Capseta v. 0.11.0 — Cooking Mode
Cooking Mode is now available. A focused, full-screen cooking view with large readable text and step-by-step navigation — designed for real kitchen conditions.
Note added August 31, 2026. This post describes v0.11.0 as it shipped in March 2026. Voice control has since been withdrawn — it routed audio through a cloud service, which we were not willing to keep doing, and it was removed in June 2026. Everything else described below — the full-screen view, large type, step-by-step navigation, keep-awake — is still how Cooking Mode works, and read-aloud returned using on-device voices only. Hands-free voice will come back when it can run entirely on your device. The post is left as written except for the voice-control passages below, which are corrected inline: as published they described how we believed the feature worked, and that description was wrong.
Cooking Mode is now available in Capseta.
This update focuses on one moment: when you’re actually standing in the kitchen, trying to cook from a recipe.
What’s new
A focused cooking view
Recipes now open in a dedicated cooking mode designed for real kitchen conditions:
- Large, readable text you can see from across the counter
- One step at a time — no scrolling through long pages
- Clean layout with no popups, ads, or distractions
The goal is simple: when you’re cooking, the interface should get out of the way.
Hands-free navigation
Withdrawn, June 2026. This section described voice commands for advancing, going back, and repeating a step. It also said the commands were processed locally in your browser. That was not correct. The browser speech API we relied on sent audio to a cloud service for recognition. Nothing was recorded or stored by us, but audio did leave the device, which is not what this post told you and not a trade we were willing to keep making. The feature was removed in June 2026. Read-aloud has since returned using on-device voices only. Hands-free voice control has not, and will not until it can run entirely on your device.
Keyboard support
For non-touch use, Cooking Mode also supports:
- Arrow keys to move between steps
- Spacebar to advance
This makes it usable on laptops, tablets with keyboards, or any setup where touch isn’t ideal.
Why this matters
Most recipe apps work fine when you’re browsing. They break down when you’re actually cooking.
- Small text
- Endless scrolling
- Ads and popups
- Screens that assume clean hands and full attention
Cooking Mode is built for the opposite: messy hands, split attention, real-time use.
It’s part of a larger idea: your recipes should be usable, not just stored.
How to use it
- Open any recipe in your collection
- Click “Cooking Mode”
- Step through the recipe using touch or keyboard
That’s it.
What’s next
We’re continuing to improve Cooking Mode based on real use:
- Clearer step formatting for complex recipes
- Better handling of timers and parallel steps
If something doesn’t work the way you expect, let us know — we read every message.
Try it
Open one of your saved recipes and cook from it this week. Or import a new recipe and see how it works in practice.
Try it with the recipe you’d be sad to lose.
Save it, plan the week around it, and cook from any screen. Free during the public beta.
Joe Schick co-founded Capseta with Marie Schick. He writes here about what we’re building and why.
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