Hi Richard
I thought about how I would set up this International Cookbook Database.
First I looked at a lot of cook books. They are all lacking in some way and very inconsistent.  
The size was going to be 500 Recipes maybe 1000

Step 1)  Doing it the conventional way would be a mammoth task.

Assigning each ingredient to  each recipe plus quantities would require a lot of work.
Then adding Meal type eg. Main Cake Dessert Drink ect:  and vegan, vegetarian, low fat, difficulty level, Preparation time Cook Time
The permutations are endless.
Then we have to think about adding the quantities 1/2 Teaspoon, 2 cups, 8 ozs ect.
Next convert all quantities to metric or Imperial measurements.
IT'S A MAJOR UNDERTAKING AND TOO HARD.

I can add a recipe from the Net in 3 minutes

a) Copy and paste the picture to my RecipePicFolder - Rename it the Dish Title. Then add it to the TitleTxtbox
b) Copy and paste the ingredients into the Ingredients Memo Field
c) Copy and paste the Method into the Method memo field

Select Meal type eg. Main, Dessert, Cake Pastries ect
Select Main Meal Ingredient eg. Fish, Pork, Chicken, Beef ect

Other Selections are optional : Easy: Vegan: Low Fat ect.
Job Done

So I can display beef , fish chicken with one button click in a ListBox. I have a lot of buttons on the form.
I can also select cakes, pastries,drinks ect with one button click.
Other selections are cooking by Country, British, American, Spanish, Asian ect.
All populate the Listbox by selection but not good enough. This is a database. Use it's power

Step 2)  Let Access do the work. Not me.
Scan the ingredients Memo field if Nomatch add the ingredient.
Get the ingredient ID in The Ingredients Table and add it to The Recipe Table : Loop through to the next word.

I have not decided how to set up the quantities yet whether I should put them in a separate table or not.
Run a query (which I would turn into an SQL anyway to convert all measurements and display them appropriately.

Step 3) This is why I need the word search routine NOT to use in the database but to help CREATE the database.

d) Adding recipes has to be quick and easy otherwise adding recipes becomes an absolute chore and I will give it up as too hard.
e) It has to be more flexible an easy to use. So copy and paste is not good enough.
f) I need to spend time working out how to manage heaps of options and categories. Not Data Entry.

g) 1) Add the recipe paste paste paste: 2) Run the word search routine add the ingredients and quantities to the tables.

I can now type "beef and carrots" and display the records.

I think it will take a while before I am happy with the results.
There is a lot to think about with both design and function. From the users ease of use point of view.

Regards Alan Hill

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Reply from Richard Rost:

How about this: you set up the COMMON ingredients in a table. Fish, beef, carrots, etc. Now, when you copy and paste the whole recipe into a memo field, you can then have an AfterUpdate event (or a button) that scans the memo field for keywords that you've already specified and then adds those keywords to the recipe. Now you have the categories set up for your automatically.

I would be MUCH faster to search for your recipes this way than to have to perform a search on memo fields EACH TIME you want to look for a recipe. Adding records usually happens a lot less frequently than searching for records.

Thoughts?