Good for Simple Blogs, But Not for Power Users

Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback. I’d like to clarify some points about how Cooked works and explain why we chose to use custom post types.

It’s worth noting that virtually all major recipe plugins for WordPress use custom post types – this is the standard approach in the WordPress ecosystem.

Cooked intentionally uses custom post types because this is actually the recommended WordPress approach for managing specialized content like recipes. It’s important to understand that blog posts and recipes serve different purposes – blog posts are for your general content, stories, and articles, while recipes are a specialized content type with their own dedicated features.

A key feature you might have missed is that Cooked automatically creates a dedicated ‘Browse Recipes’ page that displays all your recipes in an organized, searchable format. This means your recipes aren’t just hidden in blog posts – they have their own dedicated space where visitors can easily browse and search through your entire recipe collection.

The custom post type approach provides several important benefits:

1. Your recipes are organized separately from regular posts, making them easier to manage, filter, and find in the WordPress admin.
2. Recipes have their own dedicated metadata, taxonomies, and structured data optimized specifically for recipe content.
3. The separation allows for better SEO handling and proper schema markup for recipes.
4. You can still display recipes anywhere on your site using shortcodes, blocks, or direct template integration.

When you create a recipe in Cooked, you’re not doing double work – you’re creating a single piece of content that can be reused across multiple posts or pages. This is particularly valuable for food bloggers who might want to:

• Feature the same recipe in multiple roundup posts
• Create recipe collections or indexes
• Display recipes in widgets or custom layouts
• Maintain consistent formatting and structured data across all recipes

For example, you could write a blog post about your cooking experience or the story behind the recipe, and then simply include the structured recipe content from your recipe library. This keeps your recipes organized and consistent while giving you the flexibility to blog about them however you wish.

The shortcode system provides flexibility in how and where you display your recipes while maintaining all the recipe-specific features and formatting. Plus, having recipes as a separate post type means you can easily manage hundreds of recipes without cluttering your regular blog posts.

If you’d like any tips on optimizing your workflow with Cooked or understanding how to best utilize the Browse Recipes feature, I’m happy to provide additional guidance.

Or if you have specific ideas on how we could improve the workflow, I’d love to hear them! Your feedback is invaluable in helping enhance Cooked.

Thank you again for your review!

Thank you so much for the additional feedback and for updating your review! I really appreciate your insights and the constructive dialogue.

I wanted to address the SEO concern you raised about duplicate content. There’s actually a built-in solution for this. Cooked includes a “Disable Public Recipes” option that, when enabled, only displays recipes through the [cooked-recipe] shortcode. This means you can use the custom post type purely for recipe management while controlling exactly where and how recipes appear in your blog posts, eliminating any duplicate content issues.

As for the Browse Recipes page, it’s designed to be a ready-made solution for non-technical users, offering advanced search functionality that includes recipe metadata like ingredients and directions. While it’s true that modern themes often come with robust grid block features, those primarily handle styling. The Browse Recipes page goes beyond this by incorporating built-in sorting, pagination, and search capabilities specific to recipes. Of course, for users comfortable with custom development, it’s possible to replicate these features manually through theme modifications or custom queries and templates.

But your point about streamlining the workflow is well taken, and it’s something I’m actively considering as we plan future updates. Making Cooked more user-friendly for recipe-heavy sites is a priority.

Thank you again for sharing your insights and for taking the time to explore Cooked in depth. I understand your concerns about the workflow and how it could be streamlined for recipe-focused blogs. This is something I’ll seriously consider as I plan future updates.

Your feedback has been incredibly valuable, and I appreciate the thoughtful discussion. If you ever have more suggestions or need help with anything, feel free to reach out.