SuperCook Alternative That Knows How Much You Have: The Pantry

The same question, answered from a real kitchen

A tick list knows you own rice

Checked or unchecked. That's all a tick list can hold, so every recipe with rice in it looks possible, including the one that needs three cups when there's one left in the bag.

The Pantry knows you have a cup and a half

Every item carries an amount and a unit. Recipes are matched on whether you have enough, and sorted into make it now and missing one thing, with the missing thing named. Cook one and the amounts come off, so tomorrow's list is true too.

Nothing to tick, ever

The shelves fill from a receipt photo or a barcode scan and empty when you cook. You never maintain the list. You open the app and the answer is waiting.

Side by side

The first two rows are what both apps do. The rest is what an inventory adds.

What you want to do	The Pantry	SuperCook
Finds recipes from ingredients you have	✓	✓
Runs in a browser as well as the app stores	✓	✓
Knows how much of each thing you haveAmounts and units, not ticks	✓	•
Fills itself from a paper receipt or a barcodeNo ticking, ever	✓	•
Tells you if you have enough for the recipeMake it now, or missing one	✓	•
Subtracts the ingredients when you cookConverts and deducts	✓	•
Flags food to use before it turnsWith recipes to use it	✓	•
Reads your own recipes from a photo or a videoCookbook page or TikTok	✓	•
Publishes your recipe to a community of cooksBrowsable in the app	✓	•
Shares one kitchen with the whole householdOne plan covers all	✓	•

✓ means the app advertises it. A dot means it wasn't part of SuperCook's own published description or website when we checked on September 21, 2026. Apps change, and if it has added something since, write to us and we'll put it right.

What SuperCook is

Its home page is the product: a grid of ingredients by category, with a checkbox next to each one and a count of how many you've ticked. Tick what you have and it searches a large set of recipes gathered from thousands of cooking websites. It assumes you have salt, pepper and water and nothing else until you say so.

That's the whole model, and it's a search engine's model. The list of what you own lives in your head, you type it into the app each time, and the app has no idea how much of anything is there or when it changes.

Where a tick list runs out

Recipes don't ask for some rice. They ask for two cups. A checkbox can't hold two cups, so a tick list will keep proposing dinners you can't finish, and there's no way to tell the good suggestions from the ones that end at the stove with one egg where three were needed. And because nothing ever unticks itself, the list drifts away from the real kitchen a little more every day you cook.

What The Pantry does instead

An inventory, not a list

Five shelves: pantry, fridge, freezer, spices, and household for the paper towels. Every item with an amount and a unit. It fills from a photograph of any store's receipt, from a barcode matched against two food databases, from a spoken list, or from typing when nothing else fits.

Matching on enough

Every recipe in the library, more than 400,000 of them, has been read closely enough to know its quantities, so the match is arithmetic: two cups needed, two cups on the shelf, make it now. One cup on the shelf, missing rice, and the missing amount goes on the list.

Deduction when you cook

Tell the app you cooked it and the ingredients come off at the amounts the recipe used, converting cups to grams per food on the way. The inventory stays true without you touching it, which means the recipe list stays true too.

The rest of the kitchen

Best-by estimates and use it soon. A grocery list that writes itself from running low plus whatever you've planned. A household sharing one kitchen, one list and one plan on one subscription. Your own recipes in by photo, link or TikTok. A community of cooks who publish their keepers to each other. And no ads, anywhere.

Questions people ask first

What's the difference between SuperCook and The Pantry?

SuperCook is a recipe search: you tick the ingredients you have and it finds recipes that use them. The Pantry is an inventory: it knows what's on your shelves and how much, fills itself from receipts and barcodes, and takes ingredients out when you cook. The recipe matching is the same idea, done from a kitchen the app actually knows.

Does SuperCook know how much of something I have?

Its own site works from a tick list: an ingredient is either checked or it isn't. The Pantry keeps the amount and the unit, so it can tell you whether you have enough for the recipe, not just whether you have some.

Do I have to tick my ingredients every time in The Pantry?

No. The shelves fill from a receipt photo or a barcode scan, and they go down when you cook. The list of what you can make is already there when you open the app.

Does The Pantry match on ingredients I already have, like SuperCook?

Yes, and on whether you have enough of them. Recipes are sorted into make it now and missing one thing, with the missing thing named and one tap from the grocery list.

How many recipes does The Pantry have?

More than 400,000, every one read closely enough to know the amounts, which is what makes matching on enough possible. The count is live on the home page.

Is The Pantry free?

Free to start with no card. The free plan includes the inventory with amounts, the full catalogue with live matching, barcode scanning, a grocery list and a week of meal planning. There are no ads.

Tick boxes tell an app what you own. Amounts tell it what you can cook.