Forum

Is there a searchable master-list/database of ingredients anywhere on EYB?  Obviously there is one in the background, but I believe it isn't searchable by EYB users (and those indexing for EYB).  I know that one can search for ingredients by searching for recipes using a given ingredient but this has limitations in the numbers thrown up.  Clicking through them to see what terms have been used, but it's rather "hit-and-miss".  Just a thought - it would be useful. 

And there are so many duplications too for ingredients where there is an ingredient as a single word, and the term again square-bracketed with an alternative (or separately with a number of different alternatives).  e.g. cilantro [coriander leaves] and cilantro [fresh coriander] (the latter I found today which better matches what I generally want); or ginger; ginger [fresh ginger]; and so on.  It would be good if the single word ingredients that were duplicated with square-bracketed alternatives could be weeded out (but I guess that would be a massive task).

I think there are over 40,000 ingredients in the database.. so I don't see any prospect of any change! It would be a phenomenal task ;-). But I could be wrong .. That said I'd love to see more than 30 in the drop downs when indexing...

RogerP - when its a double edged ingredient a technique I use is to use the last couple of letters of the first word, and first letters of 2nd word.. so for varieties of potatoes eg: "salad potatoes" - key in ad po and it brings up the 3 variants in the data base; eg:  "ia nut oi" brings up the 5 ingredients that include the words "macadamia nut oil".. as I'm no typist it seems to save effort and deliver more closely matching results! Happy indexing ;-)

There are actually 63,500 ingredients in the ingredients database. The reason for all the variations of ingredient names is that we want to match what the author listed while also making sure a search by one name also shows everything with all the linked ingredient names. And also we are now improving our automation of online recipe imports and we have to match the ingredient listed in online recipes to the ingredient in our database.

I will ask our developers if there is any way indexers could search the ingredients database more easily.

63,500 and rising! Thanks for that advice Jane!

For the record, I'm one (perhaps the only one) who wishes the ingredient lists were more detailed giving the recipe's designated variety of apple or potato or . . . if I know the requested varietal, I know whether what I have has similar characteristics. But,yes, there are times when the name most familar to me or used in the recipe is difficult to find.