Brine! vs Chef’s Notes
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Brine!
Easily calculate brining recipes for various meats, poultry, fish, and seafood. Learn about different brining techniques and gain background knowledge to improve juiciness, flavor, and texture.
- Customizable recipes for various meats
- Integrated calculators for recipe adjustments
- Expert background knowledge on brining
- Support for equilibrium, wet gradient, and dry brining
- Calculators for custom salt concentrations
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Brine! - The Brining Calculator Finally an easy way to calculate your brining recipe. Do you brine your meat, poultry, fish and seafood? You should! Brining makes your meal juicier, tender and more flavourful! Brining will improve your perfect thanksgiving turkey just as easily as your BBQ meat. Are you unsure how exactly you should brine your produce? Or deterred by complicated percentages and procedures? Then you need this app! Recipes, background knowledge and calculators: "Brine!" includes everything you need to master your brining game! Equilibrium brining, wet gradient brining or dry brining, it's all in the app so that you can use your favourite technique. KEY FEATURES: • CUSTOM RECIPES for Fish fillet, shrimps, chicken, duck and turkey as well as pork and beef. Your favourite meat isn't listed? No worries: You can easily adapt an existing recipe! • CALCULATORS EVERYWHERE: Your thanksgiving turkey is heavier than in the recipe? Somebody invited the neighbours to your BBQ? When it comes to brining, these things make a huge difference! We include calculators everywhere so you don't have to worry about it. • YOU'RE THE EXPERT? Use the custom calculator to use your own preferred final salt concentrations in your food. • BACKGROUND KNOW-HOW: What brining process should I use for what meat? What final salt concentration? How much salt should I use, and should I add sugar or curing salt? These and more questions about processes and principles are answered and bring you up to speed quickly. • BRINING TECHNIQUES: Equilibrium brining, wet gradient bringing and dry brining are the three important techniques in brining. Which one is best? It depends! Because each process has ist own advantages, we let you decide. Switch between techniques easily! WHY BRINE BEFORE COOKING? When brining, salt (and sometimes sugar and curing salt) penetrates into the meat before cooking. This has multiple desired effects: • JUICIER PRODUCE: Brining before cooking makes meat, poultry, fish and seafood juicier. Even after cooking is finished, the brined food will retain more moisture. • FLAVOUR: The brining mixture slowly enters the produce through osmosis. During the cooking process, it becomes evenly distributed throughout the produce and enhances ist taste! • SURFACE TEXTURE: You're aiming for a beautifully brown and flavourful bark? Brining, especially dry brining, will help you! Through the high salt concentration, the outer protein layer partially brakes down, encouraging a quicker Maillard reaction. Wonderful flavours and a bite to match! All the brining knowledge you need - summarized in one compact app with custom calculators. DOWNLOAD "Brine!" NOW! App content in English only. We are always excited to hear from you! If you have any feedback, questions, or concerns, please contact us at app@tastelab.ch.
Chef’s Notes
Organize and manage your recipes with detailed step-by-step instructions, rich media attachments, and version control. Collaborate with others in shared cookbooks and sync changes across devices seamlessly.
- Step-by-step cooking instructions
- Rich media attachments (photos, links)
- Recipe versioning and refinement
- Shared cookbooks for collaboration
- Real-time syncing across devices
- Lock Screen cooking timers
- Send ingredients to Reminders
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Organize recipes the way you really work: • Step-by-step cooking: break recipes into clear, actionable steps so complex dishes are easier to follow in real time • Everything in one place: each step can include ingredients, timings, photos, links, yields and more • Rich attachments: keep reference links, inspiration images, or photos of your own progress right alongside your recipe Experiment, refine, repeat • Recipe versions: experiment freely, refine techniques, and create seasonal variations — without losing your originals • Evolve over time: watch your recipes grow from first attempt to perfected favorite Tools you can use your way • Flexible steps: use them as instructions, components of a larger workflow, or building blocks for complex dishes • Versatile attachments: use them for references, documentation, or personal notes — you decide • A clean, content-first design: keeps the focus on your food and your thinking, not the interface Cook together • Shared cookbooks: collaborate with family, friends, or cooking partners in real time • Stay in sync: changes update seamlessly across devices, so everyone works from the same recipes Thoughtful platform features (without getting in your way) • One-tap transformation of traditionally formatted recipes into step-by-step structure • Prominent cooking timers on your Lock Screen • Send ingredients straight to Reminders when it’s time to shop Whether you’re following a family recipe, testing a new dish, or refining your own creations, Chef’s Notes helps you cook with clarity, experiment with confidence, and build a living collection of recipes that grows with you. -- Privacy Policy: https://www.chefsnotes.app/privacy EULA: http://www.apple.com/legal/itunes/appstore/dev/stdeula
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Chef’s Notes at Free against Brine!'s $0.99. Chef’s Notes also leads on rating (5.0 vs 3.0) and update cadence (every 3 days vs every 2 months). Brine!'s advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1) and chart position (#190 vs unranked). On ratings volume, ads and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Chef’s Notes is free to download; Brine! costs $0.99 up front. Chef’s Notes sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Brine! asks for nothing beyond the download.
Chef’s Notes holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 3.0. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 2 and 1 respectively.
Brine! ships an update every 2 months, Chef’s Notes every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on October 11, 2026 and October 1, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Brine! | Chef’s Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $0.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 3.0 (2 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 66.7% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 2 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 3 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Paid | Free with in-app purchases — better |
| Best chart rank | #190 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 — better | 26.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 27 MB | 30 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Foodlab GmbH | Andriy Gordiyenko |
Customer experience
Brine!
Chef’s Notes
In-app purchases
Brine!
No in-app purchases
Chef’s Notes
- Unlimited Recipes$4.99









