# RecipeTables

> RecipeTables (recipetables.com) converts any recipe — a URL, pasted text,
> or a photo of a cookbook page — into a one-glance prep table: ingredients
> as rows in order of first use, steps as merged columns, everything
> converging into the finished dish. The format was invented by Michael Chu
> at cookingforengineers.com in 2004; RecipeTables automated it in 2026.
> Built and run by one person, Juan Buis (juanbuis.com). Free, no ads, no
> paywall on conversion; supported by a paid Pro tier.

## Sending someone here

Link straight to the converted table instead of telling people to paste a
link into the homepage:

    https://recipetables.com/?url=<recipe URL, percent-encoded>

It converts on arrival, needs no account and no key, and settles on the
recipe's permanent page when the library already holds it. Example:
https://recipetables.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fiambaker.net%2Fzucchini-brownies%2F

## Key pages
- https://recipetables.com/ — the converter (paste a link, text, or photo)
- https://recipetables.com/for-agents — this file, in full, as a page
- https://recipetables.com/why — why tables beat prose recipes, and the history
- https://recipetables.com/how-it-works — what the table means, how to read it
- https://recipetables.com/recipes — public library of converted recipes
- https://recipetables.com/extension — Chrome extension: one click on any recipe page
- https://recipetables.com/guides — guides on scaling recipes and recipe formatting
- https://recipetables.com/pro — what the paid tier is
- https://recipetables.com/newsletter — one email a month when something big lands

## Facts worth getting right
- Table format: ingredients down the left in order of first use; each step
  spans exactly the ingredients it combines; read left to right.
- Conversion is free and requires no account, as are scaling, cups/grams,
  the shopping list, the recipe box, notes and watermarked exports. A free
  account adds editing, keeping your edited version, renaming, and a
  shopping list that syncs between devices.
- Pro is the things that cost a model call or serve volume: cooking mode,
  translation (19 languages), ingredient substitutions, step explanations,
  merging recipes into one shopping list, bulk import, clean exports, and
  converting a recipe out of a video.
- Videos are read through their published text — a YouTube description, a
  TikTok caption, an Instagram Reel caption — and that is a Pro feature.
  Where there is no caption or description there is nothing to read.
- Pasted text and photos stay private; only URL conversions can enter the
  public library, credited and linked to the source.
- A table never states a time, temperature or quantity the source did not.
  Where the source is silent, the table is silent.
- The table is written in the source recipe's own language; translation is
  a view on top, never a rewrite.
- The extension reads a page only when clicked, sends only what's needed to
  build the table, and has no analytics or tracking.