cooking

What it’s really like to cook with Apple Vision Pro

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Screenshot of a recipe for pizzelles floating in a kitchen
Just look over to the right to see the recipe.
Photo: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac

If you’re addicted to your Vision Pro, with your apps floating around you all the time, you’ll have to cook yourself dinner at some point. After all, you may not be able to afford to eat out after buying one. Cooking with Vision Pro offers some fun surprises, but it’s not all gravy.

There are obvious upsides. Placing timers around your kitchen and having easy access to a recipe floating nearby seem incredibly convenient rather than fiddling with your iPhone. This is what I was most excited to try out.

But the downsides snuck up on me. I had a hard time reading my measuring spoons, nor could I tell apart my sugar from my flour. But worst of all, trying to lick the cookie dough off a large whisk without smearing the Vision Pro proved impossible.

Check out our YouTube video or keep reading below.

You won’t find this $140 BOGO chef’s knife set on Amazon

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You won’t find this $140 BOGO chef's knife set on Amazon.
Get two high-end Japanese chef's knife sets for the price of one with this pre-Prime Day discount.
Photo: Cult of Mac Deals

If you have a passion for cooking, then you don’t have to debate whether or not it’s worth investing in quality tools.

capable and high-quality knife set is a great place to start. Luckily, you don’t have to wait for Prime Day to score savings on new, much-needed kitchen artillery. During Deal Days, our version of Prime Day, you can grab this exclusive buy-one-get-one (BOGO) deal on this eight-piece Seido Japanese knife set with gift boxes for only $139.99 (regularly $429). Act fast since this deal only lasts until July 14 at 11:59 p.m. Pacific!

6 things to do when you’re stuck at home in self-quarantine

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prison cell bars
Feeling locked up?
Photo: Denny Müller/Unsplash

Has the government in your city or country shut down everything due to COVID-19? Are the bars, gyms and other nonessential places closed? Are you stuck at home, cooped up with nothing but Facebook and Twitter to fan the flames of your outrage and fear?

Don’t worry. There are plenty of things to do at home. Why not take advantage of all that extra time and use it for something you enjoy?

How to run multiple cooking timers with Shortcuts

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Yum. Perfectly timed.
Yum. Perfectly timed.
Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac

“Hey Siri, 30-minute timer!” you shout across the kitchen, elbows deep in turkey gizzards. Only Siri isn’t interested. It’s already running that one-hour timer for the roast potatoes. Why would anybody want to run multiple timers at the same time? Silly human.

Thankfully, Shortcuts is here to save your bacon (and your Brussel’s sprouts, sage-and-onion stuffing, and so on). If you’re feeling fancy, you could even set this up to use with Siri, but today we’ll keep it simple. So, no matter how complex your Christmas Day cooking arrangement, Shortcuts will let you know when your goose is cooked.

Paprika makes your iPad a kitchen sidekick [50 Essential iOS Apps #31]

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Paprika on iPad with kitchen items around
Following recipes is easy and convenient with Paprika.
Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac

50 Essential iOS Apps: PaprikaHave you ever decided to make dinner, only to find the recipe has gone missing. Sometimes it’s a misplaced notecard, other times, a saved (or pinned) link that is now dead. With Paprika, your favorite recipes are stored digitally, and you’re in control. As someone who cooks nearly every day, Paprika is the best recipe app for chefs of any skill level.

Learn to make hot wet rice with a $2,000 gadget on the funniest cooking show ever

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The Katerings are ready for their close up. Photo: Lead Balloon TV
The Katerings are ready for their close up. Photo: Lead Balloon TV

If you’ve been longing for a cooking show with smart writing, attractive hosts and a ton of sexual innuendo, look no further than The Katering Show, where Aussies Kate McLennan and Kate McCartney smile for the camera while comparing too-expensive German multi-mixers to gangbangs.

“So, ‘What is a Thermomix?’ I hear anyone under the age of 33 ask,” says the perky McLennan. “It’s a blender, a microwave, an ice bucket and a set of kitchen scales. It’s a gangbang of kitchen appliances that’s created a futuristic robot saucepan. It’s the kind of appliance that your rich mother-in-law gives you as a wedding gift because she doesn’t think you can cook. Or something that you buy yourself because you’ve always wanted to join a cult, but you don’t have the energy for the group sex.”

Right? Now you need to watch the funniest cooking show I’ve ever seen, with the episode about making risotto (hot wet rice) in a gadget that looks like (and costs like) it might have come out of Jony Ive’s design shop.

Gadget Watch: New gear for the beach, the bedroom and the kitchen

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Even the BeachSafe won’t save you if you leave it alone on the beaches of Barcelona, but it’s still a pretty neat idea. It’s a tote bag that folds out to make a seat for sitting on the sand. Slide your towel out of its compartment, fill that compartment with sand (for ballast) using the built-in scoop and secure the bag’s opening with a combination lock. It won’t stop anyone from making off with the whole thing, but I like the idea of a combo bag/seat, whether it’s safe or not. €60

Even the BeachSafe won’t save you if you leave it alone on the beaches of Barcelona, but it’s still a pretty neat idea. It’s a tote bag that folds out to make a seat for sitting on the sand. Slide your towel out of its compartment, fill that compartment with sand (for ballast) using the built-in scoop and secure the bag’s opening with a combination lock. It won’t stop anyone from making off with the whole thing, but I like the idea of a combo bag/seat, whether it’s safe or not. €60


Instagram brings you world’s shortest cooking show

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Bart van Olphen thinks he can conquer your fear of cooking fish if you’ll just give him 15 seconds.

The seafood chef from Amsterdam uses Instagram’s relatively new video feature for Fish Tales, which is probably the world’s fastest cooking show in this golden age of refined eating.

“People really like the simplicity of the recipes,” van Olphen told Cult of Mac. “You really can learn how to cook in only 15 seconds.”

Cooking shows have been simmering since the early days of television, with pioneers like James Beard and Julia Child unraveling the mysteries of the kitchen. With the emergence of the Food Network in 1993, the format boiled over into a ratings bonanza, turning chefs like Emeril Lagasse and Rachel Ray into celebrities. Now YouTube is home to dozens of shows featuring entrepreneurial cooks seeking to cash in on the foodie craze.

Cloud Crockpot Is Just The First Thing Belkin Wants You To Connect To Net [CES 2014]

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Probably the world's first connected crockpot. Shiny! Credit: Eli Milchman

CES 2014 bug

LAS VEGAS, CES 2014Belkin is really hopping onto this connected-home thing with fiery fervor. They already have a formidable array of Internet-connected devices in their WeMo line — switches, plugs, motion detectors — and now they’ve added light bulbs and a DIY WeMo interface that can be adapted for use with practically anything that’s powered by electricity. Oh, they’ve also just come out with a big, shiny cloud-connected crockpot so you can cook dinner from the office.

MyFlavors Auto Rips Recipes From Any Web Page

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myflavors

MyFlavors for the iPad is a clever recipe app which auto-rips recipes from the web and separates out the various components, tidily parsing out and filing directions, ingredients, photos, the description and the cook time. The app is free, but requires a $5 in-app purchase to actually do more than try it out.

Serious Eats Hits The iOS Newsstand

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seriously

Y’all know Serious Eats, right? It’s the one place on the Internet where you can go to be entertained, educated and properly fed. I’m a fan of cooking, but I generally avoid recipes on the web because it’s hard to gauge their quality until it’s too late. Serious Eats is solid every single time.

And now there’s a Newsstand magazine, and — again — it stands out above the rest.

At Last! The iSpoon, A Sauce-Stirring Stylus

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Sometimes an inventor comes up with something so mold-breaking, so truly original and – in hindsight – obvious that the world changes just a little bit. Today we bring news of such an Earth-shaking discovery. It’s called the iSpoon, and considering that it’s made for cooking, there’s a delicious irony in the fact that it mixes together two ingredients to make the perfect blend. It’s a synergistic, spoon-shaped supper, if you will.

Mastering The iPhone To Be A Better Lover: Cooking [iOS Tips]

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Made with lurve. And caramel.
Made with lurve. And caramel.

Anyone knows that the key to anyone’s heart is their stomach, gender stereotypes be damned. If you can make that special someone the perfect meal, you’re way closer to being a better lover than someone who has to continually order out. Making a meal for another human being is a delight for both the cook and the recipient, feeding both mind and soul, if done well. What better way to show you care than with a meal you make yourself?

The problem is, how? First off is confidence. As Julia Child said, “The only real stumbling block is fear of failure. In cooking you’ve got to have a what-the-hell attitude.” Equally important for us cooking newbs, however, is a good cooking app or three.

Check these out for your Valentine’s Day dinner, or any time you want to make your significant other feel just a bit more significant.

Cult of Mac Holiday Gift Guide: Gifts For Him Edition [Updated]

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for-men-update1

Believe it or not, Black Friday has already come and gone. Pretty soon the Christmas season will begin, and we’ll mark this midwinter festival by getting together with friends and family and continuing to drink and eat far too much.

Meanwhile, we also buy gifts for those same friends and family members, whether they want them or not. Luckily, we’re here to help, and if you follow our festive advice, your gifts just might make it into the “wanted” category.

From now until Christmas, Cult of Mac will be putting together holiday gift guys full of ideas for the special ones in your life, no matter what their interests or your budget. Today, we’re looking at gifts for the good gentleman in your life.

Basil For iPad Is Like Instapaper For Recipes

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Basil is my new favorite recipe app for the iPad
Basil is my new favorite recipe app for the iPad

I’m a dead treeware holdout when it comes to cookbooks, and as such any recipes I save from the web are scattered across Pinboard, Instapaper and Simplenote. But Basil is the app that might just change all that. Yes, it’s another recipe organization app, but there’s a difference. Basil lets you throw in recipes from just about anywhere, formats them and categorizes them ready to use.

Turn Your iMac Into A One-Armed Productivity Monster With Twelve South’s HoverBar iPad Stand

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hoverbar

Twelve South is known for making great products that don’t just look really cool, but serve higher functions without losing focus on maintaining simplicity. They’re one of the best Apple accessory makers on the planet, and their latest accessory is just another example of why the company is so successful. Meet the HoverBar. It’s an adjustable arm iPad stand that attaches to an iMac or Apple display allowing users to setup their iPad as a secondary touchscreen computer.

Survive A Crazy Hectic Thanksgiving Using These Killer iPhone And iPad Tricks [Guide]

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apple-is-taking-all-of-thanksgiving-week-off

Thanksgiving is just two days away, and if you’re smart, you’re already prepared for it: you’ve got a turkey in the fridge, the ingredients in the cupboard, and the invitations all sent out. Or maybe you’re like me instead, and have found yourself up against the wire to throw a last minute Turkey Day feast. Either way, your iPhone and iPad can make putting on a holiday dinner much easier than the Pilgrims used to do it.

Bam! Kick it Up a Notch With These New iPad Kitchen Accessories from Belkin

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belkin-kitchen-cabinet-mount

There’s no space the iPad hasn’t invaded — the kitchen in particular seems a favorite for me place for me to plop it down in. I’ll look up recipes, stream live TV news in the background while I’m cooking or kick back with the Grey Lady over breakfast.

But Apple’s probably going to void your warranty if they find egg yolk in the iPad’s innards. Never fear — Belkin has just announced a whole aisle’s worth of iPad accessories for the kitchen that’ll keep the iPad mess-free.

How To Cook Up A Storm This Holiday With Your iPad & iPhone

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With the holidays now only days away, we are all starting to think about the true meaning of the holidays – food and drink, and copious amounts of the stuff! Whether you are in charge of the full roast on Christmas day, or just the cranberries, having a helping hand is always appreciated.

Being the lovely people we are, we have put together a list of the best apps and accessories for both iPhone and iPad that can help your holiday season be as full flavoured and stress free as possible!