NYT Cooking launches AI assistant to swap ingredients and scale recipes

A new digital sous chef

NYT Cooking has launched an AI assistant designed to help users adapt recipes on the fly. The tool appears as a small text box on recipe pages, allowing subscribers to type in specific requests to customize their cooking experience. It is intended to solve common kitchen hurdles, such as missing ingredients or a lack of specific equipment.

The assistant works by generating a new version of a recipe rather than altering the original text. Users can view their customized version under a dedicated tab while still being able to flip back to the original instructions at any time. This ensures that the source material remains intact for those who prefer to follow the author's exact directions.

The tool is currently available to subscribers on iOS only. While it cannot be turned off, it is easy for users to scroll past if they prefer the traditional experience. It serves as a companion for those who want to cook without the friction of having to visit a grocery store for a single missing item.

Training on community wisdom

To ensure the AI provides helpful advice, the developers trained the system on existing user comments. This allows the assistant to offer practical substitutions for niche ingredients, such as suggesting lime zest when a user lacks makrut lime leaves. It aims to provide the same solutions found in the community but in a much faster, more streamlined way.

The AI is also programmed to understand the nuances of flavor and chemistry. For example, it can warn a user that substituting certain spices might bring significant, sharp heat to a dish. It is designed to be cautious, refusing to comply with requests that would logically ruin a recipe, such as using minced beef in a sweet dessert trifle.

By leveraging this data, the assistant can provide validation for a cook's improvisations. If a user has a different cut of meat or a different vegetable on hand, the AI can suggest specific adjustments to cooking times or methods. This helps ensure that the final dish remains palatable even when the original ingredients are unavailable.

Scaling and equipment swaps

Beyond simple ingredient swaps, the assistant can handle complex requests like scaling a recipe to feed a specific number of people. It can also convert measurements, such as changing metric weights to US measurements. It can even suggest how to adapt a recipe for different types of cookware, such as turning a Bundt cake into muffins.

When a user asks to turn a cake into muffins, the AI calculates the necessary changes to cooking times and batter distribution. It can even make smart choices during scaling, such as rounding egg counts to whole numbers instead of providing fractions. These features are designed to make the app more versatile for different kitchen environments and household sizes.

The assistant also highlights specific changes in the new version to make them easy to track. If a user asks to swap an ingredient, the app will note how that change affects the flavor profile. This level of detail helps the cook understand the consequences of their modifications before they start the cooking process.

Reliability and limitations

While the tool is helpful, it is not intended to be a head chef and requires human oversight. Testing showed that the AI can occasionally provide confusing information, such as giving the wrong butter amount because it was referencing the wrong version of a recipe. Users are encouraged to double-check amounts and cooking times against the original instructions to ensure accuracy.

The experience currently lacks some features that might be expected in a kitchen environment, such as voice control. Users must navigate the app with their hands, which can be difficult when they are already cooking. However, it was found to be more reliable than some other voice-activated assistants that may get confused and improvise instructions.

The NYT Cooking editors emphasize that the tool is a way to make the app more useful for everyday problems. It provides a way to handle