Family Cookbook Recipe Digitizer

WHAT IT DOES

This userscript helps you digitize family recipes by extracting structured data from any recipe page or scanned text. It scans the page or pasted text for recipe structure—title, ingredients, instructions, prep time, cook time, servings, and notes. It parses ingredient lists with quantities and units (e.g., "2 cups flour" → {quantity: 2, unit: "cup", ingredient: "flour"}), splits instructions into numbered steps, and auto-detects measurement systems. The script can scale recipes up or down by any factor, and export the structured recipe as plain text, Markdown, or JSON. It also detects and converts common recipe shorthand like "tbsp", "c", and "oz" to full unit names.

WHERE IT RUNS

The script works on any webpage with recipe text—food blogs, recipe sites, scanned recipe images (via OCR text), and pasted text. It runs entirely within your browser, reading only the visible content of the current page. It does not track your browsing history, access other tabs, or send any data externally. All recipe data is processed locally.

HOW TO USE

After installation, open the panel by clicking the tool's icon in the BotGentz sidebar. Paste a recipe into the text input or click "Extract from page" to scan the current webpage. Click "Extract from input" to process the pasted text. The extracted recipe appears in the preview panel showing title, servings, times, ingredients, instructions, and notes. Use the format dropdown to choose your export format—Plain Text, Markdown, or JSON. Toggle "Include notes" to include recipe notes in the export. Click "Export recipe" to download the structured recipe file. Use the scale dropdown to multiply the recipe by 0.5x, 1x, 1.5x, 2x, or 3x, then click "Scale recipe" to update the preview.

THE TECHNICAL MECHANISM

This script uses a multi-stage extraction pipeline to parse recipe text. First, it splits the text into lines and scans for section headers using regex patterns for "ingredients", "instructions", "prep time", "cook time", "servings", and "notes". It extracts the title from the first line. Ingredients are parsed line by line using regex to extract quantities (including fractions like "1/2"), units (tsp, tbsp, c, oz, lb, g, kg, ml, l, fl oz, pt, qt, gal), and ingredient names. The script normalizes units to full names using a built-in abbreviation dictionary. Instructions are split by numbered steps (e.g., "1. Preheat oven...") or bullet points, and formatted as a numbered list. The scaling function multiplies all ingredient quantities by a factor while preserving units. The export function formats the recipe as plain text, Markdown, or JSON with proper structure.

THE PANEL

The panel is draggable anywhere on the screen and remembers its position between sessions. It can be collapsed to a small floating bubble to minimize distraction, and expanded again with a single click. The panel's width can be adjusted, and pressing the Escape key closes it instantly. All settings—export format, include notes, and scale factor—are persisted locally using GM_setValue, so your preferences remain intact across page reloads and browser restarts.

PLEASE NOTE

This userscript requires the free BotGentz extension to function. The script is designed for recipe text extraction; it works best on well-structured recipe pages with clear section labels. It may not work perfectly on poorly formatted or scanned text with inconsistent layout. The ingredient parsing handles common formats but may not capture every variation. Always review the extracted recipe for accuracy. The script does not access your account or API; it only reads what is visible on the page. No data from your browsing is stored or transmitted anywhere—all processing occurs entirely in your browser.