Starting a New Recipe
There are two ways to create a recipe:
- On screen: Tap the Create card on the home screen.
- By voice: Say "New recipe in Ressup" to Siri - the app will walk you through it conversationally. See the Siri & Voice Commands guide for details.
Both methods open the Recipe Editor, where you'll fill in all the details.
Basic Information
At the top of the Recipe Editor, you'll find:
- Title - The name of your recipe (required).
- Description - A brief summary or personal note about the dish.
- Difficulty - Choose from Easy, Medium, Hard, or Expert.
- Total Time - Set the total cooking time using hour, minute, and second wheel pickers.
- Servings - How many portions the recipe makes.
- Test Kitchen - Toggle on to mark the recipe as in development. It appears in Home > TOOLS > Test Kitchen and can still appear under Meal Time, Dish Type, Cuisine, and A-Z based on classifications.
- Include in Cookbook - When on, the recipe is part of your curated Cookbook list under TOOLS and can be exported with Export Cookbook in Settings > Backup.
Recipe Media: Photos, Video, Audio & Plating Sketches
In the Recipe Editor, the Recipe Media section holds media for the recipe as a whole (the "hero" media) that shows the finished dish or key moments. Each media type has its own add button:
- Photos - Choose from Library or Take Photo with the camera.
- Videos - Choose from Library or Record Video with the camera.
- Audio - Open the Audio Recorder to capture a verbal tip or reminder.
- Plating Sketch - Draw how the finished plate should look (see below).
Videos must be under 50 MB to keep recipes lightweight. You can attach the same kinds of media to individual steps from the step editor's Media Attachments.
Plating Sketches
Tap Plating Sketch to open the sketch canvas. Choose a Plate outline template - Round, Oval, or None - as a guide, then draw your plating with a finger or Apple Pencil. Tap Save to attach it. Sketches appear alongside your photos in the recipe's Media, and you can reopen a sketch from the editor to keep refining it.
Classification
Classify your recipe so it's easy to find later. You can select multiple options in each category:
- Meal Times: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Snack
- Dish Types: Starter, Main, Side, Sauces, Baking, Dessert, Drink, Other
- Cuisines: Italian, Mexican, Chinese, Indian, American, Japanese, Thai, French, Greek, Mediterranean, Other
Ressup also auto-classifies recipes based on the title and ingredients, so if you skip this step, the app will make its best guess.
Tags
Add custom tags to further organize your recipes (e.g., "Weeknight Dinner," "Holiday," "Gluten-Free"). Tags appear as colored labels on the recipe detail page and can help you search and filter.
Adding Ingredients
The ingredients section lets you build your ingredient list with precise measurements. For each ingredient, you'll enter:
- Name - The ingredient name (e.g., "All-purpose flour").
- Unit - Select a measurement unit. Available units depend on your unit preference:
- Imperial: Cup, Tablespoon, Teaspoon, Ounce, Pound, Pint, Quart, Gallon, Piece, Whole, Pinch, Dash, To Taste, Custom
- Metric: Gram, Kilogram, Milliliter, Liter, Piece, Whole, Pinch, Dash, To Taste, Custom
- Amount - The quantity. The amount picker adapts to your unit:
- Imperial units show common fractions (1/4, 1/3, 1/2, 2/3, 3/4, whole numbers, and combinations like "1 1/2").
- Metric units show whole numbers.
- Descriptive units (Pinch, Dash, To Taste) don't require a numeric amount.
- Preparation - Optional preparation notes (e.g., "diced," "room temperature," "sifted").
You can reorder ingredients by dragging, and delete them by swiping left.
Linked Component Recipes
Any ingredient can point to another recipe in your library - a sauce, a dough, a spice mix, any component you make separately. In the ingredient editor, open Linked Recipe and tap Link a recipe…, then pick the recipe (a search field helps you find it). If you leave the ingredient name blank, Ressup fills it in with the linked recipe's title.
On the recipe detail page, a linked ingredient shows a tappable line beneath it (for example "Recipe · makes 4 servings") that jumps straight to the component recipe. Links are cycle-safe: a recipe that would create a loop is hidden from the picker, and if a linked recipe is later deleted the ingredient simply behaves as a normal ingredient.
Component recipes carry through the rest of the app: Cooking Mode offers to prepare them first, and shopping lists expand a component into its own ingredients automatically.
Adding Steps
Each step represents one action or stage in your recipe. For each step, you can provide:
- Instruction - What to do in this step (e.g., "Preheat the oven to 350°F").
- Cooking Method - Optional: bake, boil, fry, grill, sauté, steam, etc.
- Time - Optional: set a duration using hour, minute, and second pickers. In Cooking Mode, steps with a time show a Start Timer button that opens the timer sheet (see the Cooking Mode guide).
- Step Ingredients - Optionally associate specific ingredients from your recipe with this step, so they appear alongside the instruction in Cooking Mode.
- Photos, Videos & Audio - Attach step-specific media to show technique, expected results, or record a verbal note.
Steps are automatically numbered. You can reorder them by dragging and delete them by swiping left.
Saving Your Recipe
Tap Save in the top-right corner when you're done. The recipe will appear in the appropriate categories based on your classifications. If you leave the editor without saving, your changes will be discarded.
Editing an Existing Recipe
Open any recipe and tap the Edit button. You'll return to the same Recipe Editor with all your existing data populated. Make your changes and tap Save.
Duplicating a Recipe (Test Kitchen)
From the recipe detail page, tap Duplicate to create a Test Kitchen copy for experimentation. The copy is named with a "_tk" suffix and version number (e.g., "Banana Bread_tk1"), is marked for Test Kitchen, and appears under TOOLS > Test Kitchen while you iterate.