How the meal wheel makes a fair, useful choice
A useful random choice starts with a menu you are willing to choose from. Here is exactly how the controls work.
First make the pool, then draw once
The wheel starts with the recipe collection and any custom ideas that can be included. Removed recipes, active preferences, ingredient exclusions, and ideas skipped this round reduce that pool. The cryptographic random-number generator in your browser picks one index with equal probability. Animation then lands the pointer inside that recipe’s segment. It does not run a second draw or reward a particular country, photo, or paid placement.
Preferences work together
Selecting Brazil and plant-based produces no matches in the current collection: its fish stew contains seafood, and its cheese bread uses dairy and egg. We keep that result empty so you can remove a preference yourself. The tool does not silently replace plant-based with vegetarian or introduce recipes from another collection. A one-recipe menu shows that recipe directly; a zero-recipe menu cannot spin.
A skip is different from a removal
“Not today” removes the displayed idea for this round. Use “Restore skipped ideas” to start that round again. The × in the menu removes a recipe from your saved menu instead; “Restore removed recipes” brings these back. A new browser visit starts a new round, while your saved removals remain. Resetting recipe filters keeps your saved menu and ingredient exclusions, as explained beside the controls.
Ingredient matching has a narrow meaning
“Egg” and “eggs” are recognized as the same named ingredient. “Rice” and “rice vinegar” are different. An exclusion for peanuts does not mean every tree nut, sesame, or allergen group has been checked. Optional listed ingredients also count for matching, so the tool stays consistent with the recipe you can inspect. It does not assess cross-contact, substitutions, product labels, or medical needs.
Your own ideas have unknown details
A custom entry such as “Friday takeout” has no verified ingredients, timing, country, or meal type. It joins the wheel only when those recipe filters and ingredient exclusions are clear. Custom ideas have stable identities, so deleting another custom name does not change the history entry for this one. Each distinct name has one chance; adding the same name with different capitalization does not create a second entry.
History records a decision
A spin alone does not go into Recent. Choose “Sounds good” or “This is my next bite” to record the decision. With “A little variety” enabled, the last three chosen collection recipes are left out. This setting describes collection recipes; it cannot infer the ingredients of a custom meal. Favorites are separate from chosen meals and are saved with the heart.
Take a shortlist with you
From the pantry tool, “Put these matches on my wheel” carries the selected ingredients and Any/All matching rule into the picker. Your saved removals and ingredient exclusions still apply there, so the final count can be smaller. “Share menu” creates a link containing current recipe IDs and custom names; it does not contain your history, location, favorites, or ingredient exclusions. A recipient must review and apply it, and their own ingredient exclusions remain active.
Start with the meal wheel, compare the recipe collection, or read how browser storage works. These are inspectable tool rules and examples, not reports of kitchen testing.