Pantry Pal vs SuperCook: cook from your recipes, not a database.
SuperCook is a genuinely clever free tool: tick what's in your kitchen and it digs through millions of web recipes for something you can make. Pantry Pal answers the same question from the other end — your own saved recipes, matched against a pantry it actually keeps count of. Here's the honest head-to-head.
Free to start. No ads. No credit card.
SuperCook searches a stranger's recipes for what fits your ingredients. Pantry Pal searches yours — and already knows what's on the shelf, down to the count.
| Feature | Pantry Pal | SuperCook |
|---|---|---|
| Where the recipes come from | Your own — cookbooks, sites, a photo of a page, even an EPUB | A shared database of ~11 million web recipes |
| Tells you what you can cook right now | Yes — from your real shelf | Yes — from a tick-what-you-own checklist |
| Keeps a running count of your pantry | Yes — counts, by shelf, fridge, and freezer | No — you mark an ingredient as on hand, there's no quantity |
| Tracks best-by dates | Yes | No |
| Saves a recipe from your own cookbook | Paste a link, type it, photograph a page, or upload an EPUB | No — it works from its database, not your books |
| Grocery list | Yes — only what you're missing, sorted by aisle | A basic shopping list |
| What it costs | Free to start. No ads. No card. | Free, no ads (as of June 2026) |
| Where it runs | Web today; iOS and Android on the way | Web, iOS, and Android |
SuperCook details checked June 2026 from its public app listings. Features move — if we've got something wrong, tell us and we'll fix it.
Three things change when the recipes are your own
Dinner comes from books you trust.
The recipe you actually want is in Salt Fat Acid Heat, or a blog you bookmarked, or your mum's handwriting — not a stock database. Pantry Pal keeps each one, with its source, and matches those against your shelf. Cook from what you have, from the recipes you chose.
Not just "have it" — how much.
A checklist tells you a tomato exists somewhere in your life. A real pantry inventory knows you've got two, both going soft, and one can of chickpeas too many. That count is what turns "looks makeable" into "make it tonight."
Best-by dates do the nagging.
Pantry Pal watches the dates and nudges the recipes that use up what's about to turn, so you waste less of what you bought. A search box can't do that — it doesn't know what you own, let alone when it expires.
When SuperCook is the better pick
We're not going to pretend otherwise: if you don't want to save anything and you just want a free, ad-free idea generator — open the fridge, tick what you see, get a recipe — SuperCook is great at exactly that, on every platform including a phone today. Pantry Pal asks a little more of you up front (bring your recipes, tell it your shelf) and pays it back as the app gets to know your actual kitchen. Different tools for different nights.
Try the version that knows your kitchen.
Bring a few recipes you love and the pantry you've already got. Pantry Pal does the matching.
Free to start. No ads. No credit card.
More on the idea: cooking from what you already have.