The recipe reel problem: ingredients you never wrote down

Recipe reels are the most saved and the least cooked. The reason is simple: the recipe is in the video, and a video is a terrible place to store a list.

What you actually need on the counter

• The ingredient list, with quantities where the creator said them.
• The steps, numbered.
• Time and serves.
• The one trick — "add the curd off the heat" — that the reel said in passing.

What we do with a recipe reel

Share it to Wanna Try and it listens to the audio, reads the on-screen text (most recipe reels put quantities on screen), and writes the recipe out: ingredients, numbered steps, time, servings, cuisine. Hindi recipes are transcribed and translated, with the original kept.

In the kitchen, open the save — it is text, so it stays readable with wet hands — and tap Cook this to add your own note for next time ("less chilli", "double the tadka").

Two habits that help

1. Tag the ones you will make on a weeknight as quick. When you ask "what can I cook in 20 minutes?", the answer comes from your own saves.
2. When you cook it, mark it Tried with a rating. A year later you will have a personal cookbook of things that worked.

Two hundred saved recipes and nothing for dinner is a solvable problem.