Demy Kitchen Safe Touchscreen Recipe Reader

by Demy

Product Features

• Kitchen-safe touchscreen recipe reader that holds your personal recipe collection in one compact device
• 7-inch touchscreen with an intuitive graphical navigation interface, adjustable font size
• Comes pre-loaded with 250 recipes; can store up to 2500 recipes
• Accesses recipes saved to Key Ingredient web site; syncs via included USB cable conneced to PC
• Splash-resistant design and sturdy plastic exterior can be cleaned with damp cloth

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.4 x 3.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B001T43NQO
• Item model number: Demy0001
• Batteries: 1 Lithium ion batteries required.
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (43 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #28,473 in Kitchen & Dining (See Top 100 in Kitchen & Dining)

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Designed for cooks to have their favorite recipes at their fingertips, the Demy Kitchen Safe Touchscreen Recipe Reader from Key Ingredient holds your personal recipe collection in one compact, sleek device. Rather than risk splashing or spilling ingredients on your laptop or trying to read a smartphone's tiny screen while following a recipe, the Demy is designed to thrive in the unpredictable and often messy kitchen environment. It offers a splash-resistant design and sturdy plastic exterior that's easy to clean. Spills easily wipe off the sealed touchscreen with a damp cloth.

A powerful kitchen tool, the Demy can store up to 2500 recipes, has a splash-resistant, auto-rotating 7-inch touchscreen display, and includes three kitchen timer and quick conversions.

The Demy includes a high-resolution 7-inch touchscreen with an intuitive graphical navigation interface and easily adjustable font size. The Demy only takes up as much space as a 5 by 7-inch card, and you can stand the Demy on its end--automatically flipping the screen-- to that it only takes up the space of a 3 x 5 card. Other features include three built-in timers, measurement conversion tool and a handy list of ingredient substitutions.

It stores up to 2500 of your favorite recipes, and the device syncs up to your keyingredient.com account just by plugging it into the USB on your computer. At the Key Ingredient web site, you can build your free personal recipe collection by typing in, copying and pasting, import from other sites, or select from over 100,000 tested recipes already posted on the site. The Demy includes an AC adapter and USB cable.

Features

• Store up to 2500 recipes. Have all of your personal, favorite and road tested recipes right at your fingertips--all available in your kitchen. The Demy syncs up to your keyingredient.com account just by plugging it into the USB on your computer.
• Two different viewing angles. The Demy only takes up as much space as a 5 x 7 card. Still need more space? Stand your Demy on end. The screen flips automatically, and it only takes up the space of a 3 x 5 card
• Designed to meet the demands of a busy kitchen. The splash-resistant design and sturdy plastic exterior make it easy to clean. Spills easily wipe off the sealed touchscreen with a damp cloth.
• A virtual library of every recipe in your Demy. Accessing your recipes has never been easier. Jump to any letter in your recipe collection with just one tap. You can also organize your collection into cookbooks on keyingredient.com
• Adjust font size as needed. Tap Demy's "Font Size" button and enlarge text until your eyes are comfortable.
• Quickly access your favorite recipes. Making a brunch or a complex holiday meal? Simply find each recipe you want and add it to your Short List. They'll be waiting for you on a short list that you can easily flip through as you cook.
• Three built-in timers. No need to juggle cooking times as the Demy comes with three built-in timers, which notify you with flashes and tones as each cooking time expires.
• Milliliters to teaspoons and ounces to grams. Don't remember how many ounces are in a pound? The Demy's conversion tool will quickly convert your portions from one measurement to another.
• Thorough list of ingredient alternatives. No need to make the emergency trips to the grocery store or delay meal time for one missing ingredient. Quickly access a list of ingredient substitutions that will save the day.

The Cookbooks page is a shortcut to all of your recipes organized into cookbooks (see larger image).

The Ingredient Substitution list includes over 200 tough to find ingredients along with substitution suggestions that can get you by in a pinch (see larger image).

Time three different recipes at once (see larger image).

The convert feature allows you to make common cooking weight and volume conversions (see larger image).

PC Requirements

• Microsoft Windows XP or Vista operating system; Apple Mac OS X 10.5 operating system or later
• IE 6+, Firefox or Safari web browser
• USB 2.0 port
• Internet connection

What's in the Box
This package includes the Demy, battery, AC adapter, USB cable, quick start guide, and warranty information. The Demy is covered by a 90-day warranty, which can be extended to 2 years with purchase of the optional Demy Care Plan.

Frequently Asked Questions

Spills easily wipe off the sealed touchscreen with a damp cloth.

How do I get recipes on the Demy?
The Demy is powered by keyingredient.com, the best site on the internet for you to find, create, share and collect your recipes. Membership is free and getting started is easy. Once you have a keyingredient.com account, you can use recipes from the Key Ingredient site or use your own recipes by typing them in or by sending your hard copy recipes to be transcribed for you using scanmyrecipes.com. Then, simply plug the Demy USB cable into your Mac or PC and the Demy automatically syncs your recipe collection from keyingredient.com.

Are my recipes kept private?
You can choose to preserve your recipes as a completely private collection or you can select some or all of your recipes to be shared with a just a few selected friends or even to the public.

What does kitchen-safe mean?
The Demy was created to meet the demands of a busy kitchen. Its splash-resistant design and sturdy plastic exterior make it easy to clean. Spills and smudges easily wipe off the sealed touchscreen with a damp cloth. The Demy has been tested to withstand splashes, but should never be submerged or placed under running water.

Is it dangerous to have an electric device like the Demy in the kitchen?
No, the Demy has been tested safe for normal kitchen use. However, like most electric kitchen appliances, it should not be submerged or placed in running or standing water.

How do I clean the Demy?
No special cloths or liquids are required to clean the Demy. A soft, damp cloth will work fine.

Product Description

The Demy is the world’s first touchscreen, kitchen-safe digital recipe reader. The Demy is designed to deliver a complete recipe collection to cooks in the kitchen. The Demy also includes handy tools like 3 kitchen timers, a measurement conversion calculator and an ingredient substitution dictionary to get cooks out of a pinch if they are one special ingredient short. The Demy is designed to thrive in the unpredictable and often messy kitchen environment. Its high resolution, capacitive glass touchscreen packs a sealed 7” monitor into a footprint of just a 5 x 7 card. The Demy can also stand upright, taking up the counter space of just a 3 x 5 card. The screen rotates automatically for easy viewing. Each Demy recipe collection is powered by the KeyIngredient website, the best place to find, create, share and collect all of your recipes. The Demy unit comes pre-loaded with 250 recipes and has the capacity to hold 2,500 recipes complete with photographs, descriptions, ingredients and steps. And your complete recipe collection on KeyIngredient can be synced to your Demy in minutes with the included USB cable. The Demy puts all of your recipes at the tip of your finger.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

536 of 539 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great idea, but not-so-good execution, July 10, 2009

By 

Biblioholic Beth (Portland, Oregon USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Demy Kitchen Safe Touchscreen Recipe Reader (Kitchen)

I have been wanting to purchase this since way before it was released - I would go to the website and dream about all the cool ways to use it. So, when I was given some money and gift certificates for my birthday, I ordered the Demy right away.

It arrived yesterday, and having played with it for several hours (including adding recipes and "cookbooks"), I have several observations.

Pros:
1. Solid construction and intuitive use. The power button is on the bottom and is easy to spot. On either side of the power button are the sockets for the usb cable (included) and the charger (also included). They both have rubber covers that can be placed over the outlet when they are not being used to prevent food getting inside.

2. Able to change font size and brightness level. There are 3 settings for each, making it nice when you're looking at the screen around a big mixing bowl, etc. You can also change the time before the Demy dims and before it "sleeps".

3. The included "gadgetry" in the software. The conversion calculator, the 3 timers, the substitution list - all are terrific. And of course, the ability to put recipes in separate folders ("cookbooks").

4. The recipe input process is fairly painless. I'm a quick typist, so I chose to input my recipes myself rather than paying to have them scanned for me, and the area to input recipes is easy to use. It's a nice, clean interface and is also easy to copy-and-paste if there are favored recipes on other websites.

Cons:
1. The cookbooks that the Demy came pre-loaded (as well as the individual recipes) cannot be deleted *at this time*. I just spoke to someone in Customer Service, and apparently this option will not be available until mid-August at the earliest.

2. The cookbooks/recipes that are already on the Demy DO NOT show up on the recipe website. So for example, one of the pre-loaded cookbooks is "Beef and Pork". If you decide you like that cookbook and want to load a favorite beef recipe into that cookbook - it doesn't work because since they don't register on the website, there is no way to add them.

3. There is no way to add/delete recipes or cookbooks right on the Demy. A small issue, but one that would be tremendously nice to have. There is also no way to search by keywords, so if you're looking for a specific recipe that doesn't have one of the ingredients in the title, you're out of luck. The index only lists recipes alphabetically.

4. There is no way to delete cookbooks you add personally. That's right - if you add a cookbook and decide you want to delete it in favor of something else, it will delete on the website but NOT on the Demy. For example, when I realized that I couldn't access the Beef and Pork cookbook, I wondered if adding an identically titled cookbook would help by taking the place of the first one, allowing me to access it. Nope. I got two identically titled cookbooks - no big deal, until I realized after deleting it on the website that it will not come off the Demy.

5. While the Demy will "sleep" after whatever preset time you program, it will not turn off, so it still sucks battery power. To actually turn the machine off, you have to hold the power button in the back until it beeps. Of course, if your machine does turn off (battery dies, etc.), then when you power it back on, rather than going back to the recipe you were using, it takes you back to the home screen, leaving you to find your place again. Small issues, but ones that would be nice if they were fixed. It would be nice to have my original place come back first, particularly if I'm in the middle of a dish.

6. Another small complaint is the process for adding recipes to the website. I either have to type them all in myself, or pay something like 50 cents per recipe to the companion site to have them loaded to the website for me. So, if like many, I get this machine to store a lot of loose recipes, that's either a bunch of typing over a long period of time, or a fair amount of money. While I'm no software guru, I would think it would be possible to scan my own recipes in, rather than typing them all by hand. And for any recipes stored on my computer, like a photo program, the software could scan my computer and create a file to load.

Quite honestly, for the price of this item, most of these things should have been taken care of before it was released. I love the idea of the Demy, and would love to keep it, but the execution of the software leaves a lot to be desired and makes it much more clunky than helpful. I am honestly thinking hard about returning it until a later date when I know that these issues (or at least the big ones) will have been fixed.

177 of 178 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Demy Kitchen Safe an improvement over the paper clipping recipes, May 6, 2009

By 

Lillian (Great Neck, NY, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Demy Kitchen Safe Touchscreen Recipe Reader (Kitchen)

Update:
As of this week you can now remove the preloaded recipes from the Demy by e-mailing the tech support people & just giving them the e-mail address (not the password) associated with your [...] account. It's an all or nothing process (i.e. you can't select which recipes you want removed) but at least you can get those old cookbooks off.
I've also had some discussions with the support people and 'in the works' is going to be an option to search recipes by tags so you'll, hopefully, be able to tag recipes and then find all the 'chicken & garlic" ones without having to scroll thru everying. For now my work around has been to create multiple cookebooks & since you can have a recipe in more than one cookbook I've used those as 'drill down' tags.

I've had the unit for over a month but didn't appreciate it's full value until today when they finally got the synchronization software working.
The Demy is basically a touchscreen, full color, loose leaf cookbook with added functionality.
The reason that I call it a loose leaf cookbook is that by setting up a free account at [...] you can type in all your recipes that you've collected from newspapers, magazines, the internet, etc. and have them downloaded to the device. If you're too lazy to type them in yourself, for a price, key ingredient's partner will scan them in for you so that you can download them to the unit. The 250 recipes that come preloaded on the unit cannot be removed but when you download your own recipes they show up alphabetized in their own file (cookbook) so that you can find them easily by either scrolling thru the list of recipes or typing in the first letter of the dish's name and having that part of the alphabet in the list show up.
You can create as many cookbooks on the [...] website as you want and your recipes can show up in as many cookbooks as you'd like. For example I have one cookbook for internet recipes, one for newspaper recipes and one for holiday recipes. Some of the recipes I have will show up in both the internet & holiday 'cookbooks' making it easy to set up as many cookbooks as you want each containing only the menu you want for a particular event (this is only really useful for events, such as Thanksgiving, where you have the same recipe every time (like the stuffing). I wish you could create new cookbooks on the unit but right now that's not possible. You can create a 'favorite recipe' quick list on the Demy where you can list menu for a meal but can only make one of these at a time.

Some of the other functionality include:
1) 3 separate cooking timers
2) A conversion function so that you can convert tbls. to cups, etc.
3) A substitution function so that if you're out of baking powder it will tell you how to substitute baking soda.

All and all it's a fun unit but I'd only recommend it for people comfortable with installing software and working with websites for their databases.

88 of 88 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars LOVE This!! **They've Fixed Some Of The Bugs**..., January 3, 2010

By 

Mercedes L. Johnmeyer "The Most Happy" (Summerville, SC) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Demy Kitchen Safe Touchscreen Recipe Reader (Kitchen)

I got this for Christmas from my hubby and I absolutely LOVE it! I initially saw this in a cooking magazine in November and was drawn to it as I'd never seen anything like it...basically it's like a Kindle for my kitchen! I read all the reviews I could find, went to the Key Ingredient website to read up on it, and ultimately decided I needed this (I really did too, my recipes were scattered ALL OVER this house). Some of the main problems people had with this device when it first came out seem to have been taken care of.

The Demy comes with a bunch of recipes preloaded on it. Some people may like this, but from what I've seen, many do not. I went through them all and only found one recipe out of the bunch I was interested in keeping, so I moved it to one of my personal cookbooks. If you email Key Ingredient support and let them know you want them removed, they'll get back to you VERY quickly (I heard back from a rep within 10 minutes) and tell you they've deleted them for you, and the next time you sync your Demy to your Key Ingredient account, they'll all be gone (and they mean ALL, you can't pick and choose, so if you see something you like, make sure you add it to one of your own cookbooks). Also, I guess you used to not be able to delete cookbooks or recipes that you added to your account, well, this has been changed as well. You can now delete anything you add.

It does take a little time to add your recipes to your KI acct, but many of mine were from places like 'Taste of Home' or 'Kraft Foods', so I was able to cut and paste the picture and the recipes to my KI page. When you've entered in all your recipes and downloaded the software from their webpage, just plug your Demy in, hit the sync button on your browser, and all your stuff gets transferred to the device. Simple! ****Everything you do is through the website, you cannot add or delete recipes from the device itself.****

My only complaint about this gadget (and it's pretty small), is there's a font button that lets you select how large you want the text to be. I like mine in the middle, however the device will not remember this. So every time you turn the Demy on for use, is automatically goes to the smallest text. Not the end of the world really, just a minor annoyance. The graphics are very bright and clear, and shows photos of your recipes without any issue. I've used the converter tool a bunch of times already, and the three built-in timers are very handy if you're cooking more than one thing at a time.

Overall, I DEFINITELY recommend this if you're like me...someone who has a million single recipes or cooking magazines lying around. I would find a recipe in a magazine that I wanted to try, earmark the page, only to have it get tossed somewhere, or buried under older mags. This device lets me keep everything in ONE place! I have a Demy cookbook of my family's favorites, another one for recipes I'd like to try, and so on. When I try something new, it's a cinch to move it over to my family favorites cookbook, or to delete it if it was no good. This may not be for everyone as it is a bit steep in price, but if you cook often and want to get more organized, I absolutely think this is a good investment. I use mine almost every night.