Voice to Text for Cooking and Hands Occupied
You're elbow-deep in bread dough when the perfect recipe modification hits you. Your hands are covered in marinade when a work message needs an urgent reply. You're mid-craft project when tomorrow's grocery list suddenly becomes clear. Ideas come at the most inconvenient times — when your hands are busy, dirty, or otherwise occupied. Blurt captures those thoughts without interruption. Hold a button, speak naturally, release. Your words become text while your hands stay on the task. No washing, no drying, no stopping. Just talk and the text appears.
The Typing Problem
Ideas come when your hands are covered in flour, paint, or grease
There's something about repetitive physical work that unlocks creative thinking. Kneading dough, stirring a pot, working with clay — your mind wanders productively. But when the idea strikes, your hands are the last thing you'd want on a keyboard. You tell yourself you'll remember it later. You won't. By the time your hands are clean, the thought is gone.
Stopping to type means losing your momentum
You're in a flow state with your cooking or craft. Everything is timed perfectly — the sauce reducing, the bread proofing, the glue setting. Stopping to wash your hands, dry them, type a quick note, then wash again when you realize you touched something — that's five minutes of disruption. Your timer goes off. The sauce burned. All for a 30-second message.
Work messages don't pause for dinner prep
It's 6pm and you're making dinner, but your colleague needs a quick answer. Your phone buzzes with Slack notifications while you're chopping vegetables. You could respond in ten seconds if you could just type without putting down the knife, washing your hands, and drying them. Instead, the message waits, your colleague waits, and you feel the pressure building.
Recipe modifications vanish before you can write them down
You just figured out the perfect adjustment — a little more garlic, substitute honey for sugar, add the basil at the end instead of the beginning. This is the modification that will make this dish perfect forever. But your hands are in the bowl. You finish, wash up, and the specifics have already blurred. Was it a teaspoon or tablespoon? Which step exactly?
Crafting requires hands — and generates endless ideas
Whether you're knitting, woodworking, painting, or building, your hands are constantly occupied with materials. Meanwhile, your mind generates a stream of useful thoughts: supply lists, project modifications, ideas for the next creation. Each one requires stopping your physical work to capture it. Most ideas never get written down.
How It Works
Blurt works with a quick button press — brief enough to trigger with a clean fingertip, elbow, or knuckle while your hands stay on task.
Tap your hotkey with whatever's clean
Press your chosen keyboard shortcut using a clean finger, your elbow, or the back of your hand. One quick touch is all it takes. A subtle audio cue confirms Blurt is listening.
Speak your thought naturally
Say what you need to capture — the recipe note, the message reply, the shopping list item. Keep stirring, keep kneading, keep crafting. Your hands never leave the work.
Release and continue
Your words appear as text wherever your cursor is. The note is saved, the message is ready to send, the idea is captured. Back to your dough, your sauce, your project.
Real Scenarios
Capturing recipe modifications while cooking
You're adjusting a recipe in real-time — a bit more salt, longer simmer time, that unexpected ingredient that made everything better. Without stopping or cleaning your hands, speak the changes: 'Recipe note: add half teaspoon smoked paprika after the onions soften, before adding tomatoes.' Your personal cookbook updates while dinner continues cooking.
Responding to messages during meal prep
Your hands are dicing onions when a Slack message requires a quick response. Instead of stopping, washing, drying, and typing, just speak: 'Sounds good, let's go with option two. I'll review the doc tomorrow morning.' Message sent, onions continue getting diced. No workflow interruption, no dried-out eyes from pausing mid-onion.
Building a grocery list while cooking
You just used the last of the olive oil. The garlic is running low. You're out of parchment paper. Each realization comes mid-task with messy hands. Speak each item as you notice it: 'Add to grocery list: olive oil, garlic, parchment paper, more of those San Marzano tomatoes.' By the time dinner is done, your shopping list is complete.
Taking notes during craft projects
Your hands are covered in wood stain, wet clay, or fresh paint. But you just figured out a technique that needs documenting, or remembered a supply you need for the next step. Speak your notes while your hands stay on the project. The insight is captured without smearing your work or your keyboard.
Dictating instructions while your hands demonstrate
You're teaching someone to cook or craft, and you want to document the process. Your hands are busy showing the technique, but your voice can narrate: 'Fold the dough gently, pulling from the outside edge toward the center. Rotate ninety degrees and repeat.' The instructions write themselves while your hands keep teaching.
Capturing ideas during repetitive kitchen tasks
Peeling potatoes, washing dishes, rolling pasta — repetitive tasks that free your mind to wander. Ideas for work projects, weekend plans, or that email you've been putting off suddenly crystallize. Capture them without stopping: 'Idea for the presentation: open with the customer story instead of the product features.' The insight is saved. The potatoes keep getting peeled.
Recording baking measurements and timing notes
Baking is science, and you're running an experiment. The dough rose for 47 minutes at room temperature. The oven ran hot, so you reduced to 375. The crust needed two more minutes. Document everything in real-time: 'Baking note: this flour needs longer hydration, try 20 minutes next time.' Your baking journal builds itself.
Why Blurt works better for messy hands than built-in dictation
| Blurt | macOS Dictation | |
|---|---|---|
| Activation with messy hands | Single hotkey, quick tap with clean finger or elbow | Requires clicking microphone icon or double-tap |
| Kitchen noise handling | Filters out fan hoods, sizzling, and running water | Struggles with ambient kitchen sounds |
| Speed to text | Under 500ms — speak and continue cooking | 2-3 second delay interrupts your flow |
| Punctuation | Automatic, natural punctuation | Must say 'period' and 'comma' commands |
| Reliability | Consistent performance in noisy environments | Often misses words or stops listening |
Frequently Asked Questions
Start Typing Faster Today
Free to try — no credit card required
Download Blurt