How to Switch to WP Recipe Maker from Tasty Recipes (Step by Step)

If you’ve been using Tasty Recipes and you’re ready to make the move to WP Recipe Maker, you’re in the right place. Switching recipe plugins sounds intimidating, but it’s actually pretty manageable when you know what to expect. This guide walks you through how to switch to WP Recipe Maker safely, step by step, using Tasty Recipes as the primary example.

The good news? WP Recipe Maker has a built-in importer that detects your existing recipes automatically. If you have Tasty Recipes installed and active with recipes in it, WP Recipe Maker will find them and give you a one-click import option. No manual re-entry required.

A quick note before we get started: this tutorial uses Tasty Recipes as the example, but the process is very similar if you’re coming from another recipe plugin. WP Recipe Maker supports imports from several other plugins too. You can find the full list of supported importers in their documentation.

Before You Do Anything Else, Back Up Your Site

Seriously, don’t skip this step. Any time you’re making a significant change to your website, a backup is your safety net. That’s especially true here because importing your recipes will convert them to WP Recipe Maker’s format. Once you do that, they won’t be available in Tasty Recipes anymore.

Back up everything: your database, your files, the whole site. Most managed WordPress hosts make this easy from your dashboard. If you’re on BigScoots (which most of our customers are), you can create a backup right from your hosting dashboard before you do anything else.

This brings us to the next step, which is honestly the smartest way to handle this whole migration.

Do This on a Staging Site First

A staging site is basically a private copy of your live website where you can test things without affecting your real visitors. If something goes wrong during the import, it stays on the staging site, not on your live blog.

If you’re a BigScoots customer, setting up a staging site is really easy. Here’s how:

How to Create a Staging Site on BigScoots

1. Log in to your BigScoots dashboard.
2. Click on your domain name to open your site settings.
3. In the top right corner, you’ll see a Change Environment dropdown. It will default to Live.
4. Next to that dropdown, click Push to Staging.
5. Choose to create a fresh copy of the staging site. This ensures your staging environment is a current snapshot of your live site, including recent posts, comments, and updates.

That’s it. You now have a private sandbox to work in. All of the steps below should be done on your staging site first.

Not on BigScoots? Check them out here — they’re our go-to hosting recommendation for anything with a website. The staging feature alone is worth it and their customer support is top notch.

Install WP Recipe Maker on Your Staging Site

Before the importer can work, you need WP Recipe Maker actually installed and active. This is a step that’s easy to overlook, so make sure you do this before you try to run the import.

Here’s how to install it:

1. In your WordPress dashboard on the staging site, go to Plugins > Add New.
2. Search for WP Recipe Maker.
3. Click Install Now, then Activate.

Once it’s active, WP Recipe Maker will automatically detect that you have Tasty Recipes installed on your site. Because of that, the import option will appear in your dashboard. If you don’t have Tasty Recipes installed and active with recipes in it, you won’t see any import option and that’s normal. The importer only shows up when there’s something to import.

How to Switch to WP Recipe Maker: Run the Import

Now for the main event. Here’s how to move your recipes over:

Step 1: Go to the Import Page

In your WordPress dashboard, navigate to WP Recipe Maker > Import Recipes. Your Tasty Recipes recipes should be automatically detected and listed there.

Step 2: Test with One Recipe First

Before you import everything at once, import a single recipe first. Pick one, run the import, and then check it carefully on the front end of your staging site. Make sure the ingredients, instructions, notes, and any metadata came through correctly.

This test run is worth the few extra minutes. It’s much easier to catch formatting issues on one recipe than to discover a problem after you’ve imported 200 of them.

Step 3: Map Your Taxonomies

On the import screen, you’ll have the option to map Tasty Recipes-specific taxonomies — like Diet and Method — to taxonomies inside WP Recipe Maker. You can map them to WP Recipe Maker’s default SuitableForDiet taxonomy, or to any custom recipe taxonomy you’ve created. Take a few minutes to set these up correctly so your recipe categories and filters carry over the way you want them.

Step 4: Import the Rest of Your Recipes

Once your test recipe looks good, go ahead and import the rest. You can select all of them and import in bulk from the same screen.

Step 5: Run the “Find Parents” Tool

After the import is complete, there’s one more important step: go to WP Recipe Maker > Tools and run the Find Parents tool. This helps WP Recipe Maker correctly associate your recipes with the posts or pages they belong to. Don’t skip this one.

Check Everything Carefully

After the import, take time to review your recipes before you push anything live. Here’s what to look for:

• Ingredients and instructions formatted correctly
• Serving sizes and nutrition info carried over (if applicable)
• Images attached to recipes
• Taxonomy tags (diet, method, etc.) mapped properly
• Recipe cards displaying the way you want on the front end

Click through several recipes, not just one. If you notice consistent issues with how certain fields imported, that’s a pattern worth flagging before you touch your live site.

What to Do If Something Doesn’t Import Correctly

Here’s the honest truth: if you run into import issues, that’s a WP Recipe Maker support question, not something we can troubleshoot for you. We’re here to help you navigate the transition from a setup and workflow perspective, but plugin-specific import bugs are outside what we support.

The good news is that WP Recipe Maker has a helpful support team. You can open a support ticket directly with them here and they’ll be able to dig into the specifics of your import.

Deactivate and Delete Tasty Recipes

Once you’ve confirmed everything imported correctly on staging and you’re happy with how it all looks, you’re ready for the final step. Go to Plugins > Installed Plugins, find Tasty Recipes, and deactivate it. Then delete it. You don’t need it anymore, and keeping unused plugins installed is a small but real security and performance risk.

After that, you’re ready to push your staging site live.

Push Your Staging Site Live

Head back to your BigScoots dashboard, open your site settings, and use the Change Environment dropdown to push your staging site to live. This replaces your live site with the updated staging version, complete with all your newly imported WP Recipe Maker recipes. If you find yourself stuck here, the Bigscoots support team is amazing and usually help within a very short period of time.

Double-check a few recipes on your live site after the push to confirm everything looks right in a real environment.

Want Your Recipe Cards to Match Your Blog Design?

Here’s something worth knowing: all of our Kadence child themes come with recipe card templates built right in for WP Recipe Maker. So your recipe cards can actually match your overall site design instead of looking like they came from a completely different website.

Two of our most popular themes for food bloggers are Homestead and Limoncella, both designed with recipe-focused blogs in mind.

You’ve Got This

Switching recipe plugins feels like a big deal, but when you take it step by step, it’s really just a process. Back up your site, work on staging, install WP Recipe Maker, run the import, check your recipes, clean up, and push live. That’s it.

If you hit a snag during the import itself, lean on WP Recipe Maker’s support team — that’s what they’re there for. And if you’re looking for a fresh design to go along with your fresh recipe plugin setup, we’d love to help with that part.

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