How to use the Recipe sifter

First, it should be noted that using the search bar at the top of your screen searches all recipes with one or more of those words in the title. Not in the ingredients list. Not all of the ingredients in a recipe are used in the name of the recipe so this limits your options significantly. You must use the recipe sifter in order to find recipes with ingredients that you wish to use in your cooking.

Recipezaar has thousands and thousands of recipes posted to it's database. That is just way to many to show them all to you at one time without taxing the sites servers. This is why you must use the recipe sifter to find recipes in our vast database.

I am going to use an example to show you how to use the sifter to find exactly the kind of recipes you desire. If you would like to follow along with these instructions, hold your Ctrl key down while pressing the N key to open another window to work in. You can move back and forth by clicking the tabs most likely located at the bottom of your browser near the start button. You must chose at least 2 categories to make the sifter work correctly or you will see only the newest posted recipes in any category.

Click on the purple Recipes tab at the top of your screen.

Hover your mouse over the word "Course" and move it over to "Main Dish" to chose your first category. Right now, you will see only the newest recipes because you only have one category chosen. (You can also chose to click on the "Open recipe sifter tool" and work from the sifter right from the beginning of your search.)

Now you can filter by category, ingredient, or nutrition. For this example, we will filter by category to start with. Click on the tab that says "Filter by Category" to open the sifter. Note the show and don't show boxes on the right with a number of recipes at the top. The show box has Main Dish as its first category.

Click on plus sign next to meat and then click on the word "Beef". You will now noticed beef has been added to the show box under main dish. The number of recipes has changed as well. You could view those recipes now and sort them in any way you desire using the sort by line after you have clicked on the green show recipes button at the bottom, but for this example, we are going to filter out more recipes.

Lets say that you don't wish to use eggs or fruit in your main dish, beef recipe. Click on the plus sign next to "Eggs/Dairy" to open the parent category and click on eggs. Noticed that it has been added to the show box. Click on "Fruit" to add it to the show box as well. Now click on the small green boxes with the down arrow to move both of these items to the don't show box. Note the recipe number change. You can view and sort these recipes by clicking on the green show recipe button. (If you are sifting a small number of recipes, it would be best to add and move the don't show ingredients one at a time rather then 2 at a time as I did in this example.)

Or you can decide that you want to prepare this beef main dish outdoors. Click on the plus sign next to "Equipment" and then on "Outdoor" to add it to the show box. Note the number change and view recipes if desired.

Now you have decided that you want something that is low in fat. Click the plus sign next to "Low In" in the diet section of the sifter. Now click on "Low Fat" to add it to the show box. Click on the green show recipes button to view and sort those recipes.

You now have a much smaller selection of main dish, beef recipes that do not have eggs or fruit in the ingredients list to cook outdoors and that will be low in fat to look through for your dinner.

If you manage to sift all the way down to 0 recipes, you may have to start again with less restrictions. 0 will mean that you have sifted out every single recipe with nothing left to meet your exact criteria.

Hopefully this post will give you a better idea about how to use the sifter, but if you still have questions, please don't hesitate to ask. Someone will be happy to help you.

I think you meant to say to hover the mouse over the word "Course"? This threw me for a loop for a few minutes....

Thank you! I fixed it.

This is very helpful, thank you so much. I have fiddled with this with little success but now I will be a demon sifter!
Keep smiling. Laff

If someone has posted a recipe and has not filled in many categories used in the sifter, does zaar do it for them? Otherwise using the sifter may not be as accurate as I think.

You're right about the sifter not working as effectively if the poster did not place it in as many appropriate categories as is allowed. The only ones that Recipezaar places are the low in and high in categories and the 3 steps or less and 5 ingredients or less categories as well as the time to make categories. The ingredients, cuisine, course, and ingredient categories need to be placed by the recipe poster.

If I select < 60 mins to make, does that also find the recipes that take < 30 mins and < 15 mins? In a quick test that I did, the recipes found were different in each category, which doesn't seem like the right result since both 30 mins and 15 mins are less than 60 mins.

No, but you can include all three of those time frames in your search and get the result I think you are looking for. Are you looking for recipes that are 60 minutes or less? If so, this would be the way to conduct your search using the sifter.

Great tutorial and so very helpful. Prior to this, I have been wading through until I came to something that sounded good. How great to be able to request low fat and low carb!
Thanks so much!
Susan

Oh by "sifter' you meant refining a search? I thought you were directing me to the pinnacle of culinary perfection with tastes that perform miracles. Just like the "Science Kitchen" pointed me to the delights of chocolate with blue cheese. Magic.

[quote="Reg, Reg, Chef #811648"]Oh by "sifter' you meant refining a search? I thought you were directing me to the pinnacle of culinary perfection with tastes that perform miracles. Just like the "Science Kitchen" pointed me to the delights of chocolate with blue cheese. Magic. [/quote]Hi and welcome to the forums, chef. It's lovely to meet a new friend.

I'd like to invite you to click on FAQ's and Additional Information for Recipezaar Navigation, a thread FULL of great information that will make your 'zaar experience much easier.

If you have any questions about anything, please feel free to ask. There's ALWAYS somebody around that would be happy to help.

Through no fault on your part, the # sign in your chef name negatively affects the quote function in the forums. It would be helpful if you'd edit your name to remove it. Click on MY ACCOUNT at the top of the page, make the changes you wish, scroll down and SAVE CHANGES.

That control N did not open a new screen for me something but it is probably the fault of my virus/pop-up protector So I Printed off your instructons. It was always confusing me hopefuly I will become a better sifter soon.