How ReciLore matches ingredients

Updated 2026-09-11

Matching happens in up to three stages.

1. Naming the ingredient

When a recipe is imported, ReciLore reads each ingredient line ("2 cloves garlic, minced") and tries to resolve it to a known ingredient ("garlic") using a built-in ingredient list. It strips quantities, units, and preparation words, and handles plurals and common compound names.

If a line is unusual or ambiguous, ReciLore leaves it unresolved rather than picking something that might be wrong.

2. Checking it against your pantry

For the ✓ In pantry tag and for the grocery list's pantry section, ReciLore takes the resolved ingredient name and checks whether it matches one of your pantry staples — either exactly, or through a curated equivalence (next section). This is separate from combining lines on the grocery list, which only merges lines that resolved to the same ingredient and use the same unit.

3. Curated equivalents

For a small set of everyday staples, ReciLore also recognises close variants as the same thing — so flagging one staple quietly covers the others too:

• Salt: table salt, kosher salt, sea salt, Himalayan salt, flake salt
• Olive oil: olive oil, extra virgin olive oil, virgin olive oil
• Neutral cooking oils: vegetable, sunflower, canola, corn, and similar oils
• Vinegars: grouped by type (e.g. white/distilled vinegars together, wine vinegars together)
• A handful of others (sweeteners like corn/glucose syrup, fats like shortening)

This list is small and hand-picked — only genuine "doesn't matter which one you have" swaps, not a general substitution feature. When it applies, the affected row on your grocery list or Pantry screen says so ("Also covers: …" on a staple, "Covered by your {staple} staple" on a grocery item).

Why "2% milk" still may not match "milk"

Outside that curated list, ReciLore treats a more specific ingredient as a different ingredient — "2% milk", "whole milk", and "buttermilk" aren't automatically "milk". This is on purpose: a false "you already have this" is more annoying than a missed match, because it can leave you short an ingredient mid-recipe.

What you can do

• Add the specific form as its own pantry staple (for example add "buttermilk").
• Edit the recipe's ingredient text to a simpler name if it was imported oddly — see Editing ingredients.