How to save recipes from TikTok (without losing them in your favorites)

Why TikTok recipes get lost

TikTok makes saving easy and finding hard. Favorites and saved videos pile up in one long grid of thumbnails, and nothing in that grid knows what's actually in the recipe. You can't ask it for the chicken thing with the lime.

Videos also disappear. Creators delete posts, make their accounts private or stop posting, and whatever you saved goes with them. Even when the video is still there, the recipe is rarely written down in one place. Often it's only said out loud, flashed on screen for a second between cuts, or split between the caption and a comment that says "recipe below!"

So saving the video isn't the same as saving the recipe. The goal is to get the ingredients and steps into a place you control.

Step one: copy the link in TikTok

Every way of keeping a TikTok recipe starts from the video itself. TikTok moves its buttons around from time to time, so here are the general steps rather than exact menus:

1. Open the video with the recipe.
2. Tap Share.
3. Choose Copy link.

The link is now on your clipboard, ready to paste wherever you want to keep the recipe. The idea is the same on a computer: find Share, then copy the link.

Step two: paste it into Chefra

In Chefra, you can import a recipe by pasting a link from a recipe website, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook or X. Paste the TikTok link, import it, and the recipe is in your Chefra instead of in a grid of thumbnails.

It works when the video has readable text, captions or speech. Some videos can't be read: one with only music, no one talking and no recipe in the caption, for example. If a link doesn't come through, try one of the other ways in below.

Sharing straight from TikTok on Android

If you use Chefra on an Android phone, you can skip the copy and paste. Chefra lets you share a recipe into it straight from another app, so in TikTok you tap Share and send the video to Chefra from your phone's share options.

This works in the Android app and in the web app installed on an Android phone. It isn't available in the iPhone or iPad app yet. On an iPhone or iPad, copy the link and paste it into Chefra instead.

When the link doesn't work: a screenshot or the caption

Chefra can also import a recipe from a photo or screenshot, or from pasted text. Both come in handy on TikTok:

• Take a screenshot. If the ingredients and steps appear on screen together, pause the video right there, take a screenshot and import it as a photo. If they flash by across several screens, typing them out is usually easier.
• Copy the caption. If the recipe is written in the caption and your phone lets you select the text, copy it and paste it into Chefra as text.

If the recipe is only spoken, jot it down as you watch, pausing as often as you need, and paste your notes in as text. It's slower, but the recipe ends up written down for good.

Once it's saved: plan it, shop for it, cook it

Saving the recipe is the first step. These are the ones that get it onto the table.

• Plan it. Put it on a day. Chefra lets you plan meals on a day, week or month calendar, with saved recipes or quick free-text meals.
• Shop for it. Add every ingredient you haven't checked off to any grocery list in one tap.
• Cook along. Tap Start Cooking inside the recipe and follow it step by step, with timers, progress and a screen that stays awake.

Facebook works much the same way; see how to save recipes from Facebook. And if the family's best recipes live on index cards rather than videos, here's how to digitize grandma's recipe cards.

A quick checklist

1. In TikTok, tap Share, then Copy link.
2. In Chefra, paste the link and import it.
3. On Android, share the video straight into Chefra instead.
4. If the link doesn't come through, import a screenshot or paste the caption as text.
5. Put it on your meal plan, add it to a grocery list, and cook along.

The best time to save a TikTok recipe properly is right after you watch it, while you still remember who made it. Your favorites can keep the dance trends. And unlike your feed, Chefra has no ads, anywhere.