Meals

Cooking mode: cook step by step

What it's about

Cooking mode walks you through a recipe step by step. For each step you only see what you need right now: the text, the ingredients for that step in the right amount for your servings, the appliance with its level or temperature and a matching timer. Several timers can run at once, and the kitchen view shows at a glance which ring is in use and how long is left.

How to do it

Open a recipe that has a method, for example under Recipes or in the meal plan via the planned dish.
Tap Start cooking.
Set the servings on the start page. All amounts adjust.
Tap Start cooking at the bottom and move through the steps with Next and Back. The last step says Done, enjoy your meal.

In the meal plan it's even quicker: tap the chef's hat in the dish's row, or open the entry and tap Start cooking there. The entry's servings are already set.

Tick off ingredients with one tap. Under All ingredients you'll find the recipe's complete list on every step.

Timers

If a step has a duration, start its timer with Start … min timer.
Use + in the timer bar to set an own timer with a name and minutes, for example for eggs.
Tapping a ring that's in use in the kitchen view adds 1 minute to its timer. Press and hold (or use the menu with the three dots) for more options: stop the timer or move it to another ring.
When a timer runs out, patchio rings and shows Done.

If you close cooking mode or reload the page, patchio remembers where you were for up to 12 hours. Next time you can choose Keep cooking or Start over.

Set up your kitchen

Under Your kitchen you set how many rings your hob has (2, 4 or 6) and whether there's an oven, an air fryer, a microwave, a waffle iron or a sandwich maker. This applies to the whole household. Anyone who can manage recipes can change it; everyone else can only view it. Without a setting, patchio assumes 4 rings and an oven.

Prepare steps (AI)

Without preparing, cooking mode shows the numbered steps of your method. With Prepare steps, AI splits the method into steps and gives each one the matching ingredients, hob level, temperature, heating mode and timer. If the text mentions an oven with a temperature, a preheat step is added.

This only works if AI features are turned on for your household.
Each household has 30 preparations a month. Every preparation counts, including preparing a recipe again or one that doesn't work out. A recipe that's already prepared and unchanged costs nothing when you open it again.
If you change the recipe (method, ingredients or base servings), patchio offers to prepare the steps again.
Anyone who can edit recipes can correct single steps with Adjust step: appliance, level, temperature, heating mode, duration and timer name.

Reading aloud and screen

Read steps aloud reads out every new step. It only uses voices that are stored on your device, so nothing is sent to a service. If your device has no such voice in your language, the switch isn't shown.
Keep screen on stops your phone or tablet going dark while you cook.

patchio remembers both switches per device.

Good to know

What you see mirrors the recipe. patchio doesn't control any appliances and doesn't measure temperature.
The oven's preheat level is estimated: patchio assumes a typical heating time from when you switched it on. Your oven may be faster or slower.
With a locked screen, a timer only rings in the patchio app, and only if you've allowed notifications. In the browser it rings while the page is open. If you close cooking mode in the browser while timers are running, patchio asks first.
On a wide screen, such as a tablet in landscape, step and kitchen sit side by side.