Amazon Echo Can Now Read Cooking Instructions Out Loud Step by Step

MakeUseOf

By Nancy Messieh

Published Dec 30, 2016

If you have an Amazon Echo and aren't using it while cooking, this new feature will change your life. Never before has cooking from a recipe been easier!

There are lots of creative uses for the Amazon Echo, one of which is using it in the kitchen when cooking. Recipe website All Recipes recently introduced an Amazon Echo skill that harnesses its endless recipes for hands-free instructions as you cook.

To enable the All Recipes skill, navigate to your Amazon Echo account either on the mobile app or in a web browser. Go to Skills, search for AllRecipes and tap Enable Skill. If you're in the vicinity of your Amazon Echo just use the voice command, Alexa, enable the AllRecipes skill.

Alexa will enable the skill, but you will have to launch the app anyway to link your AllRecipes account in order to use it.

How to Use the Skill

There are several things you can do with the All Recipes skill. You can search for and save new recipes, search your favorites, and most importantly, get step by step instructions as you cook.

You can use the following commands with Alexa and the AllRecipes skill:

To open: "Alexa, open AllRecipes."
To search: "Alexa, find me a pumpkin pie recipe."
To find out more about the recipe's descriptions, ingredients, and cooking time: "Alexa, recipe details."
To get step by step instructions: "Alexa, start cooking."
To find out the next step in the recipe: "Alexa, next"
To repeat the last step: "Alexa, previous."
To repeat the current step: "Alexa, repeat."
To close the skill: "Alexa, exit AllRecipes."

If you like complete and total control over your meal planning, you can ask for specific recipes. If you're more interested in cooking something last minute, you can ask Alexa to find recipes based on your ingredients ("Alexa, what can I make with...") and Echo will suggest a recipe, tell you its rating, and how long it takes to cook. If you don't have the appropriate quantity or don't have enough time, for example, you can adjust the results by asking more questions.

When interacting with the skill to find a recipe, you don't have to keep repeating Alexa as it will take on a more natural conversation in which you are answering her questions. Once you start cooking, however, you will have to use the Alexa command.

To get the most out of the skill, check out the full list of commands you can use.

Do you have any tips or tricks for using the Amazon Echo in the kitchen? Let us know in the comments.