Systems, methods, and articles for gathering and utilizing individual and aggregate data from connected cooking devices, online recipe databases and/or mobile applications. Cooking instructions may bestored as processor-readable cooking programs that use mutable real time status updates as input. Such programs may be chosen via a user computing device and may be further parameterized by numeric,textual or camera-based inputs. Various methods may be used to determine what foods a user is preparing, and what equipment and techniques are used. This data may be supplemented with feedback to verify what was cooked, how the result compared to visual representation in advance of cooking, and satisfaction level. The data may be used to reproduce past cooking results, adjust future recipes, suggest recipes or products, or connecting users to online communities of users. Cooking data may be used to offer just-in-time problem solving, products, or connection to other users.