Using the Bookmarklet

The Bookmarklet adds a recipe from almost any website to your Bookshelf. Sign in to Eat Your Books first, then install it once for your browser.

Installing it on a computer

Turn on your browser's bookmarks bar, go to your home page, and drag the "Add to EYB Recipes" button up to the bar. If you don't see the button, zoom out to 90%. This works in Chrome and every other major browser.

Installing it on a phone or tablet

There's no one-tap way to install a bookmarklet on a phone, but this works. The CookShelf app does the same job natively, so if you have the app you don't need any of this.

1. Turn JavaScript on in your browser's settings, usually under Advanced.
2. Make your bookmarks or favorites bar visible, also in settings.
3. Bookmark any Eat Your Books page. You're only doing this to create a bookmark you can edit.
4. Copy the code below.
5. Open your bookmarks, edit the one you just made, rename it to "Add to EYB Recipes", and paste the code into the URL field.

On Android, check the pasted URL after you save. Android often rewrites "javascript:" at the front to "https://", and you'll need to change it back.

Copy this:

javascript:(function()%20{%20window.open('https://www.eatyourbooks.com/bookshelf/add-online-recipe?url='+encodeURIComponent(window.location.href),'_blank','location=no,links=no,scrollbars=yes,toolbar=no,status=no,menubar=no,width=1040,height=800');%20})();

On an iPad or iPhone, step by step

1. Copy the code above.
2. Go to Settings, then Safari, and turn on "Always show Favorites Bar".
3. Back in Safari, on any EYB page, tap the arrow or + next to the address bar.
4. Tap Add Bookmark.
5. Tap the folder field at the bottom, which usually shows Bookmarks, and choose Bookmark Bar.
6. Tap Save.
7. Open your bookmarks, edit that bookmark, rename it "Add to EYB Recipes", and replace the URL with the code you copied.

Using it on a phone

1. Make sure you're signed in to Eat Your Books.
2. On the recipe page you want to add, tap the bottom of the screen to bring up the icon bar, then tap the open book icon.
3. Tap the "Add to EYB Recipes" bookmark.
4. The indexing form pops up. Complete it and save.

Using it

When you're on a recipe you like, click the Bookmarklet. The Eat Your Books indexing form pops up pre-filled with what we can read from the page, usually the name and photo. Complete it and save.

Recipes added this way go into the EYB Library and are visible to all members once we've proofread them, which can take up to 24 hours. To keep one private, add it as a Personal Recipe instead.

What goes in each field

A recipe you add this way joins the EYB Library, where every member can find it, so it needs to be categorized the way we categorize everything else. Keep the recipe types and book categories list and the ingredient shortcut codes open while you work. Every field on the form also has a ? beside it that explains it in place.

Recipe title

1. Use the recipe name only. Delete anything else the page put in the title, like the name of the blog.
2. Capitalize the first word, proper nouns, and ingredients that carry a capital in our ingredient list, like Parmesan and Gorgonzola. Nothing else.
3. Use accents if the source does, and don't if it doesn't. On a Mac, hold a letter key down to get its accented forms. On Windows, press Windows key + full stop and switch to the symbols tab. Watch where you put them: "pâte" is pastry and "pâté" is meat paste.

Recipe types

1. A dish can take more than one. Egg salad is Egg dishes and Salads.
2. Plain meat, poultry, and fish main dishes often have no recipe type at all.

Ethnicities

1. Pick the most specific one that fits. Spicy Szechuan chicken is Chinese, not Asian.
2. Some dishes carry a default: yakitori is Japanese, gumbo is Cajun & Creole.
3. If a place is in the name, use it. "Latin American" means both South American and Central American; a US city or state means North American.
4. Dishes eaten everywhere, like omelets, pizza, and quiche, get no ethnicity unless the recipe names a place.

Courses

1. Follow the author. "Serves 4 as an appetizer" means Appetizers / starters.
2. Meat, poultry, fish, and pasta dishes all take Main course.
3. Anything you wouldn't serve on its own gets no course: sauces, doughs, frostings, dressings, marinades.

Occasions

1. A season, holiday, or event in the name counts: "Spring vegetable soup," "Halloween cake."
2. Serves 10–12 or more is Cooking for a crowd.
3. Cooking ahead means most or all of the work can be done in advance.
4. Skip Seasonal, which applies to books rather than recipes.

Nutrition

1. Add one only if it's in the recipe name, the author mentions it, or the section is dedicated to it. We follow what the author says rather than setting our own standards.
2. Mark Vegetarian when there's no meat, fish, poultry, or product of animal slaughter, including stock, anchovies, bacon bits, lard, fish sauce, oyster sauce, Worcestershire sauce, rennet, and gelatin.
3. Mark Vegan when there's also no egg, dairy, or honey. Everything vegan is also vegetarian.
4. Only mark Vegetarian on things that could have contained meat. Drinks, desserts, breads, dressings, and afternoon tea items don't need it.
5. Skip General health conditions, which applies to books rather than recipes.

Ingredients

Index every food ingredient in the recipe apart from salt and water. Not ice, and not equipment.

1. Type at least three characters and the first 30 matches appear. Scroll to the one you want, or keep typing until it reaches the top, then press Enter. Check that it moved out of the box and into the list above with an (x) beside it, because until it does that it isn't added.
2. The database holds more than 70,000 ingredients, so search properly before deciding one is missing. If there's genuinely no match, take the closest one.
3. Fruit and vegetables are entered as plurals, under the generic name rather than the cultivar.
4. Bittersweet and semisweet chocolate are both dark chocolate. Fresh citrus juice and zest are indexed as the fruit: lemons, limes.
5. Herbs default to fresh, with the dried version listed separately. Oregano is the exception and means the dried herb.
6. Spices default to ground, with the whole version listed separately. Ginger is the exception and means fresh root, with ground ginger separate.
7. Regional and spelling variations are linked to a master ingredient and show in square brackets: zucchini [courgette]. Pick it and both names display.

Photos

If the page has a photo we can read, it arrives on the form already. Where several arrive, keep the one that best shows the finished dish. If you can see a photo on the page but none came through, the page is built in a way we can't copy from, so say so in Indexer notes and we'll try to add it.

Author

Enter the author if the recipe is attributed to one. Staff writers on magazines don't need attributing. If an author should be in our database and isn't, email info@eatyourbooks.com.

Indexer notes

Anything another member needs to know before they start cooking.

1. Long advance preparation: "requires marinating overnight."
2. Variations in the recipe: "see recipe for vegetarian variation."
3. Substitutions the author offers: "whole wheat flour can replace rye, raisins can replace currants."

Bookmarks

Your own bookmarks are private, so they don't stand in for the EYB categories. If you bookmark something as "Soups," still give it the Soups recipe type. See Using Bookmarks.