Mastercook 15 Recipe PC

A very long time ago I used Mastercook and then switched over to Living Cook because their software was so much easier to utilize. Then came the day when LC disappeared and I had nearly 2K of recipes that I could not access. I read that Mastercook would convert those recipes so I bought it. Big mistake. You have to send your recipes to their customer service department if the conversion process didnt work. It didnt. What a pain!! Then came the problem of trying to simply print out a recipe onto a 5x8 card. The convoluted steps I had to go through for each recipe has completely soured me on Mastercook. The best I could do for printing is portrait and I prefer landscape. I have been so completely disgusted by this software that I no longer try to use it for collecting recipes. Why bother. I just use it for the recipes that do not have nutritional information. So I am once more looking for new software.

The current version of this program is Mastercook 2020. One of the very first things it does is ask you to upgrade. Also if you want to use the online features you have to pay into a subscription service.

This software requires ongoing investment without providing modern functionality. As other reviews have mentioned, the program looks like a relic from the 90s. I owned 8.0 and paid to “upgrade” to 15.0. There were no new features, the print layouts were still archaic, and the glitches with web imports and other basic tasks remained. In the years between 8.0 and 15.0, the only observable change was a “home” screen that allowed you to navigate between online (paid) account access and your pc. The site previously advertised free web accounts but has since changed to requiring all accounts to pay a subscription. Clearly the company has received many complaints from unhappy customers as there are repeated references to the product being non-refundable. There is no place on the site where customers can provide feedback/reviews. Further, the tech support in my experience was snippy and rude.

I love Mastercook

This is the third version of MasterCook Ive owned. I started years ago with version 4. I updated to Version 8 several years ago and now version 15 to go along with Windows 10.

I have been looking for something to replace MyRecipeBox on my iPad as I need something that has cross platform support and synchs my cookbooks between devices. I had high hopes for this product, as it has been around for many years and people seem to love it. I was utterly dismayed when I installed Mastercook 15 on my PC and launched it. The UI looks like something from the 1990s. The graphics are horrendous. It is kludgy to use, and NOT intuitive AT ALL. One would think Home would take you to your library of cookbooks, allow you to add/look up a recipe, maybe show some recent recipes that were accessed/added. You know. Those things that are the MOST COMMON, REGULAR tasks that you would want to do. But no...it takes you to a screen with links to uncommon/one time activities such as download the iOS mobile app, import from previous versions, create a Group Cookbook, and tutorials. Seriously??

This program allows you to share a group cookbook. My program doesnt work. Heres the response to my problem from the Technical Support supervisor:

This offers more possibilities and learning than previous versions. It is quite easy to use. I use it to store and share many old family favorites.

I love this product! So useful!

I originally went to MasterCook after Living Cookbook went dark would not install on Windows 10. The reason I went ot MasterCook was that they could import all of my recipes (for a fee), but since I did not want to type in the 500+ recipes again, it was a bargain. At first the program was great, but then stuff started to bug me.