I had this idea almost 20 years ago now. Wouldn't it be nice if I could just describe what's in my pantry or fridge and get recipes matching what I already have to cook? Fast Forward to 2026 when I can make that a reality without spending $25K. Recently I thought, with the advancements in AI and especially with the upcoming IOS 27 AI implementation, I bet we could take a picture of it and get ingredients to match with. Sure enough, you can....if you want to spend a fortune on the calls. Very soon, Apple will make that on device capable. At any rate, I decided to begin my journey and here it is. One of the really useful features I found was being able to snap a pic of your existing hand written recipes and get really nicely formatted instructions and ingredients. Grandma's handwriting never stood a chance! Don't forget to try out the cocktail recipe generator! That was a fun addition along the way. Many updates planned in the near future as well! Merlin's Pantry is an iPhone app answering the question "what can I make with what's in my kitchen?" Pick a category, add your ingredients by typing them or dictating them and get recipes ranked by percent match — 100% "cook now" matches first, then near-misses showing exactly which ingredients you're missing. Missing items go to a shareable shopping list. It also matches cocktails from the same pantry, imports physical recipe cards by photo, and can synthesize a recipe when nothing quite fits. Happy to answer any questions here.

Merlin's Pantry

Recipes from your ingredients

Recipes from your ingredients