This feature customizes recipes to your needs and preferences, including:

• Swapping out ingredients you don't have on hand
• Adjusting ingredients to meet dietary needs
• Scaling the recipe for a bigger or smaller number of servings
• Working with the equipment and tools you already own

If your request departs too much from the original recipe, or it sounds like you're looking for a different dish altogether, the feature may recommend another NYT Cooking recipe that is closer to what you've requested, or ask that you try a different request. Our own tested, edited recipes are always the best place to start.

1. Open a recipe in the NYT Cooking app. 
2. Select the customization chat box just above the ingredients list.
3. Type your request into the box and press enter.
4. The feature may ask follow-up questions and provide options for how to proceed. Select an option or keep chatting to generate different results.
5. Once you’ve arrived at an updated recipe, you will see a View your version button. Select the Your Version tab to view the recipe page with changes in orange.
6. Use the Original / Your Version toggle at the bottom of the screen to check the original recipe anytime without losing your place, or select X to exit and revert to the full original recipe. 
7. Want to keep refining? Select the star icon (✦) at the bottom of the page or Continue customizing… above the ingredients.
8. To view all of your customized versions, select View your history underneath the chat box or the version count above the recipe title.

What to expect

Text from the original recipe will be black and your requested changes will be orange.

Customized versions have not been cooked, tested, edited, or checked by our team.

Once you have a customized recipe, you can:

• Print your version.
• Use Cook Mode in the app.
• Comment on the dish on the original recipe page, noting that you’ve customized the recipe and describing the adjustments you’ve made.

Your versions cannot be saved to your Recipe Box, rated, or shared; if you would like to share feedback about the recipe customization, see How to Provide Feedback below. 

The sources behind the customization feature

When you request a change, our customization tool prioritizes our most trustworthy, human-tested sources. The tool evaluates sources in this order:

1. The recipe itself. If the recipe's author already covered the request in the introductory note, ingredients, steps or tips, that information is used first.
2. Our Ingredient Substitution Guide. NYT Cooking's guide to swapping ingredients is then utilized to fulfill your request.
3. User comments. If cooks in our community have already tried something similar, their feedback is factored in next.
4. A.I., drawing on our expertise. If none of the above cover your request, the tool takes principles established by our editors and applies them to its base of information to provide a response. 

To learn more about how the tool customized your version, select the Sources dropdown under the View your version button in the customization chat box.

You can submit feedback directly under any response in the chat by clicking the thumbs up or thumbs down icons, or by selecting Send us feedback on the recipe page. Add optional details in the comment box, then submit.

Feedback and custom version chats are only used by The New York Times and will not be used to train third-party A.I. models. The New York Times collects chat and usage data in order to improve the recipe customization process. Please do not enter any personal information, such as sensitive data related to your health or religious beliefs, that you do not want stored or used in this manner. To learn more about how we process your personal information, please see our Privacy Policy.

When do I get a customized version?

A View your version button will appear in the chat when the recipe has been updated with your request. Select that button or close the chat to view the new customized recipe.

Not every chat message results in a new version right away, especially if the prompt is a more general question rather than a direct request. Sometimes, the chat will ask a follow up question or offer options.

Within a single chat, you will receive one customized version. If you want to make more changes to that version, you can continue customizing in that chat. Your version will update to reflect your latest request. You will not receive multiple versions; if you want to go back to an earlier point in the chat, see What if the change isn't what I want? below.

What if the change isn't what I want?

If your version isn’t what you need or want, you can:

• Adjust or undo: Continue the chat to ask for a fix to the change it made or to undo it.
• Start fresh: Whether you save a past version or delete it, select the + button to start a new chat for a completely new customized version.
• Give feedback: Use the thumbs up or thumbs down icons under any response to send feedback straight to our team and help us improve.
• Delete: If you want to get rid of that change altogether, click the clock icon to view your history and delete a version entirely.

Where are my older custom versions? 

Custom versions are saved even after you leave a recipe. You can access them:

• From the original recipe page or the Your version recipe page: Select the version count at the top of the recipe above the title and accompanied by the star icon (✦) or select View your history under the chat box.
• From within the chat experience: Select the clock icon on the top right corner.

How do I delete custom versions?

To delete a custom version, select the version count at the top of the recipe or select View your history underneath the customization chat box. Swipe left on the version you wish to delete, then select the trash icon.  

What's in the floating toolbar at the bottom of my screen and how do I use it?

• In your version of a recipe, you'll see a toolbar at the bottom of the screen with four options: 
  • Original, Your version, a small X and the star icon (✦)
• Original and Your version work together as a toggle. 
  • When you select View your version from the chat, or one of your versions from your version history, you will land on your version of the recipe.
  • From that page, you can use this toggle to easily compare your version with the original without losing your changes.

By default, when you customize a recipe and see the View your version button in the chat experience, you'll land on the recipe with Your version selected.

• If you toggle to Original, you will see the original published recipe, but not the Shop ingredients, Convert or Scale features. If you’d like to use those features, select the small X to the right of Your version. That takes you to the original published recipe page and all of the original features will be restored.
• The star icon (✦) takes you back to the chat.

Why is the feature declining to answer or comply with my request?

This is a recipe customization tool, so it's built to help you adjust ingredients, techniques and other parts of a recipe.

It may decline requests that are unrelated to the recipe or fall outside of what it's designed to support. It may also not comply with requests that would not work in a recipe.