Epicurious Recipes Scraper

What does Epicurious Recipes Scraper do?

Epicurious Recipes Scraper collects recipe data from Epicurious collection pages, ingredient pages, and individual recipe URLs. Start with a page such as our-favorite-vegetarian-recipes or ingredient/banana, set a result limit, and download a structured dataset of recipe titles, ingredients, instructions, times, servings, ratings, tags, and source links.

The Actor is built for recipe research, food content planning, menu development, nutrition analysis, and AI datasets that need clean recipe records instead of copy-pasted text from web pages.

Why use Epicurious Recipes Scraper?

• Recipe datasets without manual work - Collect hundreds of recipe records with consistent field names and canonical URLs.
• Broad source coverage - Start from editorial collections, ingredient pages, or a single recipe.
• Control over detail depth - Collect full ingredients and instructions, or switch to a faster URL-only run.
• Ready for repeat runs - Schedule the Actor to refresh a recipe collection, monitor new additions, or build a data pipeline.
• Export and integration support - Download JSON, CSV, Excel, or XML, or send results to Google Sheets, webhooks, Make, Zapier, or your own API.
• Useful filtering fields - Separate recipes by recipe_type, category, cuisine, difficulty, tags, and ratings after collection.

What data can you extract from Epicurious?

Field	Description
title	Recipe name as published on Epicurious
author	Recipe author or contributor names
description	Short recipe summary
ingredients	Full ingredient line list
instructions_list	Step-by-step cooking instructions
prep_time, cook_time, total_time	Timing values published by the source
servings	Yield or serving information
difficulty	Difficulty tag such as Easy or Moderate
category, cuisine	Course and cuisine labels when available
rating_value, rating_count	Rating average and number of ratings
image_url	Main recipe image
url	Canonical Epicurious recipe URL

The dataset also includes tags, nutrition data, article text, publish dates, and source metadata when Epicurious provides them.

How to use Epicurious Recipes Scraper

1. Open the Actor in Apify Console.
2. Paste an Epicurious collection, ingredient, or recipe URL into startUrl.
3. Set results_wanted and, for listing pages, max_pages.
4. Leave collectDetails enabled for full recipes, or disable it for a quick URL list.
5. Run the Actor and open the dataset to review, filter, or export the results.

For a first run, use the prefilled vegetarian collection and a limit of 20 recipes. Increase the limit and page count after you confirm the output shape.

Input Parameters

Parameter	Type	Required	Default	Description
startUrl	String	No	https://www.epicurious.com/recipes-menus/our-favorite-vegetarian-recipes	Epicurious collection, ingredient, or recipe URL
recipeType	String	No	-	Optional label stored as recipe_type, such as vegetarian, vegan, or dessert
collectDetails	Boolean	No	true	Visit each recipe page for ingredients and instructions. Disable for titles and URLs only
results_wanted	Integer	No	20	Stop after saving this many recipes
max_pages	Integer	No	10	Pagination limit for collection and ingredient pages
proxyConfiguration	Object	No	{"useApifyProxy": false}	Optional Apify Proxy settings for larger or repeat runs

startUrl accepts collection pages, ingredient pages, and individual recipe URLs. Keyword search pages are not used as an input source; use an ingredient page or a themed collection instead.

Output Data

Fields without a source value are omitted from the record.

Field	Type	Description
title	String	Recipe title
author	String	Author or contributor names
description	String	Recipe summary
recipe_type	String	Label from the recipeType input
ingredients	Array	Ingredient lines
ingredients_count	Number	Number of ingredient lines
instructions	String	Instructions joined with |
instructions_list	Array	Instruction steps
prep_time	String	Prep time as published
cook_time	String	Cook time as published
total_time	String	Total time as published
servings	String	Yield or serving information
difficulty	String	Difficulty tag, such as Easy or Moderate
category	String	Course or category, such as Main or Dessert
cuisine	String	Cuisine when available
tags	Array	Keywords and recipe tags
image_url	String	Main image URL
date_published	String	Publish date
date_modified	String	Last modified date
rating_value	Number	Average rating
rating_count	Number	Rating or review count
rating_best	Number	Best possible rating
rating_worst	Number	Worst possible rating
nutrition	Object	Nutrition block when present
article_body	String	Long-form recipe article
alternative_headline	String	Alternate headline
is_accessible_for_free	Boolean	Free-access flag
url	String	Canonical recipe URL
scraped_at	String	ISO timestamp
_source	String	epicurious.com

Usage Examples

Collect a vegetarian recipe collection

Use a themed collection to build a recipe dataset with full details.

{
  "startUrl": "https://www.epicurious.com/recipes-menus/our-favorite-vegetarian-recipes",
  "recipeType": "vegetarian",
  "results_wanted": 20,
  "max_pages": 2
}

Collect recipes that use a specific ingredient

Ingredient pages are useful for keyword-style recipe research, such as banana, chocolate, or chicken recipes.

{
  "startUrl": "https://www.epicurious.com/ingredient/banana",
  "recipeType": "banana",
  "results_wanted": 30,
  "max_pages": 2
}

Collect a single recipe

Paste any Epicurious recipe URL to collect one complete record.

{
  "startUrl": "https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/bombay-toasties-masala-chile-cheese-tara-obrady",
  "results_wanted": 1,
  "max_pages": 1
}

Collect a fast URL list

Disable detail collection when you only need titles, descriptions, images, and links.

{
  "startUrl": "https://www.epicurious.com/ingredient/chocolate",
  "recipeType": "chocolate",
  "collectDetails": false,
  "results_wanted": 50,
  "max_pages": 2
}

Sample Output

Values are shortened for readability. A full record contains the complete ingredient and instruction lists.

{
  "title": "Bombay Masala Cheese Toasties",
  "author": "Tara O'Brady",
  "description": "Melty, cheesy, crunchy, spicy: these sandwiches, a street food favorite in India, check all the boxes.",
  "recipe_type": "vegetarian",
  "ingredients": [
    "1 Granny Smith apple, cored, cut into large pieces",
    "Juice of 1 lime",
    "1 (1\") piece ginger, peeled",
    "2 garlic cloves, peeled",
    "1 cup cilantro leaves with tender stems"
  ],
  "ingredients_count": 5,
  "instructions": "Puree the chutney ingredients. | Cook the mustard seeds and spices. | Assemble and toast the sandwiches.",
  "instructions_list": [
    "Puree the chutney ingredients.",
    "Cook the mustard seeds and spices.",
    "Assemble and toast the sandwiches."
  ],
  "cook_time": "25 minutes",
  "total_time": "35 minutes",
  "servings": "Makes 4",
  "difficulty": "Easy",
  "category": "Main",
  "cuisine": "Indian",
  "tags": ["sandwich", "chutney", "indian", "vegetarian", "easy"],
  "image_url": "https://assets.epicurious.com/photos/5fdce662a3638a389ff839b0/16:9/w_5428,h_3053,c_limit/BombayToastie_HERO_RECIPE_2-121620_6533.jpg",
  "date_published": "2021-01-20T13:42:51.813-05:00",
  "rating_value": 4.5,
  "rating_count": 15,
  "url": "https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/bombay-toasties-masala-chile-cheese-tara-obrady",
  "scraped_at": "2026-10-23T12:07:20.442Z",
  "_source": "epicurious.com"
}

Tips for Best Results

• Start with 10 to 20 recipes to check field quality before running a large collection.
• Use collection pages for broad datasets and ingredient pages for focused, keyword-style research.
• Set max_pages when a listing has many pages. The Actor stops at the page limit even if results_wanted is higher.
• Leave collectDetails enabled when you need ingredients and instructions. Disable it for a faster URL inventory.
• A collection may contain fewer recipes than results_wanted because some links point to articles or videos instead of recipes.
• Some recipes do not publish prep time, cuisine, ratings, or nutrition. Missing fields are omitted rather than filled with guessed values.
• Use Apify Proxy for large or scheduled runs if you see repeated request failures.

Integrations

• Google Sheets - Send recipe datasets to a spreadsheet for review and sharing.
• Webhooks - Trigger a workflow when a run finishes.
• Make or Zapier - Connect results to no-code automations.
• API - Retrieve dataset items programmatically for apps, dashboards, or AI pipelines.
• CSV, Excel, JSON, XML - Export datasets in the format your team already uses.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Epicurious Recipes Scraper support keyword search?

No. The Actor accepts Epicurious collection, ingredient, and recipe URLs. Use an ingredient page or a themed collection when you want recipes around a keyword such as banana, chocolate, or chicken.

Can I export the dataset to CSV or Excel?

Yes. Apify datasets can be downloaded as CSV, Excel, JSON, XML, and other supported formats.

Can I schedule the Actor to run automatically?

Yes. Create a schedule in Apify Console and set the input for each refresh. Scheduled runs work well for tracking new recipes in a collection or ingredient page.

Can I collect a single recipe?

Yes. Paste the recipe URL into startUrl and set results_wanted to 1.

Why did the run save fewer recipes than I requested?

The collection may contain fewer recipe links than the requested limit, or some links may point to articles, videos, or other non-recipe pages. Duplicate URLs are removed.

Why are some output fields empty?

Epicurious does not publish every field for every recipe. Timing, cuisine, ratings, and nutrition can be missing at the source. The Actor leaves those fields out instead of inventing values.

Can I run the Actor without collecting full recipe details?

Yes. Set collectDetails to false to collect titles, descriptions, images, and URLs without visiting each recipe page.

Is it legal to collect data from Epicurious?

Scraping public web data can be legal, but rules vary by location and use case. You are responsible for complying with applicable laws, Epicurious terms, and privacy requirements.

Support

For issues, feature requests, or custom Actor work, use the Issues tab on the Actor page or contact the developer through Apify.

Legal Notice

This Actor is designed for legitimate collection of publicly available recipe data. Users are responsible for using the data responsibly and complying with applicable laws and website terms.