Saving Recipes from Websites

Found a recipe you want to try? ClipDish makes it easy to save from any food blog or website—no more drowning in life stories just to find the ingredient list.

How Recipe Saving Works

When you save a recipe from Safari, ClipDish tries to extract the structured recipe data (ingredients, instructions, cook time, etc.) from the webpage. Most of the time, this works perfectly and you get a clean, formatted recipe.

What gets saved:

• Recipe title
• Ingredients list
• Step-by-step instructions
• Prep time, cook time, and servings
• Recipe photo (if available)
• Link back to the original website

What doesn't get saved:

• The blogger's life story
• Ads and pop-ups
• Comment sections
• Unrelated blog content

Saving a Recipe from Safari

Step 1: Enable the ClipDish Extension

If you haven't done this yet, check out the Getting Started guide. You only need to do this once.

Step 2: Find a Recipe

Open Safari and browse to any recipe website. When you find a recipe you want to save, you're ready to clip it.

Step 3: Open the Share Sheet

Tap the Share button [Icon: TK - square.and.arrow.up] (the square with an upward arrow). It's usually at the bottom of the screen on iPhone or in the toolbar on iPad.

Step 4: Select ClipDish

In the share sheet, find the ClipDish icon and tap it. If you don't see it, scroll through the list of share options—it might be below the fold.

Don't see ClipDish? You may need to enable the extension first.

Step 5: Wait for Processing

ClipDish will analyze the webpage and extract the recipe. You'll see a loading spinner while this happens (usually just a few seconds).

When it's done, you'll see one of two things:

Success: A preview of the recipe with ingredients and instructions Bookmark: A link back to the website (more on this below)

Step 6: Close the Extension

Tap Done to close the ClipDish extension and return to Safari. Your recipe is now saved to your library.

Understanding Recipes vs. Bookmarks

Not all websites structure their recipes the same way. Sometimes, ClipDish can fully parse a recipe. Other times, it saves a "bookmark" instead.

What's a Recipe?

A recipe has structured data that ClipDish successfully extracted:

• Separate ingredient list
• Numbered or bulleted instructions
• Metadata (prep time, servings, etc.)

Recipes are ideal for cooking because you can check off ingredients and steps as you go.

What's a Bookmark?

A bookmark is a fallback when ClipDish can't find structured recipe data on the page. Instead of ingredients and instructions, you get:

• Recipe title
• Link back to the original website
• Recipe photo (if available)

Think of it like a Pinterest pin—it saves the link so you can find it later, but you'll need to click through to the website to actually cook from it.

Why Did I Get a Bookmark?

There are a few reasons ClipDish might save a bookmark instead of a full recipe:

1. The website doesn't use structured data Some food blogs don't format their recipes in a way that's machine-readable. If the ingredients and instructions are buried in paragraphs or formatted unusually, ClipDish can't extract them.

2. It's not actually a recipe If you're on a blog post about recipes (like "10 Best Cookies") rather than a specific recipe page, there's no recipe to extract.

3. The site blocks scraping A few websites actively prevent recipe extraction. There's not much we can do about that.

4. The page has a paywall or login requirement If the recipe is behind a paywall, ClipDish can't access the full content.

Can I Convert a Bookmark to a Recipe?

Not automatically, but you can manually enter or scan the recipe if you want it in ClipDish's structured format.

Which Sites Work Best?

Great for ClipDish:

• Serious Eats
• NYT Cooking (if you're logged in)
• Bon Appétit
• AllRecipes
• Food Network
• Most food blogs built on WordPress

Often Save as Bookmarks:

• Instagram recipe posts
• TikTok videos
• PDF recipe cards
• Handwritten recipes (use the scanner for these)

The bigger and more established the food site, the more likely it uses structured data that ClipDish can parse.

Editing After Saving

Sometimes ClipDish parses a recipe, but it's not quite right—maybe an ingredient got cut off or the instructions are jumbled. No problem.

Head to the Editing Recipes guide to learn how to clean up recipes after saving. You can fix ingredients, rewrite instructions, and even use the Magic Cleanup feature to let AI reorganize the recipe for you.

Manual Recipe Entry

What if you have a recipe that's not on a website? Maybe it's from a cookbook, a handwritten family recipe, or a photo someone sent you.

ClipDish has you covered:

• Scan a recipe using your camera (OCR extracts the text)
• Type it in manually if you prefer

Check out the Scanning & Manual Entry guide for step-by-step instructions.

Saving from Non-Safari Browsers

ClipDish works best with Safari, but you can save recipes from other browsers like Chrome, Edge, or Firefox too. See the Browser Support guide for detailed workarounds.

Chrome, Edge, or Firefox on iPhone:

1. Copy the recipe URL
2. Open Safari and paste the URL
3. Navigate to the recipe page
4. Use the Safari share extension to save to ClipDish

For detailed instructions and alternative methods, see the Browser Support guide.

After You Save

Once a recipe is saved, it appears in your All Recipes view. From there, you can:

• Add it to a collection
• Edit it if something needs fixing
• Share it with friends or family
• Start cooking!

Tap the Recipes tab [Icon: TK - fork.knife] at the bottom to see your saved recipes.

Common Issues

Q: ClipDish isn't showing up in the share sheet A: Make sure you've enabled the extension. If you have, try restarting Safari.

Q: I keep getting bookmarks instead of recipes A: Try a different food blog. Some sites work better than others. If a site consistently gives you bookmarks, consider using Discover to find similar recipes that are already parsed.

Q: The recipe saved, but ingredients are missing A: This happens occasionally with non-standard recipe formats. You can edit the recipe to add what's missing, or try re-saving from the website.

Q: Can I save videos or Instagram posts? A: Video recipes and social media posts usually save as bookmarks because they don't have structured data. For videos, try finding the recipe on the creator's website instead.

Q: Does this work offline? A: No. Saving recipes requires an internet connection to fetch and parse the webpage. Once saved, though, you can view recipes offline.

Tips for Better Saves

Go to the recipe page, not the blog home Make sure you're on the actual recipe page (with the ingredient list visible) before sharing.

Scroll to the recipe first Some sites load the recipe data dynamically as you scroll. If you share too early, ClipDish might not see the full recipe.

Try again if it fails If you get a bookmark when you expected a recipe, go back and try sharing again. Sometimes the page needs a moment to fully load.

Use Discover for popular recipes If a recipe is popular, chances are someone else has already saved it to Discover. Search there first to save time.

What's Next?

Now that you know how to save recipes:

• Working with Recipes - Master the recipe list and detail views
• Organizing with Collections - Create custom collections for meal planning
• Editing Recipes - Fix and customize saved recipes

Happy cooking!