Self-hosted recipe apps,
open back door
Mealie, Tandoor, and Nextcloud Cookbook all let you escape — they just don't help you land anywhere specific. We turn the export into PDF, JSON, CSV, Markdown, or .cook so you can move on to whatever's next.
100% free. Open-source parsing. No account required.
Pick your source
Each one's export is a zip file. The shape inside differs between apps — pick the right tab below and we route the parser accordingly.
Mealie
Settings → Backups → Create Backup. The zip holds recipes/<slug>/<slug>.json per recipe, plus images.
Mealie's "alpha" export schema — what current Mealie installs produce by default.
Tandoor
Profile → Export → Default exporter. The zip is an outer container of inner per-recipe zips, each holding recipe.json + an image.
Tandoor stores ingredients on each step — we flatten them back into a single ingredient list while preserving step-level instructions.
Nextcloud Cookbook
Zip the Recipes folder from your Nextcloud files. Each recipe folder holds recipe.json (Schema.org JSON-LD) plus full and thumbnail images.
Nextcloud Cookbook uses Schema.org JSON-LD natively — minimum-translation conversion.
How to export from your app
None of the steps here require the command line. If your instance has the standard web UI, that's all you need.
Mealie
→ recipes-export.zip
- 1 Sign in as an admin (the regular user role can't trigger backups).
- 2 Go to Admin → Site Settings → Backups. Some Mealie versions put it under Settings → Backup & Restore.
- 3 Click Create Backup. After a few seconds it appears in the list — click Download.
-
4
Drop the
.zipinto the Mealie box above.
Tip: don't bother editing recipes after exporting — the backup is a snapshot. Re-export when ready to convert.
Tandoor
→ tandoor_export.zip
-
1
Click your avatar (top right) → Export Data. Or go straight to
/export. - 2 Pick the Default exporter (not Mealie or Cooklang — those are for sending to those tools).
- 3 Select recipes (or all of them with the toggle) and click Export. A zip downloads immediately.
-
4
Drop the outer
.zipinto the Tandoor box — don't unzip it. We unwrap the inner per-recipe zips for you.
Tip: Tandoor's "Default" export holds ingredients on each step. We flatten them back into a single ingredient list per recipe.
Nextcloud Cookbook
→ Recipes.zip
- 1 In Nextcloud, open Files and find your Recipes folder (top level by default).
- 2 Right-click the folder → Download. Nextcloud zips the entire folder server-side and streams it back.
- 3 If the folder isn't called Recipes, the Cookbook app shows the path: Cookbook → Settings → Recipe folder.
-
4
Drop the
.zipinto the Nextcloud box above.
Tip: Cookbook stores each recipe in its own subfolder with recipe.json (Schema.org JSON-LD) and images. The conversion is near-lossless.
Why pull recipes out of a self-hosted app?
Self-hosting buys you ownership but it doesn't buy you portability. If your Mealie instance crashes mid-upgrade, if Tandoor's docker setup breaks after a Postgres update, if you stop running Nextcloud — your recipes go with the server.
Each of these tools makes that less likely than a closed-source recipe app would, but the export-as-zip is still the only durable way to take a snapshot of your collection that doesn't depend on the app continuing to run. We're the reader for those exports — for printing, archiving, sharing, or moving to whatever's next.
Convert to JSON-LD for re-import into another self-hosted instance, PDF for printing, 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
Schema.org compliant
Print-ready cards
Excel-friendly
Plain text
For developers
Portable database
YAML format
Free your self-hosted collection
Drop your Mealie, Tandoor, or Nextcloud Cookbook export above and we'll convert every recipe into the format you want.