Recipe
of the Day
Shiitake Mushroom Tomato Bisque
Special
Diet Recipes
Low Fat,
Vegetarian,
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Cuisines
Mexican,
Italian,
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Main
Dish Recipes
Chicken,
Pasta,
Pork,
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Dessert
Recipes
Cake,
Chocolate,
Fruit,
Cookies,
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Appetizer
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Shrimp,
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Our recipe database contains many thousands of recipes.
Various information about each recipe is included in a searchable index.
This information includes:
- the recipe title
- the recipe ingredients
- course, region, prep time and equipment information
- nutritional information
Our recipe database includes a search engine that enables you to search for recipes of your choice.
To locate specific recipes, you supply search criteria to the search engine and it will produce a list of recipes that meet your criteria.
The easiest way to search for recipes is to type search criteria in the Search Box and click on the Search button.
This document provides more detailed information about how to put this search capability to work for you.
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Simple Search Criteria
The simplest search criteria is a single word. If you enter a word in the search box and click the Search button, the ucook search engine will find recipes that contain that word.
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This Search Criteria
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Will Produce This Result
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oyster
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recipes that contain the word oyster
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If you enter more than one word separated only by spaces, these words are treated as a phrase and the ucook search engine will find recipes that contain that phrase.
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This Search Criteria
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Will Produce This Result
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oyster stew
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recipes that contain the phrase oyster stew - not just the word oyster
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Tips:
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- Your Search Criteria are restated on the Search Results page so that you can be sure what criteria the search engine used to produce your search result.
- The ucook recipe database contains many thousands of recipes. Some words are found so frequently in recipes that a single word will produce too many recipes to be useful. Words like salt, butter, sugar and onion are obvious examples. Even words like tomato, potato, mushroom and chicken will appear in thousands of recipes. For this reason, search criteria with multiple search terms will often produce a more useful result.
- The ucook search engine will also search for words that derive from those entered in the query expression. Entering "cook" will return recipes that contain "cook", "cooks", "cooking", etc.
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More Complex Search Criteria
Using AND, OR and NOT
You can combine words and phrases into more complex search criteria by using the AND, OR, and NOT operators. These operators allow you to create search criteria that will produce highly selective search results.
If you use the AND operator to create search criteria containing multiple words or phrases, the search engine will only return recipes that contain all of these words or phrases.
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This Search Criteria
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Will Produce This Result
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lamb AND mint
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recipes that contain both lamb and mint
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lamb AND mint leaf
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recipes that contain both the word lamb and the phrase mint leaf
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chicken AND mushroom AND garlic
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recipes that contain all three ingredients
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chicken AND mushroom AND child
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recipes that contain chicken and mushroom that are from books by Julia Child
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You may use the OR operator to create a search criteria which contains alternatives.
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This Search Criteria
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Will Produce This Result
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mushroom OR garlic
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recipes that contain either mushroom or garlic
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If you prefix a search term with the NOT operator, any recipe which contains that term will be eliminated from the search result.
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This Search Criteria
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Will Produce This Result
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chicken AND rice AND NOT garlic
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recipes that contain both chicken and rice and do not contain garlic
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chicken AND NOT chicken stock
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recipes that contain the word chicken but not the phrase chicken stock
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stir-fry AND NOT wok
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stir-fry recipes that do not call for a wok
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Tips:
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- In this document, the operators AND, OR and NOT are shown in upper case for readability. The lower case versions of these operators have the identical meaning. Therefore, "chicken and rice" is the same as "chicken AND rice".
- The symbol & (ampersand) may be used in place of the operator AND. Therefore, "chicken & rice" is the same as "chicken AND rice".
- The symbol , (the comma) may be used in place of the operator OR. Therefore, "mushroom, garlic" is the same as "mushroom OR garlic".
- To include an operator in a search, you surround it with double quotation marks. If you enter 'corned beef "and" cabbage', the phrase "corned beef and cabbage" will be used in the search.
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Order of Evaluation
When you use AND and OR in the same expression, the order of evaluation (or precedence) becomes important.
While an expression is read from left to right, some operators carry more weight than others.
For example, AND operators take precedence over OR operators.
To ensure that an OR operator is interpreted prior to an AND operator, you can use parentheses to enclose the search term that includes the OR.
Note the difference in these examples:
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This Search Criteria
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Will Produce This Result
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chicken AND mushroom AND (garlic OR saffron)
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recipes that contain both chicken and mushroom and either garlic or saffron
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chicken AND mushroom AND garlic OR saffron
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recipes that contain chicken and mushroom and garlic or recipes that contain saffron
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chicken AND mushroom AND NOT (garlic OR saffron)
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recipes that contain both chicken and mushroom and neither garlic nor saffron
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chicken AND mushroom AND NOT garlic OR saffron
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recipes that contain chicken and mushroom and do not contain garlic or recipes that contain saffron
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Tips:
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- When in doubt, place parentheses around a search term containing OR. More often than not, this will produce the desired results.
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Advanced Search Topics
Case
If you enter a word or phrase in mixed case, then case is significant - otherwise case is ignored.
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This Search Criteria
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Will Produce This Result
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mint
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recipes that contain the word mint or MINT or Mint
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Mint
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recipes that contain the word Mint
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Wildcards
By default, a query searches for words, not strings. For example, entering the word "blue" will find documents containing the word "blue" but not "blueberry." You can use wildcards, however to broaden the scope of the search. "blue*" will return recipes containing "blue", "blueberry", "bluefish", etc.
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This Search Criteria
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Will Produce This Result
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blue
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recipes that contain the word blue - e.g. blue cheese, blue crab
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blue*
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recipes that contain words that begin with blue - e.g. blue cheese, blue crab, blueberry, bluefish
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The food hierarchy
When you enter a word or phrase into the Search Box that represent a food item, ucook is aware of where the food item belongs in the hierarchy of foods and food categories.
This will automatically broaden your search, where appropriate.
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This Search Criteria
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Will Produce This Result
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scallion
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recipes that contain the word scallion
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onion
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recipes that contain onion, Bermuda onion, red onion, green onion, scallion, spring onion, Spanish onion, Vidalia onion, white onion, yellow onion, etc.
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brisket
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recipes that contain the word brisket
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beef
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recipes that contain beef, brisket, chuck, round steak, rump roast, sirloin steak, and any other meats in the beef family
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Other Techniques to Focus Your Search
Course, Region, Prep Time, Equipment
You can enhance your search criteria by including specific values for attributes such as course, region, prep time and equipment.
The most convenient way to include values for these attributes is to use the list boxes under the Options label (below the Search Box).
Values selected in this way will not show in the Search Box, but will be automatically appended to your other search criteria.
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This Search Criteria
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Will Produce This Result
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scallion (and French selected from the Regional list box)
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recipes that contain the word scallion and are french regional dishes
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scallion and french (typed directly in the Search Box)
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recipes that contain the words scallion and french
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strawberry (and desert selected from the Course list box and ice cream freezer selected from the Equipment list box)
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recipes that contain the word strawberry and are deserts that call for the use of an ice cream freezer
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Your Dietary Preferences
One of the very powerful features of the Ultimate Cookbook provides you with the ability to specify detailed dietary preferences.
There is a separate page dedicated to your dietary preferences.
To access this page click on my diet preferences beneath the Search Box.
On this page you can specify preferences in various dietary categories such as calories, fat, sodium, etc.
You can also restrict your recipe searches to broad dietary categories such as vegetarian, vegan or kosher.
There is also a place to record items that you wish to exclude from every recipe search.
This might be a specific food such as almond, a food category such as dairy, or perhaps a specific author or piece of equipment.
You can even choose to save these preferences as defaults.
ucook will remember them for you and reuse them whenever you visit the Ultimate Cookbook.
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This Search Criteria
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Will Produce This Result
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chicken and mushroom (and kosher selected on the Dietary Preferences page)
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recipes that contain chicken and mushroom and are kosher
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chicken and tomato (and 400 Calories or less AND 400 mg of Sodium or less selected on the Dietary Preferences page)
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recipes that contain the chicken and tomato and 400 Calories or less and 400 mg of Sodium or less per serving
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pizza (and dairy typed in the Always Exclude box on the Dietary Preferences page)
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pizza recipes that call for no dairy products
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Tips:
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- Note that there is a checkbox below the Search Box that allows you to temporarily ignore your dietary preferences.
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Other
Searching recipes you own
You can optionally restrict any search to recipes you already own by checking the Search only my recipes checkbox.
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Tips:
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- To list all the recipes you own click on my recipes beneath the Search Box.
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Favoring your cookbooks
You can optionally cause recipes from your favorite cookbooks to appear at the top of your search results by checking the Favor my cookbooks checkbox.
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Tips:
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- To specify your favorite cookbooks click on Favor my cookbooks beneath the Search Box.
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Summary of Examples
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This Search Criteria
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Will Produce This Result
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oyster
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recipes that contain the word oyster
|
|
oyster stew
|
recipes that contain the phrase oyster stew - not just the word oyster
|
|
lamb AND mint
|
recipes that contain both lamb and mint
|
|
lamb AND mint leaf
|
recipes that contain both the word lamb and the phrase mint leaf
|
|
chicken AND mushroom AND garlic
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recipes that contain all three ingredients
|
|
chicken AND mushroom AND child
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recipes that contain chicken and mushroom that are from books by Julia Child
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mushroom OR garlic
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recipes that contain either mushroom or garlic
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chicken AND rice AND NOT garlic
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recipes that contain both chicken and rice and do not contain garlic
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chicken AND NOT chicken stock
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recipes that contain the word chicken but not the phrase chicken stock
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stir-fry AND NOT wok
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stir-fry recipes that do not call for a wok
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chicken AND mushroom AND (garlic OR saffron)
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recipes that contain both chicken and mushroom and either garlic or saffron
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chicken AND mushroom AND garlic OR saffron
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recipes that contain chicken and mushroom and garlic or recipes that contain saffron
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chicken AND mushroom AND NOT (garlic OR saffron)
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recipes that contain both chicken and mushroom and neither garlic nor saffron
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chicken AND mushroom AND NOT garlic OR saffron
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recipes that contain chicken and mushroom and do not contain garlic or recipes that contain saffron
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mint
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recipes that contain the word mint or MINT or Mint
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Mint
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recipes that contain the word Mint
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blue
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recipes that contain the word blue - e.g. blue cheese, blue crab
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blue*
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recipes that contain words that begin with blue - e.g. blue cheese, blue crab, blueberry, bluefish
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scallion
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recipes that contain the word scallion
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onion
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recipes that contain onion, Bermuda onion, red onion, green onion, scallion, spring onion, Spanish onion, Vidalia onion, white onion, yellow onion, etc.
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brisket
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recipes that contain the word brisket
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beef
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recipes that contain beef, brisket, chuck, round steak, rump roast, sirloin steak, and any other meats in the beef family
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scallion (and French selected from the Regional list box)
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recipes that contain the word scallion and are french regional dishes
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scallion and french (typed directly in the Search Box)
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recipes that contain the words scallion and french
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strawberry (and desert selected from the Course list box and ice cream freezer selected from the Equipment list box)
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recipes that contain the word strawberry and are deserts that call for the use of an ice cream freezer
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chicken and mushroom (and kosher selected on the Dietary Preferences page)
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recipes that contain chicken and mushroom and are kosher
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chicken and tomato (and 400 Calories or less AND 400 mg of Sodium or less selected on the Dietary Preferences page)
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recipes that contain the chicken and tomato and 400 Calories or less and 400 mg of Sodium or less per serving
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pizza (and dairy typed in the Always Exclude box on the Dietary Preferences page)
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pizza recipes that call for no dairy products
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