Pantry/fridge discovery, using ingredients before they are forgotten, reducing repeated recipe browsing, and choosing among RecipeWanted recipes without asking an AI to invent a new dish.
RecipeWanted Resources
Pantry ingredients → existing RecipeWanted recipes
Cook With What You Have Finder
Enter ingredients you already have, ingredients you want to use, known missing items and hard exclusions. The finder deterministically ranks existing published RecipeWanted recipes from a pre-built WP Delicious Recipe Index, explains what matched and what may still be needed, and never generates a replacement recipe.
Existing recipes onlyIngredient coverageExplainable rankingNo runtime AI
Interactive ResourceRuns without sending your entries to RecipeWanted.
Quick start
Before you start
Turn a real ingredient list into a ranked shortlist of existing RecipeWanted recipes, with visible ingredient coverage, known missing items, major-missing heuristics and optional taxonomy preferences.
List the ingredients you actually have. Add any ingredient you specifically need to use, known missing items you want strongly penalised, and any ingredients you do not want results to contain. Optional cuisine, course and cooking-method filters come from the indexed RecipeWanted corpus.
Ranked published RecipeWanted recipes with direct links, matched ingredients, missing ingredients, a transparent coverage score, preference matches and a short explanation of why each recipe ranked where it did.
Ranked existing recipesIngredient coverageMissing-item listPreference matchesDirect recipe linksLocal save / Copy / CSV / Print
Examples for home cooking and teaching
Choose a relevant example and check the assumptions before using it in your kitchen or lesson.
Use what is already in the fridge
Enter chicken, tomatoes, onions and rice. The finder ranks published RecipeWanted recipes by the proportion of indexed ingredients your list already covers.
Make one ingredient non-negotiable
Put an ingredient under Must use. Recipes that do not contain that indexed ingredient are removed before ranking.
Keep a known missing item visible
Add an ingredient under Known missing. Recipes can still appear when the search is exploratory, but that ingredient receives a strong deterministic penalty and is shown clearly in the result.
Use this againReturn after shopping, before a use-first ingredient expires, when a freezer/pantry ingredient needs using, or when you want a different cuisine/course from the same available ingredients.
Save one finder setup locally in this browser, reload it later, or delete it. My Resources may detect only that the known local key exists; it does not copy your ingredient list into a central profile.
Practical shortcut: The finder separates “have”, “must use”, “known missing” and “exclude” so a visitor can explore realistically without pretending every missing ingredient is equally important or every exclusion is an allergen test.
Trust & safety at a glance
Use the result for the decision it was built to support
A high match score means more indexed recipe ingredients match the visitor’s entered ingredient identities under the current deterministic method. It does not prove the recipe is safe, suitable, complete or guaranteed to work with substitutions.
Ingredient-name recipe discovery with explicit exclusion limits7 subject references · Reference register provided below; no current review date is asserted for this route.
Rank published RecipeWanted recipes by deterministic ingredient-name coverage and optional recipe taxonomy preferences.
Not an allergen checker, dietary/medical suitability engine, food-safety decision, nutrition assessment, product-label substitute or recipe generator.
Recipe matching itself is general. Ingredient naming, packaged-product composition, allergen declarations and dietary rules vary by product and jurisdiction.
Published RecipeWanted recipe metadata is pre-indexed server-side. Visitor ingredient lists and saved finder settings stay in the browser and are not sent to the Recipe Index or aggregate analytics endpoint. Recipe ranking is independent of commercial inventory. Affiliate, sponsor and Resource Card state cannot change recipe inclusion, score, filters or result order.
When to stop and verify:For allergies, diagnosed intolerances, clinical diets or formal food-business controls, verify the complete current recipe/product information and the appropriate professional or official guidance rather than relying on this name-based finder.
Privacy scope: this describes the working-data behaviour of this Resources tool only. Site-level cookies, analytics, consent and other storage/access technologies remain governed by RecipeWanted’s wider privacy/CMP configuration and applicable law.
Source scope: external authorities and specialist references support specific information; linking to them does not mean they have reviewed, approved or endorsed RecipeWanted.
How this Resource reaches its result
MethodDeterministic published-recipe ingredient-coverage ranker
A pre-built index contains only published RecipeWanted recipe records that expose readable WP Delicious ingredient settings. Visitor entries are normalised through a conservative ingredient-identity map; must-use and exclusion gates run first, then ingredient coverage, explicit known-missing penalties, major-missing heuristics and optional taxonomy preferences produce a stable score.
Can it be reproduced?Deterministic under this version
The same recipe collection and ingredient choices produce the same result order. Updating a recipe or the collection can change the matches.
Evidence7 registered references · RecipeWanted review UNREVIEWED
Recipe ingredient identity comes from RecipeWanted’s published WP Delicious recipe settings and WordPress recipe/taxonomy records. WP Delicious documentation describes recipe ingredients as structured quantity, unit, ingredient-name and note fields. RecipeWanted owns the ranking weights, index rules and safety boundaries.
IndependenceNo paid or analytics influence over the result
No runtime AI, advertisement, affiliate destination, sponsor inventory or aggregate analytics signal can change the index contents, score or order. No runtime AI generates recipes or ranks finder results.
Uncertainty stays explicit: Ingredient names can be ambiguous; brands and formulations vary; recipe metadata can change; generic name matching cannot establish allergen, dietary, nutritional or food-safety suitability. “Major missing” is an explicit ordering/title heuristic, not a claim of culinary indispensability.
Evidence reference: RWRES-6CB03150EAB9A459 — a RecipeWanted integrity/reference fingerprint for this release evidence set, not certification or third-party endorsement.
Report a factual or method concern if a source conflicts with the tool, a calculation appears wrong, or a boundary needs review.
Existing RecipeWanted recipes only
Turn ingredients on hand into an explainable recipe shortlist
This finder does not ask an AI to invent a dish. It matches your ingredients against published RecipeWanted recipes and shows which ingredients are still missing. Open the recipe to check the full ingredients and method before cooking.
Tell it what you actually have
Use commas or new lines. The finder normalises a conservative set of genuine ingredient-name synonyms but does not treat substitutions as the same ingredient.
Separate constraints from preferences
Must use is a hard gate. Known missing is a visible penalty. Exclude is a hard name filter. Cuisine/course/method are small preference boosts.
See what is still missing
Every result shows matched and missing indexed ingredients. “Major missing” is only an explicit first-three/title heuristic — not a claim that an ingredient is chemically or culinarily indispensable.
Open the real published recipe
Results always link to the existing RecipeWanted recipe. No result is generated, rewritten or silently altered by the finder.
Ingredient-first recipe finder
What can I cook with what I have?
Start broad, then tighten the result if needed. Your ingredient entries stay in this browser; using the finder does not change any published recipe.
635 published recipes indexed · 1036 ingredient identitiesIndex updated 2026-10-10 13:09:13 · searches and ranking run locally in this browser.
Enter at least one ingredient you have, then run the finder.
How ranking works
A match score should be understandable, not magical
Recipes are not ranked by popularity, advertising value or an AI’s opinion. The current score is a transparent ingredient-coverage model with deliberately small preference adjustments.
Ingredient coverage carries most weight
Up to 70 points come from the share of a recipe’s indexed ingredient identities that match the ingredients you entered as available, must-use or explicitly selected pantry basics.
Hard rules happen before scoring
A recipe missing a Must use ingredient is removed. A recipe containing a hard Exclude ingredient is removed. Your selected missing-ingredient limit is also a hard gate.
Known missing stays visible
A known-missing ingredient costs six points. You can optionally make this a hard hide rule when you only want recipes that avoid every known-missing item.
Preferences are intentionally small
Cuisine, course and cooking method are worth five points each. They can refine a close match but cannot outweigh a much poorer ingredient fit.
What the result means
Ingredient matching and recipe suitability are not the same claim
The finder answers a narrow question: which published RecipeWanted recipes best overlap with the ingredient identities you entered? Several important decisions remain outside that calculation.
Names are not product specifications
“Milk”, “stock”, “soy sauce” or “bread” can have different formulations and allergen declarations between products. An ingredient-name match cannot inspect a package label.
Exclude is not allergen-safe
A hard exclusion checks indexed ingredient names only. It cannot establish cross-contact, compound ingredients, manufacturer changes or absence of an allergen.
Missing does not mean substitutable
A missing ingredient may be optional, easy to replace or structurally essential. Use the published recipe and Ingredient Substitution Finder rather than assuming the recipe can simply omit it.
Recipe settings remain the source
If a published recipe’s WP Delicious ingredient metadata cannot be read under the current contract, the recipe is omitted from the finder rather than guessed from prose or search snippets.
Practical questions
Cook With What You Have FAQ
Does the finder create a new recipe from my ingredients?
No. The finder ranks recipes already published on RecipeWanted. If no indexed recipe is a useful fit, it says so rather than generating or rewriting a dish.
What is the difference between “Must use” and “Ingredients I have”?
Ingredients I have improves coverage. Must use is a hard eligibility rule: every result must contain every indexed must-use ingredient you enter.
What does “Known missing” do?
It records an ingredient you know is unavailable. A recipe containing that ingredient receives a deterministic penalty and shows it clearly; you can also choose to hide those recipes completely.
What does “Exclude from results” guarantee?
Only that recipes whose indexed ingredient identities match the excluded name are removed. It does not establish allergen, dietary, religious, medical or product-specific suitability.
Can I require a recipe with no missing indexed ingredients?
Yes. Choose Exact indexed match. That mode allows zero missing indexed ingredient identities, while still leaving product labels, quantities, substitutions, technique and safety decisions to the full published recipe.
What is a “major missing” ingredient?
It is a transparent ranking heuristic: an ingredient is flagged when it appears among the first three indexed ingredients or overlaps with the recipe title. It is not a claim that the ingredient is always essential.
Why does “cilantro” match “coriander” but a substitute does not automatically match?
The identity map contains conservative naming synonyms, including common UK/US naming differences. It intentionally avoids treating culinary substitutions as the same ingredient, because substitution is a separate recipe decision.
Why does the finder say one of my ingredient names is not recognised in the current index?
The browser compares your normalised ingredient identity with identities present in the current published Recipe Index. An unrecognised entry is not guessed into a different ingredient; use a more specific/common recipe ingredient name or continue knowing that entry does not add coverage.
Are my ingredient entries saved to my RecipeWanted account?
No. Working inputs stay in this browser. Save/Load uses the preserved bounded localStorage key on this device only, and Delete removes that saved setup.
Why might a published recipe be missing from the finder?
A recipe can only be matched when its ingredient information is readable and up to date. If the tool cannot verify that information, it leaves the recipe out rather than guessing.
Method & source register
What the finder actually relies on
The ranking method is RecipeWanted-owned and deterministic. These sources document the recipe-data and WordPress lifecycle surfaces used to build and keep the read-only Recipe Index current.
Published RecipeWanted recipe corpus / Recipe Search
Primary content authority: only published RecipeWanted recipe records are eligible for the finder index and results; Recipe Search is the confirmed public fallback when no eligible indexed result fits.
Open Recipe Search →How to add Recipe Ingredients?
WP Delicious documents recipe ingredient fields including quantity, unit, ingredient name and notes. Tool 12 reads the structured ingredient-name layer from RecipeWanted recipe settings and does not infer missing ingredients from prose.
Open source →save_post_{$post->post_type} hook
WordPress post-type save lifecycle reference supporting bounded incremental refresh when RecipeWanted recipe records are saved.
Open source →updated_{$meta_type}_meta hook
WordPress metadata lifecycle reference supporting refresh when the WP Delicious structured recipe-settings record changes.
Open source →Post Status Transitions
WordPress publication-state lifecycle reference supporting deterministic inclusion/removal when a recipe changes between published and non-public states.
Open source →set_object_terms hook
WordPress taxonomy lifecycle reference supporting refresh when recipe cuisine, course, cooking-method, recipe-key or dietary taxonomy terms change.
Open source →WP_Query class
WordPress query reference underpinning the bounded administrator rebuild. Public finder searches do not run a corpus WP_Query; they use the pre-built non-autoloaded Recipe Index.
Open source →Continue the workflow
Found a recipe? Finish the decision cleanly
Tool 12 stops at recipe discovery. Use the next Resource only when that separate task is genuinely needed.
Ingredient Substitution Finder
A strong recipe is missing one item? Check a function- and context-based substitution before changing the published recipe.
Open Resource →Recipe ScalerOnce you choose a recipe, scale the published quantities to the yield you actually need.
Open Resource →Recipe Cost CalculatorCost the chosen recipe using package prices and quantities you actually enter; RecipeWanted does not invent grocery prices.
Open Resource →Meal Planning ToolsGive the selected recipe a place in the week so use-first ingredients, leftovers and shopping decisions stay coordinated.
Open Resource →Continue across RecipeWanted
Use the next route for the next question
Related Resources handle the next practical job. The ecosystem handoffs add another useful format when a visual, video, current update, longer article or wider recipe browse answers something different. Cooking Education remains the deeper teaching layer.
01Ingredient Substitution Finder
If a strong recipe is missing one ingredient, check whether a context-appropriate substitution is realistic before changing the recipe.
Open related Resource → 02Recipe ScalerOnce you choose a recipe, scale the published ingredient quantities to the yield you actually need.
Open related Resource → 03Recipe Cost CalculatorIf cost matters, use prices you actually pay to calculate the chosen recipe rather than relying on invented grocery prices.
Open related Resource → 04Meal Planning ToolsPut the chosen recipe into a weekly plan so ingredients, leftovers and use-first food have a destination.
Open related Resource → 05Ingredient GuidesOpen the related Cooking Education route for deeper method and explanation.
06Ingredient SubstitutionsOpen the related Cooking Education route for deeper method and explanation.
07Meal Planning & PrepOpen the related Cooking Education route for deeper method and explanation.
08Search RecipesApply the tool or decision inside a complete RecipeWanted dish.
Legal, privacy & fair-use notice
Free Resources, with clear limits and clear data boundaries.
RecipeWanted Resources provides general cooking information, deterministic calculations, planning aids and reference tools. It is not legal, medical, dietetic, allergy, regulatory or other professional advice, and it does not replace product labels, manufacturer instructions, competent-authority guidance or qualified professional advice where those are needed.
Each tool explains how it handles your entries. This Resources analytics dataset does not retain recipe or ingredient names, pantry lists, allergy, dietary or health information, other free text, exact quantities, visitor/session/account IDs, IP addresses, user-agent strings or referrer URLs.
This Resources statistics layer is currently enabled and records only allowlisted aggregate interaction and coarse workflow/build-shape counters. Daily aggregate buckets are retained for up to 730 days. Aggregate results are for RecipeWanted/QHE internal RecipeWanted service improvement only; they are not sold or used by this layer for advertising measurement, individual profiling or cross-site tracking.
Any reasonable fair-use or availability rules for free tools are separate from privacy law. Access is not conditional on participating in Resources analytics, and “fair use” is not treated as consent or as a legal basis for collecting personal data. On instrumented Resources pages, the usage-statistics panel provides a simple, free objection control.
Wider site/infrastructure scope: ordinary hosting, security, caching, firewall, consent-management or server-log systems may process technical request information outside the Resources aggregate dataset. Those systems remain governed by RecipeWanted’s wider privacy/CMP arrangements and published privacy information. This Resources notice does not claim that every web request is anonymous.
External authorities linked elsewhere in Resources support specific facts or methods; their inclusion does not mean they approve or endorse RecipeWanted. If a higher-consequence decision is uncertain, stop and verify it with the appropriate current source.First-party usage statistics
Help RecipeWanted learn what is actually useful
Resources records aggregate usage statistics such as qualified tool views, whether a working surface is started, route-level value actions, coarse read depth, broad workflow/build-shape buckets and which non-commercial RecipeWanted handoffs are used. Build-shape signals are deliberately coarse (for example, a small/medium/large row-count bucket or a selected calculator mode): RecipeWanted does not send the recipe name, ingredient list, pantry items, allergen/dietary choices, free text or exact quantities to this analytics dataset; it does not create a visitor/session ID; and it does not store IP addresses, user-agent strings or referrer URLs in the analytics dataset.
Purpose: help RecipeWanted/QHE decide which free tools, workflows, supporting content and first-party integrations to improve next. Aggregate statistics may be reviewed internally across QHE only for that same RecipeWanted service-improvement purpose. They are not sold and are not used by this layer for advertising measurement, cross-site tracking or individual profiling. Free access is not conditional on this measurement: opting out does not disable or reduce any Resource tool.
What is counted and retained?
Allowed counters include 5-second qualified views, 30 seconds of visible engagement, 50%/90% read depth, first working-surface use, selected non-commercial feature/export/continuity actions, hub task choices, broad allowlisted workflow/build-shape buckets and RecipeWanted internal/ecosystem handoffs. Counts are merged directly into UTC daily buckets and retained for up to 730 days under the current admin setting. The only browser preference this layer writes is the first-party objection cookie after you choose to opt out; removing the objection deletes that preference. This describes the Resources aggregate dataset only; ordinary hosting, security, caching, firewall, consent-management or server-log systems remain governed separately by RecipeWanted’s wider privacy/CMP arrangements.
Privacy informationYou can object simply and free of charge at any time. The preference applies only to this first-party Resources statistics layer.
Next step
Use the tool, then get back to cooking.
Resources should remove friction around the task rather than become another layer to manage.
