Plan you meals from the pantry, to the shopping cart, to the table. Begin your menu with suggested courses or choose your own from the many cookbooks provided. If you are counting your calories or have a special diet to plan for, MasterCook: Deluxe 5.0 provides a nutritional analysis of your meal. Once you have selected your recipe, you can highlight which ingredients you have in your pantry and the program will automatically create your shopping list.

Worried about the presentation? Have no fear! MasterCook: Deluxe 5.0 provides tips for any-level chef: from wines and spirits to how to clarify butter. If that isn't clear enough, there are also video clips provided by professional chefs demonstrating techniques, such as serving caviar or shucking oysters.

Throughout your meal planning, don't forget you can e-mail any recipes to your friends and family, search the World Wide Web for additional information, and keep track of your most decadent meals in your "favorites" file. The only drawback we found to MasterCook: Deluxe 5.0 occurred when we searched for a common ingredient, such as pork. With so much content, the program takes about five minutes to search its massive index of recipes (this isn't much of a drawback if you make sure to be specific). Bon appétit! --Madeleine Miller

Amazon.com Product Description
This new version of MasterCook includes over 5,000 recipes. It also features tools that track ingredients you need, ingredients you have on hand, and the nutritional content of each recipe. Version 5.0 includes instructional video clips from professional chefs.