FAQ

1. What is this F.A.Q. for?

Gourmet is intended to be as intuitive to use as possible. If
you find something in gourmet counterintuitive, confusing, or
hard-to-use, I'll consider it a bug and try my best to fix it.

Although Gourmet is intended to be intuitive to use, it is not always
so. Rather than write a complete manual, I've put together a brief
list of pointers in the form of this F.A.Q., trying to focus on those
elements of Gourmet that are not as transparent to the user.

2. Getting recipes

2.a Where can I get some recipes for Gourmet?

Gourmet can easily import mealmaster and mastercook files. There are
large archives of these files available on the web -- search for the
kind of recipes you're interested in and "mealmaster" or "mastercook",
and you should find them.

Gourmet can also import recipes from websites. A very few websites
have support for automated import. In most cases, Gourmet will pop up
a window asking you to identify the title, source, ingredients,
etc. from the text of the recipe on the webpage. Then Gourmet will ask
if you want to choose any images from the webpage to associate with
the web page.

2.b. What is that funny dialog about "encoding" that comes up when I import?

There exist many different ways to "encode" the same characters. When
a recipe includes accented characters or symbols (like the degree
symbol), it is important that Gourmet choose the right encoding to
read the recipe, or all of these characters will come out wrong.

When Gourmet encounters a file with unusual characters, it limits the
possible encodings to as few choices as possible and then presents you
with a choice, showing you the file with different encodings. The
lines where the different encodings result in different characters are
highlighted yellow, so you can quickly scroll to them and see which
encoding looks right.

3. How do I do complicated searches?

By default, Gourmet does a simple search for the text you enter
anywhere. If you want to combine multiple searches, just hit return
and start typing again. For example, to search for desserts with
oranges, type "dessert", hit return, and then type "orange."

You can also type "or" to search for one thing or another.

By clicking "Show Search Options," you can further narrow your search
results, searching only in a given part of a recipe (e.g. in
ingredients). You can also turn on support for regular expressions,
which will allow programmers and others familiar with regular
expressions to do more powerful searches.

3.b Searching is too slow, what can I do?

If your computer is slow and/or your database is big, you may find that
Gourmet is sluggish when you are searching. This is because, by default,
Gourmet tries to search as you type. By clicking "Show Search Options"
and then unchecking "Search as you type," you can turn off this feature.
In this mode, you have to type "return" or click "find" to actually run
a search.

If Gourmet is still sluggish in this case, you may need to select more
specific searches instead of using the default "search anywhere" option.
For most users this should be no problem, but it is possible that with
a very large database and a slow machine, you will run into performance
problems.

4. Shopping lists

4.a. How do I create a shopping list?

There are two ways: Click on the "Shop" button in a recipe card, or,
select "Add to shopping list" from the right-click menu or the Action
menu of the index view. You can also type "Control-L" (for list) from
either view to add to the shopping list more quickly.

4.b. What is the "pantry" for?

The idea of the "pantry" list is to record ingredients that you do not
want to shop for. In my kitchen, for example, I almost never need to
buy any of the basic spices, or staples like flour, butter and sugar,
so I put them in my pantry list.

The reason these are added to a list rather than simply deleted from
your shopping list is so that you can always see what ingredients a
recipe calls for -- for the rare cases when you've run out of a staple
that's usually in your pantry.

The pantry list is *not* designed to list all the contents of your
pantry.

Only the items on your shopping list will be printed when you print a
shopping list. If you don't want something to be included on the
shopping list, drag it to your pantry list. If you do want it
included, drag it back form the pantry list to the shopping list. In
either case, Gourmet will remember what you did for next time.

4.c. How can I delete items from my shopping list?

Drag them to the pantry list. Or use the "remove from shopping list"
button on the toolbar. Or type "Control-D" while the item is selected.
The idea of the "pantry" is just a metaphor -- you should put anything
you don't want on your shopping list into the pantry list, regardless
of whether you actually have those items.

4.d. So how can I move something from my pantry back onto my shopping list.

Drag the item from the pantry list to the shopping list. Or use the
button on the toolbar. Or type "Control-B" ("B" for Back) while the
item is selected.

5. Entering and Editing recipes

5.a. How do I edit recipes

When you create a recipe card, you will see the recipe editor window,
a window with multiple tabs. Each tab allows you to edit a different
aspect of the recipe (ingredients, instrucitons, etc.)

When you open a previously created recipe, you'll see a simpler
"Recipe Card" display that puts all the information you need on one
screen. If you want to edit any part of this display, click on the
"Edit" button next to the relevant section. For example, next to the
"Ingredients" header, there's a "Edit ingredients" button which will
open the edit window on the ingredients tab.

5.b. How do I convert units?

Just edit the unit by clicking on the "unit" cell in your ingredient
list. Gourmet will then offer you a choice between simply changing the
unit and converting the item.

If you select 1/2 cup milk, for example, and change "cup" to "g.",
Gourmet will ask you whether you want to convert it (121.69 grams) or
simply change the unit (1/2 g.). Although Gourmet does know the
density of milk (allowing it to calculate this example), it can't
always do weight-to-volume conversions!

If you would like a manual unit calculator, you can activate the "Unit
Converter" plugin, which will make a handy unit calculator accessible
in the "Tools" menu.

5.c. What about OR ingredients - this ingredient OR that?

You can replicate the effect of a recipe calling for one ingredient or
another by making both of the ingredients you want to choose between
optional.

When you go to add the recipe to a shopping list, you'll be
given an option of which items to add, and you can choose.

This isn't perfect of course, because it allows you to add both or
neither ingredient, which is not what the recipe calls for! However, I
haven't thought of a more elegant way to allow for "or" items in
ingredient lists yet.

6. How do I save recipes in a menu?

Gourmet allows you to add a recipe to any other recipe as an
ingredients by pressing on the "Add recipe as ingredient" button in
the "Ingredients" tab of a recipe editor. Using this feature, you can
create a menu by creating a "New Recipe" and then adding as many
recipes as "ingredients" as you like.

You can also activate the "Shopping List Saver" plugin (under Tools)
to allow you to save everything you've added to your shopping list as
a recipe for future use.

A frequent request is to have gourmet support saving collections of
recipes as a menu or daily/weekly/monthly plan.  This has yet to be
implemented.

7. What are plugins?

Gourmet strives to provide a simple basic interface for all users
while allowing powerful features to be accessed by users who are
interested in them. Plugins in Gourmet allow access to more powerful
features.

Those plugins that are unlikely to "get in the way" of the user, such
as different import filters, are activated by default. Those plugins
that may only annoy some users, such as nutritional information, are
disabled by default. To activate or deactivate plugins, select
"Plugins" from the "Settings" menu.

Note that plugins can also fail for various reasons. Sometimes, for
example, a plugin will require another software library that you may
not have installed. Gourmet tries to give you useful information when
it encounters a situation like this. At any rate, if a plugin does not
load correctly, the rest of Gourmet should still be able to run
without issue.

8. Can I calculate nutritional information with Gourmet?

Yes! Gourmet includes a copy of the USDA nutritional database, which
has thousands of items. For now, Gourmet doesn't know about any
ingredients by default--unless you tell it about your ingredients,
Gourmet will always say it is "missing nutritional information" for
the items in your recipe. If you care about nutritional information,
click "Edit" and a new window will pop up and ask you to give it the
information it needs to calculate nutritional information, either
using the USDA database foods or entering nutritional information by
hand if necessary.

9. What are ingredient "key"s?

By default, ingredient "keys" are not shown to the user and are not
needed for Gourmet. However, users interested in advanced features,
such as customizing nutritional information or shopping lists, will
want to activate the plugins that allow for viewing and editing
ingredient keys.

Ingredient "keys" are the standardized name for an ingredient that
will go on your shopping list and, in future versions of gourmet, be
used to look up nutritional information.

An ingredient like "Tomatoes, seeded and finely chopped" should be
keyed as "tomato" or "tomato, red" -- whatever you want to appear on
your shopping list.

Standardizing keys means your shopping list can properly combine
ingredients from various recipes, understanding that "Tomatoes, seeded
and finely chopped", "ripe tomatoes", and "3 tomatoes, in slices", are
all the same thing. If this doesn't matter to you, don't worry about
making your ingredient keys standard.

9.a. Is there a fast way to fix up ingredient keys?

Yes. The "Key Editor" plugin (under "Tools") allows you to browse and search
all the ingredient keys in your database. This way, you can search for
all instances of "pepper" and standardize "pepper", "pepper, black"
and "black pepper" to one key.

You can also see what recipe different keys are used in, so that if
you see something is obviously wrong, you can go correct it.

Finally, the Key Editor allows you to easily change amounts and units
as well, either for individual instances or en masse. Using the Key
Editor, you can easily change all instances of ts. to tsp., or you
could tell it that for water, you'd like to change all instances of 1
kg. to 1 liter.

10. Can I do fancy printing with Gourmet?

When you print from Gourmet, you can choose a variety of useful settings
under the "Page Layout" tab of the print dialog.   This will allow you to
choose the format you want to print in (index cards, columns, etc.) and
the base font size you would like to use.

11. Where does Gourmet store its data (including my recipes)?

On Linux, Gourmet stores its data by default in ~/.gourmet (i.e. a hidden
subfolder of your home directory named .gourmet -- mind the dot).
On Windows, the gourmet directory (without the dot) is buried somewhere
in your user directory (normally <UserDir>\AppData\Roaming\gourmet).
If you can't find it, use Windows Explorer to search it within your user
directory.

You can change that location by use of the `--gourmet-directory` command
line option. (Try `gourmet --help` for a list of all available options.)

Also note the `--database-url` option which allows specifying an
[SQLAlchemy-style database URL](http://docs.sqlalchemy.org/en/rel_0_8/core/engines.html#database-urls)
(which by default is something like `sqlite:///~/.gourmet/recipes.db`, but
could also be e.g. `mysql://gourmetrecipe:password@localhost/gourmetrecipe`
if you're using a MySQL database, which by the way could also reside on some
remote server.)

12. How can I change the font size? On my high resolution display,
I can hardly read the text that is being displayed.

Within a Gnome environment, Gourmet respects the desktop-wide preferences.
On Windows, you can download a program that lets you tweak GTK+ settings and
change the font size. It's called "Change GTK2 Appearance" and can be found
at http://gtk-win.sourceforge.net/home/index.php/Main/GTKPreferenceTool

13. Further Questions

13.a. What if I have a good idea for how to improve Gourmet?

Please submit a an issue tagged with the 'feature-request' label (and possibly
other applicable labels) at the following website:
https://github.com/thinkle/gourmet/issues

13.b. What if I find a bug?

Please submit an issue tagged with the 'bug' label (and possibly other
applicable labels)  at the following website:
https://github.com/thinkle/gourmet/issues

13.c. What if I have a question not answered here?

Post your question in the Gourmet Help Forum here:
https://answers.launchpad.net/gourmet
Or, if for some reason that won't work, feel free to e-mail me at:
Thomas_Hinkle@alumni.brown.edu