New Alexa skill has Amazon Echo reading 60,000 recipes

The Amazon Echo connected speaker can turn a number of activities into passive ones, such as reading the news or e-books out loud for users, book travel plans, track orders from Amazon, and even send text messages. But one category where the device has been lacking is in looking up and reading cooking recipes. That's finally changing, and just in time for the holidays.

Cooking community website Allrecipes has just launched its own skill for Alexa, the Echo's voice-powered assistant. Not only does it allow users to look up dishes to make, but it will read the instructions out load step-by-step. The skill can guide users through an incredible 60,000 meals.

For situations where users don't know what to make in the first place, Allrecipes' skill will even help them find something, allowing searches for dishes that are simple and quick to make, or even finding a meal based on what ingredients are available. When it comes time to following the following the directions, a simple voice command will pause, repeat, and skip steps.

The skill works with all Alexa-supported devices, including the various Echo models and Amazon's own Fire TV, and it's completely free to download and use. Sure, there are plenty of cooking instruction and recipe apps out there, but the kitchen is the place where it makes most sense for cookbooks, digital or otherwise, to go truly hands-free.

SOURCE Allrecipes