How do I find recipes based on ingredients I already have?

In Fam to Table, open the 'What can I make?' search from your recipe library, enter the ingredients you have on hand, and the app matches them against your saved recipes. Exact matches (you have everything) appear first. Close matches (missing one or two common items) appear second. All results are filtered by your household's allergy profiles.

Can I search for recipes by ingredients I have at home?

Yes. The ingredient search in Fam to Table lets you enter what you have available and returns the recipes from your library that best match those ingredients. It searches your personal recipe collection, not a generic database, so results are things you've already decided you want to make.

What's the difference between an exact match and a close match?

An exact match is a recipe where you have every ingredient on the list. A close match is a recipe where you're missing one or two items — typically common pantry staples or easy substitutes. Exact matches are ranked first so you can cook something right now without a store run. Close matches are useful when you're willing to grab one or two things.

Does the ingredient search account for food allergies?

Yes. Results from the ingredient search are automatically filtered through each household member's allergy and dietary restriction profiles. A recipe that contains an allergen for any household member won't appear in the results, the same way it would be flagged during regular meal planning.

Why does the ingredient search use my own recipe library instead of a general database?

Generic ingredient-to-recipe databases surface recipes you've never seen and ingredients you may not know how to work with. Searching your own library surfaces meals you've already decided your household will eat, using recipes you trust. The results are immediately actionable — you know what the dish tastes like, how long it takes, and whether your family will eat it.

Find Recipes Based on Ingredients You Already Have

It's 5pm. You open the fridge, take stock, and then spend 20 minutes on Google trying to figure out if the chicken thighs, half a can of coconut milk, and that wilting bunch of cilantro can become something edible. The problem isn't the ingredients — it's finding a recipe you actually trust that uses what's already there.

Generic recipe databases will give you something. It might not be a recipe you've cooked before, for a dish your family will eat, with techniques you're comfortable with. The Fam to Table ingredient search works differently: it matches what you have against recipes already in your personal library — dishes you've saved because you want to make them.

How the matching works

You enter the ingredients you have available. The app compares that list against the ingredient lists of every recipe in your household library and returns two tiers of results:

Exact match

You have everything

Every ingredient in the recipe is on your available list. Cook it tonight with no store run required.

Close match

Missing one or two items

The recipe needs one or two ingredients you don't have — usually pantry staples or easy substitutes worth grabbing.

Exact matches come first. Results are also filtered through your household's allergy and dietary restriction profiles, so anything that conflicts with any household member's restrictions doesn't surface at all.

How to use it

Build your recipe library first. The ingredient search works against your own saved recipes, not a public database. Import recipes by pasting a URL from any recipe site — Serious Eats, NYT Cooking, a food blog — and the ingredients are extracted automatically. The more recipes in your library, the more the search can find. Even 20 or 30 recipes makes it genuinely useful.
Open "What can I make?" From the recipe library tab, tap the ingredient search. This brings up the ingredient entry interface.
Enter what you have. Type ingredients and select from the autocomplete suggestions. Don't aim for exhaustive — enter the proteins, produce, and specific items you're trying to use. Pantry staples like oil, salt, and garlic are better left off the list since they're in almost every recipe.
Review the results. Exact matches at the top, close matches below. Tap any recipe to see the full details, including which ingredients you have and which ones you're missing.
Add it to your plan. From the recipe detail view, add the meal directly to a day on your household calendar. It goes straight to the plan without any extra steps.

Why it searches your library, not the whole internet

A generic ingredient search returns recipes from sources you've never cooked from, with techniques you may not be comfortable with, for dishes your family may not recognize. There's no signal for whether the recipe is reliable or whether your household will eat it.

Your personal library contains recipes you've already vetted. You know how they turn out, how long they take, and whether your family will actually sit down to eat them. Searching that library first means the results are immediately actionable — not a starting point for further research.

When it works best

The ingredient search pays off most on two occasions: mid-week when you're trying to use up what's in the fridge before it goes bad, and the nights when you don't have a plan and need something fast. For planned meals, you're better off browsing by recipe or using the weekly calendar. For spontaneous cooking, the ingredient search is the right starting point.