KNOW WHAT TO COOK
Plan what you want to eat for the week, with your tastes, pantry, and context baked in.
USE WHAT YOU BUY
Ingredients are optimized across recipes, so that if you use a bit for dinner, you’ll use the rest for lunch.
ORGANIZE EVERYTHING ELSE
That time you spent consolidating a grocery list or scrolling through recipes? Consider it handled.
CURATE YOUR COOKBOOK
Gather recipes you love to pull them into future menus and cultivate your tastes.
THE HEADNOTES
In 1931, Irna Rombauer published what would become one of the first nationally distributed cookbooks for the American home chef, The Joy of Cooking. On the book’s cover, the patron saint of cooking, St. Martha, slays the “dragon of kitchen drudgery.”
While previous cookbooks were largely for high-society and not widely accessible, Joy was intended for the average household, cost-conscious and strapped on time, to “add variety and interest to everyday fare.”
As our grandmother said, the cookbook was an amazing invention. Before the early 20th century, recipes were largely kept within the walls of each household, in passed-down recipe books, scribbled notes, and engrained memories. Aside from exchanges with neighbors and friends, there was no central reference for what to cook.
In the decades since Joy and other nationally published cookbooks, however, the volume of recipes, instructions, and guidance on the art of cooking has exploded. Now, open a magazine in a waiting room, scroll on Instagram, search on Google, and you’ll find something to cook.
We believe that the widely-distributed cookbook was the last great invention for the home cook. And it was a century ago. With seemingly endless recipes at our fingertips, the question now becomes not what can I cook, but what should I cook.
Sift was designed to answer that question. Every Sunday, we found ourselves facing the same set of considerations — How many meals do I need? Should I try those recipes I saved? But will that be too expensive? I could just make my normal go-to’s, but is that boring?
If we attempted to cook a few ‘fun’ recipes, we’d be left with partially-used ingredients and a larger-than-expected grocery bill. If not, we’d run back the stir-fry for the 100th time.
Like St. Martha slaying the dragon of kitchen drudgery, Sift handles the before-cooking. We sift all of your messy inputs (your tastes, pantry, servings, fav recipes, etc) and produce a clarified menu that makes the most of each ingredient. If 1 dinner uses a half bunch of parsley, the other lunch will use the rest. With supporting tools like a consolidated shopping list and customizable cookbook, Sift reminds us that cooking can indeed add joy and interest to the everyday.
