Guide

How to save recipes from TikTok, reliably.

The favorites tab is where TikTok recipes go to be forgotten. You cannot search it by what is in your fridge, and cooking from a looping video means three rewinds to catch how much soy sauce. Almost every TikTok recipe is written down somewhere — the caption, a pinned comment, or a linked post — and each has a thirty-second path to a card you can actually cook from.

1

Check the caption and the pinned comment first

TikTok creators usually put the written recipe in the caption or a pinned comment, or point to a full recipe post on their site. Where it lives decides the fastest path, and it takes two seconds to check.

2

If there is a link to a full recipe, import that

When the creator links a recipe post, copy that link and paste it into Prep Slate's import, or on iPhone share it straight to Prep Slate. The importer pulls the ingredients, steps, times, and servings into a clean card, no autoplay, no ads.

3

If the recipe is written in the caption or comments, screenshot it

Open the caption or the pinned comment, screenshot it, and add the screenshots to a photo import in Prep Slate. The ingredients and steps are read out of the images, and long recipes can go in as several screenshots at once.

4

If it is only spoken in the video, jot it as you watch

Some recipes exist only in the voiceover. Pause and note the ingredients and steps, or screenshot the moments where amounts show on screen, then photo-import your notes. It is the one case with no shortcut, and apps that claim to have one have been caught inventing steps.

5

Check it, tag it, cook it

Give the imported card a quick read against the video, fix anything, and tag it. When you cook it, cook mode keeps the screen awake, shows each step with its own ingredients, and saves your place, which is more than the original TikTok will do for you.

Why not just use an app that imports the video directly? Because independent testing of those apps has documented extracted recipes that missed the most crucial step in the video and included steps that were never in it. A recipe you will cook next month deserves thirty seconds of checking today. Steps last verified July 2026; if TikTok changes the flow, tell us and we will update this guide.

The short version

Favorited is not the same as kept.

A favorited TikTok belongs to the algorithm. A recipe card in your library belongs to you: searchable, taggable, scalable before you start, pushable onto a shopping list that adds duplicates into real totals — and exportable as JSON or printable HTML any time, even after you cancel. Move the ten you actually mean to cook and see how different it feels.

Can Prep Slate import a recipe straight from a TikTok video?

Not from the video itself. Prep Slate imports from recipe URLs and from photos, including screenshots of captions and comments. Apps that advertise true video import have an AI guess at what is being cooked, and independent testing has documented missed steps and invented ones. We would rather you spend ten extra seconds and end up with the recipe the creator actually made.

What happens to all the recipe videos I have already favorited?

Work through them a few at a time with the same two paths: import the linked recipe post when there is one, screenshot the caption when there is not. It goes faster than it sounds, and every recipe you move becomes searchable, taggable, and scalable instead of buried in a favorites tab.

Why not just cook straight from the TikTok?

Because mid-recipe the video restarts, the screen dims, and the amounts are three rewinds back. A recipe card in cook mode keeps the screen awake, shows the current step next to its own ingredients, saves your place if you switch apps, and scales to your serving count before you start.

A note from
the maker

I am a home cook, not a chef. I cook most nights, I save recipes from all over, and for years I used the same apps everyone else does. They were good apps. I just had opinions.

I wanted the screen to stay lit at step three, with chicken on my hands. I wanted to check the ingredients without losing my place. I wanted to double a recipe without being handed two-thirds of an egg. None of that is a knock on anyone else's cook mode. I just knew exactly how I wanted mine to work, and I wanted it to be beautiful.

So I built the tool I wanted on the counter: one that stays out of the way while you cook. The screen stays lit. Your place is saved. The math is the math a cook would actually do. And your recipes are yours to take with you, always, even if you leave.

That is the whole idea. If it earns a place next to your stove, it has done its job.

PS

Mark

Home cook, maker of Prep Slate