Based on a recommendation in the comments I’ve tried out YummySoup as an alternative. YummySoup, shares many of the same features as Connoisseur. It comes with a fair library of recipes sorted into categories and rated by taste and difficulty, and gives you access to a small database of recipes from various websites.

Like Connoisseur it has a grocery list feature, though instead of automatically listing every ingredient from any recipe you want to use, it allows you to choose only the ingredients you need and enter them manually. I was actually a little off-put by that, but probably only because I’m impatient and we’re usually low on everything in our cupboards whenever I want to bake.

The rating system for difficulty and taste is simple and very easy to navigate. Green is easy, yellow is moderately difficult, and red means you might want to try it a few times before offering it to a guest. You can change the difficulty rating of a recipe simply by clicking inside the bar — left is easy, right is hard. The change is instant. You can also sort recipes according to difficulty or by rating out of five stars.

If that’s not enough for you, the Wine & Spirits option allows you to create a database of drinks to serve with any meal, sorted by Region, type, style, where you can buy it and how much it costs. You can also add a picture so you can recognize the bottle; it’s a simple matter of drag and drop or copy and paste. Recipes can be imported or exported pretty easily. This program can open Connoisseur or MacGourmet files, which is convenient if you’re switching over. On the other hand, importing recipes from the web is not quite as fast or simple as it is in Connoisseur, though The AnySite Web Importer is very straightforward; paste the URL of a recipe into the bottom of the screen and hit enter.

The page loads inside the Web Importer. By highlighting sections of the recipe on-screen and then hitting any of the options at the top you create a recipe file. Highlight the title, hit “title”, and poof! your recipe has a title. The same goes for description, origin, prep and cooking time, inactive prep time, yield, ingredients, and directions. Once you’ve done that, each item remains highlighted in a particular colour so you know what you’ve already included. And of course you can drag a picture of the finished product into the top right. Click on the screenshot below for a close-up.

hile the AnySite Web Importer is very simple and direct, it’s not as fast or as easy as Connoisseur’s web import, mainly because you have to tell it which part of the recipe is what. After trying Measuring Cup, Connoisseur, and Yummy Soup, I’d say Connoisseur has the best features and the most intuitive interface, but you run the risk of having a problem and not getting any support from the developers.

Measuring Cup is free but doesn’t have half the features of either of it’s competitors. YummySoup is a solid competitor for Connoisseur in that its features and interface are fairly competitive, running close to Connoisseur but not quite meeting it. On the other hand, the site is active, updates are available automatically, and support seems to be excellent based on reviews.

YummySoup 1.6.3 is available from Hungry Seacow Software. The trial run is free and fully-featured for 15 days before requiring a $20 license.

ServerSkine purports to be a tool to take care of exactly this kind of information, so I thought I’d give it a shot.

ServerSkine is a small but very straight-forward application. Hit the plus button and you can enter all sorts of information into organized fields. The program keeps track of server, FTP, database, host, and domain information for as many domains as you need. By putting in your login information for your registrar, server, and ftp, ServerSkine also allows you to automatically connect to say, GoDaddy and manage your sites by clicking a single button. It will open that site in a new tab in whatever browser you’re currently using.

ServerSkine 1.0.5 is a free program for OS X 10.4+ though it doesn’t say anything about Leopard specifically. While it’s not something I got terribly excited about, it’s definitely a useful and practical way to keep track of your many domains.

Unfortunately, I hate going back and forth between what I’m doing and my laptop, because I’m afraid I’ll spill something on it. Recently Doc Logic here at MacApper covered Measuring Cup, a free recipe manager for OS X.

I tried it out as an alternative to digging through my del.icio.us links and it was pretty good, but I thought I could find something that better suited my needs. I did. It’s called Connoisseur by The Little App Factory. Connoisseur is a recipe manager for OS X that truly blew me away.

Not only does it come with a decently-sized library of recipes built in, but it has a whole slew of features that were exactly what I was craving. Like other recipe managers, creating, editing, and reading individual recipes is easy and intuitive. A click of a button brings up a small window with four panes: details, ingredients, directions, and notes. Under details you can give each recipe a name and subtitle, file it under different styles of cuisine (Chinese, Italian, etc), as well as a particular course (afternoon tea, lunch, snacks, dinner, etc.).

Preparation and cooking time are separate fields which is great if you want to prepare the ingredients ahead of time and cook later. Adding ingredients or directions is as simple as hitting plus and filling in the fields given. Connoisseur offers you the ability to add a note to any ingredient you list as well, just in case you need some extra information. Finally under the last pane you can input a description of your recipe as well as list the source.

There are a few features that specifically sold me though. For one, you can import recipes from webpages by copying text to your clipboard. Ingredients, steps and even the description are automatically entered into Connoisseur’s recipe templates easily in Metric or Imperial. There’s no need to input individual measurements or ingredients– just paste the entire recipe into a small window and Connoisseur creates the entry. You can also copy and paste a picture of the recipe directly into the details pane.

The second feature to absolutely sell me on Connoisseur was the Shopping List. If you’re planning to make something, click the recipe name and hit “Add To Shopping List”. The ingredients are automatically exported to any attached iPod. You can check the ingredients list through the Notes section of your iPod under Extras. You can also easily print your shopping list.

What if you’re having extra people over and you’re not brilliant at math? Inside the recipe details pane you can scale a recipe using a simple slide-mechanism. The measurements of your ingredients are automatically adjusted. Lastly, by clicking the “Cooking View” icon at the top of the window, Connoisseur opens a full-screen view of your recipe and will even read it to you step-by-step with the click of a button. No more flour-covered fingers messing up your keyboard, and no risk of ruining your Mac through a spillage disaster.

Connoisseur 1.2 runs on OS X 10.3+, including Tiger, though the website doesn’t specifically say it works on Leopard. The free trial version runs fully-featured for 20 sessions before requiring a $20 license. If Measuring Cup isn’t quite up to the task and you’re willing to pay the $20, I’d definitely give Connoisseur a shot.