I’m one of the seemingly few people who doesn’t have an iPhone. While this is probably a good thing in terms of time management, it means I don’t have all those fancy apps that are actually useful, especially in the kitchen.
What I do have is a Demy.
A Demy is a recipe reader, and (after months of prodding) my husband got one for me for Christmas.* I’ve used it every time I’ve needed to refer to a recipe since then. No more wasting paper to print out a recipe. No more putting my laptop on the kitchen island and hoping I don’t get sauce all over it!
The size is great – I can easily move it from the island where I do my prep work to next to the stove while I cook. I actually haven’t spilled anything on it yet, but the pamphlet it came with says that it is easily wiped clean. Which is good, considering the potential for messes on the touch screen. It’s pretty sturdy too, with a rubber base that won’t slide around while I’m using it.
I was already a member on Key Ingredient, and once I downloaded some simple software and I hooked up the Demy to my computer, it quickly synced the recipes I had saved, into their own category. Since I plan my meals in advance, I take a little bit of time each week to add the recipes to my KI profile so I can sync them. Once they are on the Demy, the recipes are listed in alphabetical order. It does get a little tiresome to cut and paste so much, but if you happen to use a lot of recipes from Martha Stewart or Allrecipes, a little widget added to your browser will instantly add them to your KI profile with a simple click. The hard drive is very spacious, with the capability of having 2,500 recipes, an impressive amount for any collection.
It does come preloaded with 250 recipes selected by the Key Ingredient team, and to be honest, I’m not sure how I feel about this. The recipes were chosen from the user-submitted recipes on the KI site, and unfortunately it looks like not all the recipes were edited. It’s frustrating for an ingredient list to have “(I think)” next to something. Also, recipes are often accompanied with a photo – normally a great idea, as it’s good to know what your final product should look like. However, and this might just be my pet peeve, some of the photos just don’t sell the recipe. They don’t look appetizing. Apologies to anyone who thinks I’m a food photo snob! (You’re probably right, though.) Plus I feel like the recipes provided lean heavily toward sweets. There are countless recipes for cupcake variations, and while I understand the cupcake fad, just a couple recipes would have been fine. The other unfortunate thing is that selections for vegetarians are lacking. According to the FAQ online it is possible to remove them, but you need to contact customer service to do so. But of course, scrolling is so easy that it’s not a feat to ignore them.
Aside from the recipes there are a few other features I really like. There’s a 3-way timer, a measurement converter, and maybe my favorite thing: an ingredient substitution list. I never knew peanut butter and sesame oil could be used for tahini! There’s an index, but you can only search by the first letter of each recipe. It would be handy to be able to do keyword searches, but I’m not actually sure if that would be possible considering all the user-uploaded content.
If you cook a lot and do a lot of recipe referencing, the Demy might be for you. It is pricey, but considering how much I’ve already used mine since Christmas, I think it is worth it. Plus, as with any new electronic gadget, the later generations should be cheaper.
The Demy is available on Amazon.com
* Disclaimer: My husband works part-time for Key Ingredient, and he did get the Demy at a discount, but not for free.
Huh. I have never heard of this before so thanks for the thorough review. I love the idea of the ingredient substitute help but agree about the pre-loaded recipes not being such a great idea. I wonder if there is an app like that?
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