When I reviewed recipe programs well over a year ago, MacGourmet was at version 1.1.7. It's obviously seen very active development since then so I thought perhaps it deserved another look…

The developer has addressed most of the shortcomings it would seem, and the user interface is very usable and very attractive. (IMO it looks even better if you change the display template in preferences to 'Streamline'!)

I've never understood why recipe programs often limit you to scaling recipe servings in basic multiples of 1/2, 2, etc. Surely, it makes more sense to just tell the program how many people you intend to serve. I mean, it's a computer right — it can handle the maths! Well, MacGourmet now gets this right and allows you to scale a recipe by entering the precise number of servings required. (It would be even better if you could change it directly in the main recipe view.)

There is now no shortage of useful metadata which can be associated with each recipe. In some ways it's a bit over the top… One field called simply 'categories' contains a long list of arbitrary descriptors including '30 minute', 'Cheesecakes', 'St. Patrick's Day' and 'Low Fat'. If, like me, this doesn't appeal to your sense of associational logic, you can thankfully edit these categories using the Library Browser. And if that seems like too much work, no one's forcing you to use any of this metadata. Unused fields simply don't show up in the main recipe view.

Smart Recipe Lists have gotten smarter and make good use of all that metadata to organise your recipes into groups.

Adding a new recipe felt very quick and efficient to me in contrast to some other programs. Entering new ingredients is the way it should be: predefined list items auto-fill as you type, and adding subsequent items is as easy as tabbing to the next field — there's no need to grab the mouse and click on the plus icon (although you can if you like!)

According to my previous review I wasn't impressed with the shopping list feature. Well in this version I picked it up pretty quickly, and it now features iPod export too.

You can now specify 'metric' as the default measurement system and also do metric conversions on individual recipes — although I didn't find a way to convert multiple recipes in one go.

There is still no meal planner feature. If that's important to you have a look at Organized Gourmet. Otherwise, this program is now a serious contender for top spot in the recipe management category.