RecolaHow to save recipes from Instagram
By Cayden and Eden, Recola's founders. Updated .
To save a recipe on Instagram, tap the bookmark under the reel or post. Hold the bookmark instead to put it straight into a collection, such as Recipes. Instagram keeps the post, but the recipe stays inside the video, the slides and the caption.
To keep the recipe itself, share the post to Recola. Recola reads the reel or every slide of a carousel, plus the caption, and writes out the ingredients, amounts and steps.
The free way: Instagram Saved
Saving is built into Instagram and costs nothing. Menus move between app updates, so if a label differs, look for the bookmark.
Hold the bookmark
Under the reel or post, press and hold the bookmark icon. Pick a collection, or tap the plus to make one called Recipes.
Or tidy up later
Open your profile, tap the menu, then Saved. Tap the plus to make a collection and choose posts from your saves to put in it.
Find it later
Profile, menu, Saved, then the collection.
This keeps the post. It doesn't keep the recipe: amounts sit in a caption you have to expand, steps go by at video speed, and there is no list to shop from. Instagram's saves can't be searched by what is in them, so one dish among hundreds of saves is a long scroll.
With Recola: the reel becomes a recipe
Recola is an iPhone app for everything you save. Setting it up takes a minute the first time; after that it is two taps.
Share the post
On the reel or carousel, tap the paper plane, then Share to in the row of options along the bottom.
Pick Recola
In the iPhone share sheet, tap Recola, or Save to Recola in the list under the apps. The first time, you may need to tap More to find it. After that it stays in reach.
Tap Done and keep scrolling
Recola confirms the save in about a second. It reads the video while you carry on, and lets you know when it has been filed.
Cook from it
Open Recipes in Recola. The dish is there with its ingredients and amounts, the steps in order, and a timer on any step that has a time in it.
What you get back
- Ingredients with amounts, from the video, the slides or the caption. An amount Recola had to estimate is marked, so you know which ones to check.
- Every slide of a carousel read, so a recipe written across six slides arrives as one.
- The steps in order, with a tap-to-start timer on any step that has a time in it.
- Servings you can change, with the amounts following, and a shopping list you can send.
- The original post one tap away.
- Your Instagram, TikTok and YouTube recipes together, searchable by what you remember.
Questions
Does this work for reels and carousels?
Yes. Recola reads a reel's video and audio, every slide of a carousel, and the caption of either.
Can I save Instagram recipes for free?
Saving inside the app you found it in is free. Recola is a subscription through the App Store, and the Monthly and Annual plans start with a free trial.
Does Recola work on Android?
Not yet. Recola is on iPhone today.
Does Recola download the reel?
No. Recola reads the video to pull out what is in it, then deletes its copy. The original stays where it was posted, one tap away.
Can I move all my saved Instagram recipes into Recola?
Not in one go. Instagram and TikTok don't let other apps see your saved folders, so you share posts to Recola one at a time. The easy habit is to share instead of tapping the bookmark from now on, and to pass old saves over to Recola whenever you come across them.
Can I save recipes from TikTok and YouTube too?
Yes. Recola works from Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and nine more apps, plus Safari and your camera roll, and everything lands in the same ten collections.