric sharpener, or honing rod to keep every blade in your kitchen performing at its best.
- [How to store fresh herbs so they last weeks, not days](https://fond.kitchen/blog/how-to-store-fresh-herbs/): Most fresh herbs die in 2-3 days because people store them wrong. The fix comes down to one distinction: soft herbs vs. hard herbs. This guide covers the best storage method for every common herb, how to freeze and dry herbs for long-term use, how to revive wilted ones, and how to plan meals around what's actually in your fridge.
- [How to store spices so they actually stay fresh](https://fond.kitchen/blog/how-to-store-spices/): A practical guide to storing spices for maximum freshness and flavor. Covers why spices lose potency, the best containers and locations, shelf life by type, and how to tell when it's time to replace them.
- [How to toast and bloom spices without burning them](https://fond.kitchen/blog/how-to-toast-and-bloom-spices/): Toast whole spices in a dry pan or bloom spices briefly in fat. This cue-based guide explains which method to choose and how to stop before the pan gets too hot.
- [Types of knife cuts: the complete guide for home cooks](https://fond.kitchen/blog/knife-cuts-guide/): A practical chart of common culinary knife cuts, their reference dimensions, suitable ingredients, and step-by-step techniques for safer, more consistent prep.
- [Meal prep containers: how to choose the right material and size](https://fond.kitchen/blog/meal-prep-containers-guide/): A practical guide to choosing meal prep containers by material, size, and use case. Covers glass vs plastic vs stainless steel, container sizing for different meals, what features actually matter, how to organize prepped meals, and food safety storage times.
- [One pot meals for beginners: a guide to easy weeknight dinners](https://fond.kitchen/blog/one-pot-meals-guide/): A practical guide to one pot cooking for beginners. Covers equipment, essential techniques like browning and layering, common mistakes, and 12 easy recipes organized by category: pasta, soups and stews, rice dishes, and curries. Each recipe includes difficulty level and cook time.
- [12 pasta cooking mistakes ruining your dinner](https://fond.kitchen/blog/pasta-cooking-mistakes/): Most pasta problems come down to technique, not ingredients. These twelve common mistakes are easy to fix once you understand the science behind them. Correct even three and your weeknight pasta will taste noticeably better.
- [How to find recipes with ingredients you already have](https://fond.kitchen/blog/recipes-with-ingredients-you-have/): Start with the food that needs using, identify a meal anchor, search two to four defining ingredients, then choose a flexible dish.
- [Sour cream substitutes: what to use and how much](https://fond.kitchen/blog/sour-cream-substitute/): Full-fat plain Greek yogurt is the easiest sour cream substitute: use the same amount in dips and most baking. For sauces and soups that simmer, crème fraîche is the safer swap, because its higher fat keeps it from curdling.
- [How to make a sourdough starter from scratch](https://fond.kitchen/blog/sourdough-starter-guide/): A day-by-day guide to creating and maintaining a sourdough starter at home using flour and water. Covers feeding schedules, signs of activity, why a starter stops rising and how to fix it, and how to know when it is ready to bake with.
- [Sous vide for beginners: precision cooking without the guesswork](https://fond.kitchen/blog/sous-vide-beginners-guide/): A sous vide water bath holds food at one exact temperature, so a steak comes out the same doneness from edge to edge. This guide leads with the time and temperature charts for steak, chicken, pork, salmon and eggs, then covers equipment, your first cook step by step, finishing sears, meal prep, and what the pasteurization numbers actually require.
- [Spice pairing chart: what goes with what (and why it works)](https://fond.kitchen/blog/spice-pairing-guide/): A spice pairing chart for 14 everyday foods, 8 classic combinations, a yes-or-no table for the pairs people ask about most (cumin and dill, cumin and thyme, cinnamon and nutmeg), plus the aroma-compound science behind why some spices click.
- [Spring meal prep ideas: seasonal recipes and a weekly prep plan](https://fond.kitchen/blog/spring-meal-prep-ideas/): A practical guide to spring meal prep built around seasonal produce like asparagus, peas, radishes, and strawberries. Includes a mix-and-match component system, a timed 2-hour Sunday prep session, storage freshness chart, and budget-friendly recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks.
- [Types of flour and their uses: a guide to 14 common flours](https://fond.kitchen/blog/types-of-flour-guide/): A breakdown of the flours worth knowing, ordered by protein content. Covers cake, pastry, all-purpose, self-rising, spelt, bread, whole wheat, 00, semolina and rye flour, plus the four gluten-free flours you meet most often, with substitution ratios and a protein chart for matching flour to recipe.
- [Types of Salt for Cooking: How to Choose the Right One](https://fond.kitchen/blog/types-of-salt-cooking/): The useful differences between cooking salts come from crystal structure, additives, and intended use. Learn which salts suit daily cooking, finishing, baking, and pickling.
- [What Is Mise en Place? A Practical Home-Kitchen System](https://fond.kitchen/blog/what-is-mise-en-place/): Mise en place organizes a recipe before active cooking. It identifies what must be prepared and where each item belongs. Learn when full or staged prep makes sense.
- [Umami foods: the list, the numbers, and how to cook with them](https://fond.kitchen/blog/what-is-umami/): Kombu, Parmigiano Reggiano, soy sauce and dried shiitake carry more free glutamate than almost anything else in a kitchen, and the published figures vary by more than tenfold between them. This is the ranked list, the nucleotide sources that multiply the effect, and what to actually do with both when a soup, a sauce or a stew tastes thin.
- [When to add spices during cooking: timing guide for layered flavor](https://fond.kitchen/blog/when-to-add-spices-during-cooking/): Spice timing changes the flavor of a dish more than most people realize. This guide breaks down the five moments when spices should go in, explains why ground and whole spices behave differently, covers fresh versus dried herbs, and settles when to season ground beef.

## Cooking Glossary

Cooking, baking, and fermentation terms explained.

- [Al Dente](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/al-dente/): Al dente is Italian for "to the tooth": food cooked so it still offers slight resistance when bitten. It applies most often to pasta, where a thin pale core of not-yet-gelatinized starch is still visible at the center of a cut strand.
- [Al Forno](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/al-forno/): Al forno is an Italian cooking term meaning "in the oven": food baked or roasted, usually at 180-220°C (350-425°F), until the top is golden and bubbling, as in pasta al forno, lasagne al forno, and melanzane al forno.
- [All-Purpose Flour](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/all-purpose-flour/): All-purpose flour (AP flour) is white wheat flour milled to a middle protein content of about 9-12%, strong enough for bread and cookies but soft enough for cakes. It is the flour a recipe means when it says only "flour", and the same product as plain flour or harina de trigo.
- [Autolyse](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/autolyse/): Autolyse is an optional bread-making rest in which flour and water are mixed before salt and leavening, helping the flour hydrate and making the dough easier to mix and shape.
- [Bain-Marie](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/bain-marie/): A bain-marie is a cooking technique that uses a water bath (max 100°C) to apply gentle, indirect heat to food, essential for custards, cheesecakes, melting chocolate, and emulsion sauces like hollandaise.
- [Baker's Percentage](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/bakers-percentage/): Baker's percentage is a notation system that expresses every bread or pizza ingredient as a percentage of total flour weight (flour = 100%) — making any recipe infinitely scalable.
- [Banneton](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/banneton/): A banneton is a rattan proofing basket that holds shaped bread dough during its final rise, wicking moisture from the surface so the loaf holds shape, scores cleanly, and wears spiral flour rings.
- [Basting](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/basting/): Basting is spooning or brushing hot fat, pan juices, or sauce over food as it cooks, to flavor the surface and help it brown. Butter-basting a steak takes 1-2 minutes; roast basting is mostly optional.
- [Bench Scraper](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/bench-scraper/): A bench scraper is a flat metal or plastic blade (typically 6×4 inches) used to cut, portion, and handle dough, and to keep your work surface clean. It is also called a dough scraper or bench knife.
- [Beurre blanc](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/beurre-blanc/): Beurre blanc is a warm French butter emulsion: a reduction of shallot, white wine and vinegar with about 225 g of cold butter whisked in. It tastes of butter sharpened by acid, holds between 50 and 60°C, breaks above about 70°C, and is not a mother sauce.
- [Biga](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/biga/): A stiff Italian pre-ferment with 50-60% hydration, used to add structure, flavor complexity, and a nuttier taste to bread and pizza doughs.
- [Blanch and shock](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/blanch-and-shock/): Blanch and shock is a two-step technique: briefly cook vegetables in boiling salted water, then plunge them into ice water to stop the cooking. Green beans take 2-3 minutes; the ice bath keeps them bright and crisp for meal prep, freezing, or finishing later.
- [Blanching](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/blanching/): Blanching vegetables is a brief boil (30 seconds to 5 minutes) followed by an ice-water shock — used to set color, deactivate enzymes, and prep produce for freezing.
- [Boiling](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/boiling/): Boiling is a moist-heat cooking method that cooks food in liquid at its boiling point, identified by bubbles rising rapidly and breaking across the surface.
- [Braising](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/braising/): Braising is a two-step cooking method: brown food at high heat, then simmer it covered in liquid that comes a third to two-thirds of the way up, until it is fork-tender.
- [Bread Flour](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/bread-flour/): Bread flour has more gluten-forming potential than typical all-purpose flour. It can make dough stronger and chewier, but protein levels and performance vary by brand.
- [Brew Ratio](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/brew-ratio/): Brew ratio is the weight of coffee grounds against the weight of water. Most filter coffee lands between 1:15 and 1:17, or about 15 g of coffee for a 240 ml cup.
- [Brining](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/brining/): Brining is the technique of soaking food in a saltwater solution (typically 5-8% salt) to season it deeply, improve moisture retention during cooking, and produce juicier results — especially effective for lean proteins like chicken breast and turkey.
- [Broiling](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/broiling/): Broiling cooks food with intense direct heat from an oven broiler, usually from above, to brown or crisp the exposed surface quickly.
- [Brunoise](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/brunoise/): Brunoise is a knife cut producing tiny, even 3 mm cubes, made by first cutting food into julienne matchsticks and then crosswise into dice. It's the finest classic dice in French cooking.
- [Bulk Fermentation](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/bulk-fermentation/): Bulk fermentation is the first rise of bread dough after mixing: the whole batch ferments as one mass, typically at 24-26°C for 1-4 hours with commercial yeast or 4-10 hours with sourdough, before dividing and shaping.
- [Caramelization](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/caramelization/): Caramelization is the non-enzymatic browning reaction where sugars break down under heat (from about 110°C for fructose to 160°C for table sugar), creating new flavors, aromas, and golden-to-dark color. Unlike the Maillard reaction, it involves only sugars, no proteins.
- [Carryover Cooking](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/carryover-cooking/): Carryover cooking is the rise in internal temperature that food keeps gaining after it leaves the heat. Pull meat below your target so it lands on it after resting.
- [Cast Iron Skillet](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/cast-iron-skillet/): A cast iron skillet is a heavy 2-4 kg pan made from molten iron poured into a sand mold, prized for its heat retention, oven-to-stovetop versatility, and the natural non-stick surface (seasoning) that develops with use.
- [Chiffonade](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/chiffonade/): Chiffonade is a French knife cut that turns herbs and leafy greens into thin, uniform ribbons, usually 1-3 mm wide, by stacking the leaves, rolling them tightly, and slicing across the roll.
- [Clarified Butter](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/clarified-butter/): Clarified butter is butter with the water and milk solids removed, leaving pure golden fat with a 230-250°C (450-480°F) smoke point, used for sauces, sautéing, popcorn, and high-heat cooking.
- [Cold Fermentation](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/cold-fermentation/): Cold fermentation is the practice of retarding dough in the refrigerator (2–5°C) for 24–72 hours — slowing yeast activity while enzymes break starches into sugars for deeper flavor and better texture.
- [Confit](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/confit/): Confit is a French cooking technique where food is slowly cooked submerged in fat at low temperature (90-150°C / 200-300°F) — originally a preservation method from southwest France, it works for duck legs, garlic, potatoes, tomatoes, and even egg yolks.
- [Crumb Structure](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/crumb-structure/): Crumb structure is the internal texture of bread: the size, shape and distribution of the holes (alveoli) you see when you slice a loaf, from tight and even in sandwich bread to open and irregular in ciabatta and high-hydration sourdough.
- [Curing](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/curing/): Curing is a preservation technique that uses salt, often with sugar, nitrite or nitrate, and sometimes smoke, to draw moisture out of meat and fish, hold back bacteria, and build concentrated flavor.
- [Deglazing](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/deglazing/): Deglazing is adding 120-240 ml of liquid (wine, stock, vinegar) to a hot pan after searing to dissolve the browned bits stuck to the bottom — the foundation of every pan sauce in under 5 minutes.
- [Dough Ball](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/dough-ball/): A dough ball is an individual portion of pizza dough shaped into a smooth sphere after bulk fermentation. Each one becomes a single pizza, at roughly 200-250g for Neapolitan, 280-350g for New York, and 400-600g for Detroit or Sicilian styles.
- [Dredging](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/dredging/): Dredging in cooking is the technique of coating food in a dry ingredient like flour, breadcrumbs, or cornstarch before frying or pan-cooking, used to create a crisp crust and help the protein brown evenly.
- [Dry Aging](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/dry-aging/): Dry aging is storing whole cuts of beef uncovered at 1-3°C with controlled humidity and airflow for 21-60 days, so enzymes tenderize the meat while moisture loss concentrates its flavor.
- [Dutch Oven](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/dutch-oven/): A Dutch oven is a heavy, thick-walled pot with a tight-fitting lid, usually cast iron, used for braising, baking bread, soups and stews, and deep frying, on the stovetop or in the oven.
- [Duxelles](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/duxelles/): Duxelles is a finely chopped mixture of mushrooms, shallots, and herbs cooked in butter until dry and intensely flavored. A cornerstone of French classical cooking, it is the mushroom layer in beef Wellington, a base for sauces, and a versatile flavor concentrate.
- [Emulsification](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/emulsification/): Emulsification is the process of mixing two liquids that normally don't combine (like oil and water) into a stable, uniform mixture — used to make mayonnaise, vinaigrette, hollandaise, and pan sauces.
- [Fermentation](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/fermentation/): Fermentation is the metabolic process where bacteria, yeast, or molds convert sugars into acids, alcohol, or gases. It is the basis of bread, yogurt, kimchi, beer, and hundreds of other foods.
- [Folding](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/folding/): Folding is a gentle mixing technique that preserves air in delicate batters by cutting through and turning the mixture rather than stirring. It is used for soufflés, mousses and macarons, and the stretch-and-fold version builds structure in high-hydration bread dough.
- [Fond](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/fond-cooking/): Fond is the cooking term for the browned bits stuck to the bottom of a pan after searing meat or vegetables. They are Maillard-reaction products, and dissolving them with liquid (deglazing) is the base of pan sauces, gravies and braises.
- [Food Danger Zone](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/food-danger-zone/): The food danger zone is the temperature range from 4°C to 60°C (40°F to 140°F) where bacteria multiply fastest, doubling in as little as 20 minutes. Perishable food should not sit there for more than 2 hours total.
- [Freezer burn](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/freezer-burn/): Freezer burn is the dry, discolored patches that form on frozen food when moisture escapes from the surface into the freezer's air. It's a quality issue, not a safety one. Tight wrapping, airtight containers and a freezer held at 0°F (-18°C) keep it in check.
- [Ghee](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/ghee/): Ghee is a clarified butter cooked until the milk solids brown, giving it a nutty aroma, a 250°C / 485°F smoke point, and a long shelf life without refrigeration.
- [Gluten Development](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/gluten-development/): Gluten development is the process of building a stretchy protein network in dough through kneading, folding, or time — required for bread to rise, hold structure, and develop chew.
- [Gluten Window Test](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/gluten-window-test/): The gluten window test (or windowpane test) is a hands-on technique for checking gluten development — stretch a small piece of dough thin enough to see light through it without tearing, the dough is ready.
- [Hydration (Bread)](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/hydration/): Bread hydration is the weight of water in a dough expressed as a percentage of the flour weight: 700 g of water with 1,000 g of flour is a 70% hydration dough. Higher hydration opens the crumb; lower hydration tightens it.
- [Instant-Read Thermometer](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/instant-read-thermometer/): An instant-read thermometer is a probe thermometer that shows the internal temperature of food within a few seconds. It is the reliable way to check meat, bread, and frying oil.
- [Julienne](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/julienne/): Julienne is a classical French knife cut that produces thin, uniform matchstick strips, about 3 mm (1/8 inch) square and 5 cm (2 inches) long in the American standard, used in stir-fries, salads, garnishes, and any dish where vegetables must cook evenly.
- [Kitchen Scale](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/kitchen-scale/): A kitchen scale weighs ingredients in grams instead of guessing with cups. Tare zeroes the bowl, so you can weigh a whole recipe into one container.
- [Kosher Salt](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/kosher-salt/): Kosher salt is a coarse-grained salt with large, flat crystals and no additives — preferred by chefs because it pinches easily, dissolves cleanly, and seasons more evenly than fine table salt.
- [Lacto-Fermentation](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/lacto-fermentation/): A preservation method where lactic acid bacteria convert sugars into lactic acid, creating the tang in sauerkraut, kimchi, pickles, and yogurt. No vinegar required.
- [Leavening Agents](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/leavening-agents/): Leavening agents are substances or techniques that put gas into a dough or batter so it rises and softens. They fall into three groups: biological (yeast, sourdough), chemical (baking soda, baking powder) and mechanical (whipped eggs, creaming, steam from lamination).
- [Levain](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/levain/): Levain is a naturally-leavened preferment built from a small amount of sourdough starter, flour, and water, mixed hours before baking to leaven a specific loaf of bread.
- [Maillard Reaction](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/maillard-reaction/): The Maillard reaction is the browning that happens when amino acids meet reducing sugars under heat. It builds the crust on a seared steak and the smell of roasting coffee.
- [Mandoline](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/mandoline/): A mandoline is a slicing tool with a fixed blade and an adjustable platform that produces uniform slices, juliennes and waffle cuts down to about 1 mm. Use it with the hand guard, a cut-resistant glove and one smooth stroke per slice.
- [Marinade](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/marinade/): A marinade is a seasoned liquid mixture of acid, oil, and aromatics used to flavor food before cooking. It denatures surface proteins and adds flavor, but only reaches a few millimeters deep, so it works best for thin cuts marinated 30 minutes to a few hours.
- [Meal Prep](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/meal-prep/): Meal prep is the practice of cooking and portioning meals or meal components in advance, typically in one 2-3 hour session for the week ahead. There are four types (full meals, components, ingredients, freezer), and the easiest way to start is prepping lunches only.
- [Medium Rare](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/medium-rare/): Medium rare is a steak doneness cooked to an internal temperature of 130-135°F (54-57°C): a warm red-pink center, juicy texture, and the doneness most steakhouses and chefs treat as the default.
- [Mirepoix](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/mirepoix/): Mirepoix is the classical French aromatic base of diced onion, carrot and celery, traditionally in a 2:1:1 ratio, cooked slowly in fat without browning to flavor stocks, soups, sauces and braises.
- [Mise en Place](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/mise-en-place/): Mise en place is the French culinary term for "everything in its place": preparing and organizing every ingredient and tool before cooking begins, so the cook can focus on heat and timing instead of hunting for things.
- [Mortar and Pestle](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/mortar-pestle/): A mortar and pestle is a traditional grinding tool, a bowl (mortar) and club-shaped tool (pestle), used to crush, grind, and blend spices, herbs, and pastes; the oldest food processing tool still in everyday use.
- [Mother Sauces](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/mother-sauces/): The mother sauces are the five foundational sauces of French cooking (bechamel, veloute, espagnole, hollandaise and tomato) from which hundreds of daughter sauces derive. The list is usually credited to Auguste Escoffier and Le Guide culinaire.
- [Olive Oil](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/olive-oil/): Olive oil is a cooking fat pressed from olives, sold in grades set by the International Olive Council: extra virgin (free acidity at most 0.8 %), virgin (at most 2 %), refined-and-virgin blends labelled "olive oil", and pomace oil. Which one is best for cooking depends on heat and on whether you want the flavor to survive.
- [Parboiling](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/parboiling/): Parboiling is boiling food only until partially cooked, then finishing it another way: 8-10 minutes for potato chunks headed to a hot oven, 15 minutes for small whole potatoes, 10-15 for sausages bound for the grill.
- [Pizza Stone](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/pizza-stone/): A pizza stone is a thick slab of cordierite, ceramic or clay that sits in your oven, stores heat and bakes the pizza from below, turning a 250 °C home oven into something much closer to a pizzeria deck.
- [Poaching](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/poaching/): Poaching is a gentle cooking technique that holds food in liquid at 160-180°F (71-82°C), below boiling and with no bubbles breaking the surface, to protect the texture of eggs, fish, and poultry.
- [Poolish](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/poolish/): A wet pre-ferment made with equal weights of flour and water plus a small amount of yeast, fermented 8-16 hours to develop flavor and make dough more extensible.
- [Pressure Cooking](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/pressure-cooking/): Pressure cooking is cooking food in a sealed pot where trapped steam raises the boiling point to around 120°C (250°F), cooking food much faster than boiling or braising at normal pressure.
- [Proofing](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/proofing/): Proofing is the final rise of bread dough after shaping (30 minutes to 16 hours), where the shaped loaf expands with carbon dioxide from yeast before baking — produces a light, airy crumb instead of a dense brick.
- [Recipe Import](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/recipe-import/): Recipe import is the ability to save recipes from websites, photos, cookbooks, or other apps into your recipe manager automatically — with ingredients, quantities, units, and steps properly parsed for scaling, shopping lists, and cook mode.
- [Recipe Manager](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/recipe-manager/): Software for storing, organizing, and accessing recipes digitally, replacing physical cookbooks, bookmarks, and scattered notes with a searchable, structured collection.
- [Recipe Scaling](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/recipe-scaling/): Recipe scaling means multiplying or dividing every quantity in a recipe by one factor to change the number of servings. Most ingredients scale cleanly; seasoning, leavening, pan size, and cooking time need judgment.
- [Reduction](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/reduction/): Reduction is simmering a liquid uncovered to evaporate water — typically reducing volume by half in 5-15 minutes — to concentrate flavor and thicken consistency without adding starch.
- [Resting Meat](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/resting-meat/): Resting meat is letting cooked meat sit before you cut it, usually 5 to 30 minutes depending on size, so the fibers relax and carryover cooking finishes the job instead of the juice finishing on the board.
- [Risotto Technique](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/risotto-technique/): Risotto technique is the Italian method of toasting short-grain rice, then cooking it in hot broth added a ladle at a time while stirring to release starch, and finishing off the heat with butter and cheese for a creamy, flowing dish without any cream.
- [Roasting](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/roasting/): Roasting is cooking food uncovered in the dry heat of an oven so hot air surrounds it and the surface browns. Baking uses the same oven; the word changes with the food and the goal.
- [Roux](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/roux/): A roux is a cooked mixture of equal parts fat and flour by weight used to thicken sauces, soups, and gravies. Three types (white, blond, brown) differ by cook time, from 2 to 45 minutes, and trade thickening power for flavor as they darken.
- [Sautéing](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/sauteing/): Sautéing is cooking small or thin pieces of food fast in a wide pan over medium-high heat with a little fat, keeping them moving so they brown on the outside before they overcook inside.
- [Searing](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/searing/): Searing is cooking food over high heat until the surface browns into a Maillard crust. It builds flavor and texture; it does not seal in juices.
- [Semolina](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/semolina/): Semolina is a coarse, golden flour milled from the endosperm of durum wheat, high in protein and gluten, used for dried pasta, couscous, bread and dusting pizza peels. Durum flour is the same wheat ground finer; cornmeal is a different grain.
- [Smart Shopping List](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/shopping-list/): A smart shopping list is an automatically generated grocery list that combines ingredients from multiple recipes, merges duplicates, converts units, and organizes by store aisle.
- [Simmering](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/simmering/): Simmering is cooking food in liquid held just below boiling — 85-96°C (185-205°F) — where small bubbles rise gently without a full rolling boil, used for stocks, stews, sauces, and delicate proteins.
- [Sofrito](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/sofrito/): Sofrito is a family of aromatic cooking bases. Ingredients and treatment vary by cuisine, from Spanish onion-and-tomato preparations to Puerto Rican blends rich in peppers and herbs.
- [Sourdough Starter](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/sourdough-starter/): A sourdough starter is a living culture of wild yeast and lactic acid bacteria, kept alive with regular feedings of flour and water, that leavens bread without commercial yeast.
- [Sous Vide](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/sous-vide/): Sous vide is a cooking method where food is sealed in a bag and cooked in a water bath held at a precise temperature, typically 50-85 °C, for 30 minutes to several days. Because the water never exceeds the target, the food cooks evenly from edge to center.
- [Stock vs. Broth](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/stock-vs-broth/): Stock is bones and connective tissue simmered for hours until the liquid is rich in gelatin; broth is meat simmered briefly and seasoned to be eaten as is. Use stock where liquid reduces, broth where liquid is the dish.
- [Sweating](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/sweating/): Sweating is a gentle cooking technique that softens vegetables over low heat in a little fat without browning, creating a mild aromatic base.
- [Tempering](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/tempering/): Tempering is the technique of changing an ingredient's temperature gradually to prevent an unwanted reaction: eggs are tempered so they don't curdle in hot liquid, and chocolate is tempered so its cocoa butter sets in the stable Form V crystals that give gloss and snap.
- [Umami](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/umami/): Umami is the savory basic taste produced by free glutamate, plus two nucleotides that amplify it. It coats the tongue, lingers for minutes, and keeps saliva flowing.
- [Yeast Types](https://fond.kitchen/glossary/yeast-types/): Active dry, instant and fresh yeast are the same organism, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, processed differently. Instant goes straight into the flour, active dry is rehydrated first, and fresh is used at about three times the weight of dry.

## Alternatives & Comparisons

How Fond compares with other recipe apps.

- [Copy Me That Alternative: Fond vs Copy Me That](https://fond.kitchen/alternatives/copy-me-that/): Copy Me That is a simple, low-cost recipe clipper with a meal planner and a well-organized shopping list. It has no AI import from photos and no AI cooking help, which is where Fond is aiming.
- [Crouton Alternative That Isn't Apple-Only | Fond](https://fond.kitchen/alternatives/crouton/): Crouton is a well-reviewed recipe manager for iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and Apple Vision, with AI photo import and a hands-free cooking mode. Its limit is the platform: there is no Android, Windows, or web version.
- [Mealie Alternative Without Self-Hosting: Fond vs Mealie](https://fond.kitchen/alternatives/mealie/): Mealie is a capable, free recipe manager that you run on your own server. If you would rather not maintain Docker containers to keep your recipes online, a hosted app is the simpler path.
- [Mealime Alternative Before the Oct 21 Shutdown | Fond](https://fond.kitchen/alternatives/mealime/): Mealime has announced it will shut down on October 21, 2026, and says all personal data will be deleted when the app closes. If you rely on it for weekly dinners, now is the time to save the recipes you want to keep and pick what comes next.
- [Paprika Recipe Manager Alternative: Fond vs Paprika 3](https://fond.kitchen/alternatives/paprika/): Paprika Recipe Manager is a well-loved recipe app with a one-time price per platform, but Paprika 3 has no web app and no AI import. Fond, a recipe app opening soon, is built around AI import from links, photos, and social posts.
- [Plan to Eat Alternative: How Fond Compares](https://fond.kitchen/alternatives/plan-to-eat/): Plan to Eat is a mature, actively updated meal planner with a strong recipe clipper. Fond, opening soon, puts an AI cooking assistant and a pizza dough workshop next to the planner.
- [Recipe Keeper Alternative: Fond vs Recipe Keeper](https://fond.kitchen/alternatives/recipe-keeper/): Recipe Keeper is a capable recipe organizer with OCR scanning and a one-time Pro upgrade on each platform. Fond, opening soon, takes a different route: AI recipe import, an AI cooking assistant, and one account for web and mobile.
- [Tandoor Recipes Alternative Without Self-Hosting | Fond](https://fond.kitchen/alternatives/tandoor/): Tandoor Recipes is an open-source recipe manager with meal planning, shared shopping lists, and AI import. You can run it yourself with Docker or pay for a hosted plan at tandoor.dev.
- [Yummly Alternative After the Shutdown | Fond](https://fond.kitchen/alternatives/yummly/): Yummly is gone. Whirlpool shut down its website and apps in December 2024, and yummly.com now redirects to KitchenAid's recipe pages. If you used it to keep recipes, here is how Fond, a recipe app opening soon, compares.

## Free Tools

Free cooking calculators that work in the browser today.

- [Baker's Percentage Calculator](https://fond.kitchen/tools/baking-calculator/): Calculate ingredient weights or convert an existing recipe to baker's percentages.
- [Pizza Dough Calculator](https://fond.kitchen/tools/pizza-dough-calculator/): Calculate precise ingredient quantities for any pizza style.
- [Cooking Unit Converter](https://fond.kitchen/tools/unit-converter/): Convert between metric, imperial, and volume measurements.

## Markdown Content

Blog posts, guides, pizza dough guides, and glossary entries are also available as Markdown in every language by replacing the trailing slash with `.md`, for example https://fond.kitchen/glossary/hydration.md or https://fond.kitchen/fr/blog/how-to-cook-rice.md

## Full Content Export

https://fond.kitchen/llms-full.txt

## Languages

- English (default): https://fond.kitchen/
- French: https://fond.kitchen/fr/
- Spanish: https://fond.kitchen/es/

## Contact

- Support: hello@fond.kitchen