NYT Cooking's new AI helper rewrites recipes with what you have on hand

NYT Cooking has added an AI assistant that rewrites a recipe to fit the ingredients you actually have. A reviewer at The Verge says it rescued a weeknight chicken dinner. It also almost told her to use half the butter in a cake, which is a good reason to check its math.

What it does

The assistant is a small text box on the recipe page that reads "Customize this recipe..." You type a question or a request. It can be as simple as asking for a substitute, or as big as scaling a recipe for seven people and making it vegan and gluten-free. The New York Times says it can also suggest swaps for cooking equipment and convert measurements. Measurement conversion has been in the app for a couple of years.

It was trained partly on reader comments, which is where many NYT Cooking fans already go for substitution tips. At launch, it is for subscribers on iPhone and iPad only.

How the test went

The reviewer had chicken tenders, ginger, garlic, rice, broth, limes, green beans and red onions. She lacked chard, cilantro and scallions. The assistant produced a new version of a one-pot chicken and rice recipe with a shorter browning time. It cooked the red onion with the chicken and steamed green beans on top of the rice for the last eight minutes.

The dish took the same time as the original and her husband approved. She also asked about Thai basil in place of cilantro, and it agreed and explained how the flavor would change. For makrut lime leaf in a Thai red curry, it suggested grated lime zest but warned that zest misses the deeper floral, herbal aroma.

Where it slipped

The cake was the problem. The assistant almost had her use half the required butter. The reviewer calls it a useful tool overall, but it is not perfect. Baking is less forgiving than cooking a stew, so wrong amounts matter more.

Some NYT Cooking users and recipe purists are skeptical. The reviewer understands why, since the service is known for recipes that real people tested. She says purely AI-generated recipes she tried elsewhere were not good.

What protects the original

• The original recipe stays untouched.
• Your changes show in a separate Your Version tab.
• Every change is highlighted, and you can flip back to the original at any point.
• NYT Cooking editors say it is trained not to go along with requests that would taste bad.

What is not known yet

The material does not say whether the assistant will come to Android or the web, or whether it will cost extra for subscribers.