Butterball Cookbook Plus-Thanksgiving n Everyday Recipes

It’s hard not to think of the American Thanksgiving holiday and not also think of the trusted Butterball turkey brand. Now, Butterball has given us a reason to think of them all year long with their new Food & Drink app that came out October 20th of this year — Butterball Cookbook Plus – Recipes for Thanksgiving & Every Day Occasions. As its name title implies, this application has recipes appropriate for your Thanksgiving meal, as well as everyday recipes to please most families. Aside from the many quick and simple recipes in this app are many useful and time-saving features like theme categories to filter meal searches, a meal planner, shopping list, turkey-related articles and how-to videos for some handy turkey tips, built in timer, conversion and substitution charts, a cool exclusive “Voice Command” function — and new Free recipes added each month.

The app comes with 255 recipes initially, but I download October’s 10 free recipes once inside the app (for a total of 265) to create some tasty meals. Obviously the majority of their recipes revolve around Butterball’s turkey meat products (bacon, sausage, variety of turkey cuts, deli meat, ground, and whole turkey), but also covers additional non-meat dishes like stuffing, cranberry sauce, desserts, and more. You’ll find approximately 11 whole turkey recipes. Roast Turkey with Mediterranean Rub came up as a top-rated recipe, and personally, I try out top-rated recipes first trusting that they are “tried and true” by the majority in the community. What’s nice about this being a turkey recipe app is that you don’t have to fret about finding a good recipe for the left over turkey from Thanksgiving — there’s plenty of interesting and tempting ideas here.

Each dish comes with a prep method, difficulty level, ratings, ingredients, easy directions, and a MyNotes to add your own personal input. The App is divided into 3 main category/filter areas (Explore, Info, and bottom navigation area). You can start in the Explore area (that runs along the far left in vertical fashion), it has a search functionality as well as specific category filters to save you time: top rated, dish, product, cuisine, prep method, 9 themes, recently viewed, monthly features, and collections. All of your chosen filters show at the bottom in the “Filters Selected” area. This filter function is great because it allows you to quickly gain access to only the recipes types you’re interested in. I really like the helpful theme categories : Comfort Food, Entertaining, Game-Time Pleasers, Healthy Lifestyle, Kid-Friendly, Leftovers, Outdoor Cooking, Savor the Holidays, and Take It to Go. There are even common favorite ethnic group recipes to choose from.

I was thrilled to discover the adjustable dish serving amount (+ or -) feature to match the number of people expected for each meal, but disappointed that it doesn’t apply to all recipes, nor does it adjust quantity amounts reflected in the preparation steps for the recipe. Adding recipes to the shopping list is easy and can be viewed: By Recipe or By Ingredient. You can also add items to your shopping list. The only problem I had with the shopping list function was that I was able to add the same recipe 3 times — and it added all the same ingredients 3 times. There should be a default/automatic message alert that lets you know when a recipe has been added already — if you try to add it more than once.

A fun component to this app is the “Stir” function that mixes things up and provides random recipes based on your filter/search results. A couple of other great feature have more to do with the food prep process: when in Prepare Mode the text font enlarges for distance reading, but my favorite thing is the futuristic Voice Command function that keeps your iPad clean and your hands free by letting you speak specific commands like “Next,” “Back,” “Up,” “My Notes,” (etc.) completing your command after it’s spoken (the command flashes on the screen beforehand) — I tested those 3 commands and they worked as advertised — wish my kids listened that well.

Accessing the Bottom horizontal categories (recipes, my recipe box, meal builder, and store) allows you to do a variety of things like access all recipes, place selected recipes in your “box” as your favorites, create a meal plan by placing chosen dishes on a board for viewing, and in the Store, you’ll find new paid and free recipes each month. This month you can purchase a variety of Thanksgiving menu packs: Gluten-Free, Gourmet, New Cooks, and Traditional Thanksgiving menu, but they will cost you an additional $0.99 each. Just remember, anything you need to know about this app can be discovered in the information area icon (top left) which hides a ton of useful information like Conversions, Substitutions, Shopping List, Timers, How-To Videos, Articles, and About.

I might normally balk at the $4.99 app price for Butterball Cookbook Plus – Recipes for Thanksgiving & Every Day Occasions since there are recurring in app purchases each month, but it does have 265 recipes to start, with additional ones that can be downloaded each month. I think its a great Thanksgiving or everyday recipe app for simple and easy-to-make recipes that won’t break the bank. The addition of a couple of things would really take this (iPhone and iPad) app from really good to really great like a suggested sides to create whole meal plans and a serving converter for all recipes that would also adjust amounts in the direction/prep area. Overall, I’d say the recipes are comforting and good homemade dishes, but definitely not gourmet — and that’s what makes it relatable to the practical-everyday-down-to-earth family.