Skip to content

Building RecipeCast's Chrome Extension

Published:

There are plenty of Chrome extensions that extract recipes from websites. So why build another one?

Most Chrome extensions that remove the ads to give you just the recipe will either:

For RecipeCast, I took a different approach: the extension only detects recipes when you click the icon in your browser toolbar. No background scanning. No monitoring your browsing. And it works on any recipe site, including paywalled ones.

Making RecipeCast Easier to Use

The other reason I built this: to streamline the RecipeCast workflow.

Previously, if you wanted to cast a recipe to your TV, you had to copy the URL and paste it into recipecast.app. Now, you click the extension icon, hit the “RecipeCast…” button, and the URL is already loaded in.

'RecipeCast demo showing a laptop using RecipeCast to view a recipe on a smart display'

I didn’t build casting directly into the extension (though I could have, since I recently added OAuth-style authentication to the web app). I wanted to keep it simple and validate that people actually wanted this workflow first.

Another reason to build it: making it easier for users to use RecipeCast to cast recipes to a smart display or TV. Before, you needed to copy and paste the recipe URL to the website to be able to view it. Now, you can just click on the extension icon, select the “RecipeCast…” button, and you have the URL already loaded in.

Here’s a video showing the extension in action:

The Result

A Chrome extension that:

Try it out and let me know what you think: https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/recipecast/jfblflmgkepdkfkkjdefbihembacdfog


Next Post
Production-Ready External Auth: CORS, Token Refresh & API Implementation with Wasp