zlacker

>>spice+(OP)
I think the answer lies in "choice and themes". When you select a book for the kitchen shelf you have selected an author whose recipes you trust or you have selected a particular niche. Hunting for a recipe in your bookshelf is relatively "safe" and the limited choice an advantage when you come to actually making a selection (albeit on available ingredients or the style or mood of a meal).

Compared to the relative intimacy of a recipe book a computer based search (or worse, probably, an Internet search) seems sterile in comparison.

The answer might be somewhere in web 2.0 land though. Would you trust the recommendations of friends more than those on your bookshelf? Could the software learn what you like and come up with better selections in future? Solving this problem might require an understanding of just what it is in any given dish that characterises it and thus appeals or not to any given consumer. Analysing those characteristics could provide an excellent basis for a recommendations engine.

>>bdfh42+J
Well one very web 1.0 solution would be a big online cookbook with good recipes & articles & such. I'd settle for that.

>>spice+N
Such exist ( as a search for just "Recipes" in Google shows) but as I thought your question, that is the foundation of this thread, pointed out - they do not seem to represent a "solution" to the computer in the kitchen.