Ironically, storing recipes never caught on. It's just what people thought home computers would be useful for.

I see.-

You make an interesting distinction between perceived prospective use and actual use ...

I have a copy of an old humorous computer article in a book to the effect of things that people thought they'd want computers for and how they didn't really play out (given the tech at the time).

The popularity of cooking shows, especially cooking competitions/reality show hybrids seems to give some credence to that assumption.