Chowdown is an open-source recipe site generator built on Jekyll — each recipe is a markdown file with YAML frontmatter, and the whole thing builds to a static HTML site. A lot of cooks have personal recipe sites built on it that they'd like to take elsewhere now that Jekyll feels like a heavier tool than they need.

What does a Chowdown export look like?

Chowdown sites live in a Git repository. Download the source as a .zip from GitHub (Code → Download ZIP) and upload that here. We unpack it, find every recipe markdown file in _recipes/, and convert each one. You can also upload a single .md file if you only want one recipe.

Will my photos and tags survive?

Yes. Image references (the image: line in the frontmatter) are preserved through to the PDF and HTML outputs. Tags map to schema.org recipeCategory. The body text (the prose after the closing --- of the frontmatter) becomes the recipe description.

Can I move my Chowdown recipes to another app?

Convert to JSON or .cook here, then import into the destination app. Most modern recipe apps accept schema.org JSON-LD or have a generic JSON import path.

Chowdown sites now supported

Convert your Chowdown site

Chowdown stores each recipe as a Jekyll markdown file with YAML frontmatter. We turn the whole site (or just one recipe) into PDF, JSON, CSV, Markdown, or .cook so your collection lives outside the static-site build chain.

100% free. Open-source parsing. No account required.

What we support

Drop in the whole site or a single recipe.

.zip Recommended

Download your Chowdown repository as a zip from GitHub (Code → Download ZIP). We find every _recipes/*.md and convert each one.

.md Supported

A single Chowdown markdown file with YAML frontmatter. Useful if you only want one recipe converted.

How to export from Chowdown

1

Open your Chowdown repository

Browse to the GitHub repo where your Chowdown site lives. If it's a fork of clarklab/chowdown, that's the one.

2

Download the source as a zip

Click the green Code button → Download ZIP. GitHub bundles every file in the repository — including all your recipe markdown files in _recipes/ and the images/ folder.

3

Upload it here

Drag the .zip into the upload area above and pick the output formats you want — PDF, JSON, CSV, Markdown, or .cook.

Why move recipes out of Chowdown?

Chowdown is a lovely project — clean Jekyll templates, easy to host on GitHub Pages — but it's a static-site generator, not a recipe app. Editing a recipe means committing to Git; reading one on your phone means loading the rendered site; sharing one means sending a URL.

If you want to add a recipe to a Mealie instance, send it to a friend who uses Paprika, or print it as a recipe card, the markdown-with-frontmatter format isn't where you want to start. We translate it into the formats every other tool understands.

Convert to JSON for re-import into another app, PDF for printing, plain Markdown for a personal cookbook, or .cook for any CookLang-compatible tool. Your collection, your choice of format.

Export to any format

Get your recipes in formats that work for you

{ }

JSON

Schema.org compliant

PDF

Print-ready cards

CSV

Excel-friendly

MD

Markdown

Plain text

.cook

CookLang

For developers

DB

SQLite

Portable database

ORF

Open Recipe

YAML format

Free your Chowdown collection

Drop your Chowdown .zip above and we'll convert every recipe into the format you want.