The Lab and badges
The Lab keeps a badge for each technique, hero ingredient, cuisine and piece of equipment in your family's recipes, such as Braising, Roux, Kumara or Mediterranean. You earn one by cooking a recipe that uses it.
How a badge is earned
The Lab reads every recipe in your book, whether you imported it, typed it in or Whisp wrote it, and notes what it teaches. A slow-cooked lamb ragù might carry Braising and Italian.
A badge is earned when a recipe that carries it goes in your cooking history: by marking it as cooked on the plan or on the recipe, or by tapping Log & Close at the end of Cook Mode. The badge goes to the person who marked it cooked or logged it, so each person in the family has their own collection. Cooking the same thing again adds to the count on the badge.
When a cook from Cook Mode or a recipe page earns you something new, the app tells you with Badge unlocked! straight away.
Where to find it
On iPhone: Settings, then The Lab, under History.
On Android: Settings, then The Lab badges.
All and Earned
The top of The Lab says how far you've got, such as 12 of 20 earned. Badges are grouped by technique, ingredient, cuisine and equipment.
- All shows every badge your family's recipes can earn, the ones you have in colour and the rest in grey.
- Earned shows only the ones you have.
Add a recipe with something new in it and its badges appear. A badge you've earned stays in The Lab even if the recipe that earned it is deleted.
A badge's page
Tap a badge to open its page. It shows the badge, what kind it is (Technique, Ingredient, Cuisine or Equipment), and either how many times you've cooked it, such as Earned · cooked 3 times, or that you haven't earned it yet. Under that:
- The Why explains the technique or ingredient: what it is and why it matters to the dish. On Android this has no heading.
- In Your Recipes lists the recipes in your book that earn it. On iPhone, tap one to open it. Android calls this list Recipes.
A recipe's own page also has a section headed The Lab, with the badges that recipe carries and how many of them you've earned, such as 2 of 2 earned.
Other places badges turn up
- Whisp: ask "which badges haven't I earned yet?" or "what would I need to cook for Braising?" and Whisp answers from the same badges you see in The Lab.
- Your week email: Monday's email names a badge one of the week's planned meals would earn you, and lists any you earned the week before.
- Moving a meal you've cooked: a badge stays earned. Moving or swapping a cooked meal onto another night doesn't take it away, and your history keeps the night you really cooked it.
Does it need Saucery Pass?
No. The Lab and your cooking history are free for everyone. Asking Whisp about badges needs Saucery Pass, as all chat does.