How Degchi Works Out What You Can Cook Today

The question behind the app

"What can we cook today?" sounds simple. In practice it means checking the fridge, remembering what is in the cupboard, thinking about what everyone will actually eat, and working out whether you are short of one thing. That is a lot of thinking at the end of a long day.

Degchi does that checking for you. This is the third post in the Degchi App Guide, and it explains the Home screen, because that is where your pantry turns into dinner ideas.

What you see on Home

At the top there is a big number: how many dishes you can cook right now, with what is in your pantry. Under it are three small counts for your pantry: Have, Low and Out. Below that, the screen is made of shelves:

• Today's top pick: one dish to start with, shown big, with a Start cooking button. It can also be flagged as the Recipe of the Day.
• Ready to cook: dishes where you have everything.
• More from other kitchens: more dishes you can make, but from cuisines you did not pick at setup. A Pakistani household might see a Gulf or South Indian dish here.
• Almost there: dishes where you are missing one or two things.
• Add your recipe: a shortcut to put your own recipe in the app.

There is also a search box ("Search recipes…") if you already know what you want.

The rules, in plain English

The matching is not magic, and it is useful to know the rules, because they explain why a dish shows up where it does.

Only the main ingredients count. Each recipe lists the ingredients it truly needs. Garnishes are marked optional. For example, aloo gobi lists coriander as optional, so a missing bunch of coriander will not stop the dish being "Ready".

Staples are ignored. Anything you marked "Always have" (salt, oil and the like) is assumed to be in the kitchen. We explain staples in How to Track Your Pantry with Have, Low and Out.

Low still counts as available. If you are down to the last of the cumin, the dish is still cookable. Degchi simply prefers dishes where nothing is running low when it picks the order, so your best option comes first.

Out or not marked means missing. If an ingredient is Out, or you never added it, the recipe counts it as missing.

One or two missing makes it "Almost there". That is the threshold: a dish that needs three or more ingredients you do not have does not appear in that row.

A real example

Take chicken karahi. It needs chicken, tomato, ginger, garlic, green chilli, coriander, red chilli powder, cooking oil and salt. Say you have everything except green chilli and coriander. Degchi puts karahi under Almost there with a line like "Missing Green chilli, Coriander — already on your list". Both items have already been added to your shopping list, so you can buy them on the way home.

Compare that with daal, which needs red lentils, rice, onion, tomato, garlic, ginger, turmeric, cumin seeds, clarified butter and salt. If all of that is in your kitchen, it appears under Ready to cook. Nothing to buy, forty-five minutes to dinner.

When nothing is ready

Early on, your pantry may be thin. In that case Degchi shows a different message: "You're 1 ingredient away from" some number of dishes, with lines like "Buy (ingredient) → unlocks (number) dishes". Tap Add to list and it goes on your shopping list. It is a nice way to choose what to buy: pick the item that opens the most dinners.

You can also open the full recipe list and filter it: Ready now, Almost, Breakfast, Lunch & dinner, Veg, Under 30 min or Favourites.

A ten-second glance instead of a debate

The Home screen replaces a ten-minute debate with a ten-second glance. You see what is cookable, what is one trip away, and what to buy, all from the same pantry. And because the matching ignores salt and garnish, it matches how real cooks think. A dish is "ready" when you can actually make it, not when every optional extra is in the house.

When you pick a dish, the next step is the recipe page itself, which we cover in Reading a Degchi Recipe: Metric, US Cups and Servings.

Find your dinner

Degchi is a free beta, and all you need to join is a Gmail address. Join the Degchi beta, add your pantry, and see how many dishes you can cook tonight.