Find recipes and plan menus on the iPad with BigOven

The iPad is an ideal tool to use when cooking as it is easy to prop up in the kitchen and there are even wall mountings available. BigOven is a useful app for searching for recipes and making menus and shopping lists.

Recipes on Big Oven can be searched for by title, keyword, ideas or leftovers. The ideas and leftover options show a variety of ingredients or courses.

The recipes are well laid out with a clear list of ingredients, portions and calories per serving. You can't zoom the instructions with a pinch gesture but there are buttons to change the size of the text at the top of the screen.

The share icon for recipes contains lots of different tools including an option to view ingredients as metric. This is helpful as most American recipes include measurements in cups.

Registration on the BigOven website is required to use some of the functions in the app. There is no cost to set up an account and this can be done from within the app. It is possible to sign up with Facebook or via email confirmation. When using Facebook it requires your email address and activities. It is also possible to set who will be able to see posts from BigOven on Facebook by groups, or just yourself if you want to use the convenience of logging in this way without sharing your cooking habits.

If you choose to log in without Facebook, you will need to supply a username and email address as well as create a password.

There is a pro version of BigOven that has a more flexible grocery list and removes the adverts. This costs US$2 a month or US$20 a year and there is the option to take a two month trial.