explaingit

anduin2017/howtocook

Analysis updated 2026-05-18

99,778JavaScriptAudience · generalComplexity · 1/5LicenseSetup · easy

TLDR

A community-built collection of Chinese home-cooking recipes written in a clear, structured style for programmers who want reproducible, consistent instructions instead of vague blog posts.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((repo))
    What it does
      Chinese recipes
      Structured format
      Programmer-friendly
    Organization
      Difficulty ratings
      Category sections
      Markdown files
    Kitchen guides
      Techniques
      Equipment tips
      Food safety
    How to use
      Read on GitHub
      Docker web service
      Download PDF
    Contributing
      Pull requests
      Recipe templates
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Code map

Detail Auto

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filefunction / class

What do people build with it?

USE CASE 1

Look up a Chinese dish with clear, step-by-step instructions instead of searching inconsistent recipe blogs.

USE CASE 2

Learn cooking techniques like stir-frying, steaming, and pickling with structured explanations.

USE CASE 3

Host a local web version of the recipes using Docker for offline access while cooking.

USE CASE 4

Contribute your own tested recipes to help other programmers cook at home.

What is it built with?

JavaScriptMarkdownDockerStatic site generator

How does it compare?

anduin2017/howtocookmui/material-uifacebook/create-react-app
Stars99,77898,285103,397
LanguageJavaScriptJavaScriptJavaScript
Setup difficultyeasyeasyeasy
Complexity1/52/52/5
Audiencegeneraldeveloperdeveloper

Figures from each repo's GitHub metadata at analysis time.

How do you get it running?

Difficulty · easy Time to first run · 5min
Public domain. Use however you want, no attribution required.

In plain English

HowToCook (programmer's guide about how to cook at home) is a community-built collection of Chinese recipes written in a precise, structured style aimed at programmers cooking for themselves at home. The description and README make clear it is a Simplified Chinese cookbook. The author explains they often searched online for recipes but found the writing inconsistent and full of unclear ingredient names, as a programmer used to formal-language descriptions, they wanted clearer descriptions, so they started this project to gather and standardize how common dishes are made. How it is organized: the README links a difficulty index from 1 to 5 stars, plus category sections such as vegetable dishes and meat dishes. Each dish has its own markdown file under a dishes directory, written from a template the project provides. There are also "kitchen environment" guides under a tips directory covering kitchen preparation, choosing what to eat now, food pairings and taboos, pressure cooker, air fryer, removing fishy odors, food safety, microwave, and primers on techniques like boiling, stir-frying and pan-frying, cold mixing, pickling, steaming, and stewing. You can read recipes on GitHub, build a local web service from the README's Docker image, or download a generated PDF version. Contributors add or fix recipes by submitting pull requests. You would use this when you want a structured, reproducible, programmer-friendly reference for everyday Chinese home cooking rather than browsing inconsistent recipe blogs. The repository's primary listed language is JavaScript, since the recipes are tooled and published as a static site, and the full README is much longer than what was provided.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
Show me how to make [Chinese dish name] using the HowToCook recipe format with clear ingredient lists and step-by-step instructions.
Prompt 2
What kitchen techniques does HowToCook cover, and how can I use them to improve my home cooking?
Prompt 3
Help me set up the HowToCook Docker image locally so I can browse recipes offline while cooking.
Prompt 4
I want to contribute a Chinese recipe to HowToCook, what does the markdown template look like and what should I include?
Prompt 5
What are the difficulty ratings in HowToCook and which recipes would be good for a beginner cook?

Frequently asked questions

What is howtocook?

A community-built collection of Chinese home-cooking recipes written in a clear, structured style for programmers who want reproducible, consistent instructions instead of vague blog posts.

What language is howtocook written in?

Mainly JavaScript. The stack also includes JavaScript, Markdown, Docker.

What license does howtocook use?

Public domain. Use however you want, no attribution required.

How hard is howtocook to set up?

Setup difficulty is rated easy, with roughly 5min to a first successful run.

Who is howtocook for?

Mainly general.

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