WEB: EatYourBooks.com

Ever wished you could search through the cookbooks on your shelf the same way you can scan the web for recipes? Now you can, with the help of newly launched website EatYourBooks.com. They’ve indexed over 15,000 cookbooks on their site – you select the ones you own and add them to your virtual bookshelf. From that point on, you can search for recipes and information contained in your cookbooks through your EYB account. The site doesn’t reproduce the text, recipes or images from the books – it directs you to the exact pages in the book you already own. If you search for “beef,” it will show you all the recipes in all of your cookbooks that use beef and where to find them. Click on a recipe, and it gives you a list of the ingredients you’ll need for that particular dish, so shopping lists are a snap. You can search your cookbooks from the office, pick a recipe, generate a shopping list of ingredients, then follow the recipe in the actual book once you’re in your kitchen. The cost is pretty reasonable – $25 a month or $50 for lifetime membership. The only downside is any disparity between the books you own and the ones they’ve indexed. A lot of cooks I know (myself included) pride themselves on unique, second-hand, out-of-print books, so chances are you’ll find some annoying omissions in the EYB index. However, they do offer a free trial, so you can check the index yourself to see how well it matches up with your own collection.