Imagine scanning the pages of a new cookbook and finding a recipe for an appetizing dish. You take note of the preparation time and ingredient blend, questioning whether the finished product will be worth all of the hassle.

If only there was some way to ensure that you could sample a taste of the dish before taking the time to prepare it. As strange as it may sound, a new hi-tech cookbook is attracting worldwide attention for its amazing ability to allow would-be chefs the chance to sample the same dishes seen in the illustrations of the book.

Print, Sample a Taste using Flavor Cartridges

Obviously, this is not your average cookbook. It has a touch screen that allows people to scroll through recipes rather than thumb through the pages of a conventional book. Once a suitable dish is found, the recipe is recreated via an edible print system. (Source: yahoo.com)

Amazingly, the edible print system only requires 18 "flavor cartridges" to produce all of the recipes found inside the book, though an exact number of recipes has not been revealed as of yet.

If being able to sample dishes ahead of time is not enough, imagine changing up the recipe a bit to suit your own individual taste. Yes, the hi-tech cookbook even has an option to tweak the taste of a dish in case a person does not like the printed sample.

Winning IDEA Beats Garbage Shoes

The hi-tech cookbook was designed by Scott Shim of Ohio State University and Xi Calvin Chen of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. It was among the select winners featured at the 2009 International Design Excellence Awards (IDEA). (Source: newkerala.com)

While an impressive feat, consider the fact that other winners included a "genius" cheese grater and shoes made from garbage.

A release date for the product has yet to be announced, though it is expected that more than a few people will "sample" the hi-tech cookbook when it eventually finds its way to retail locations nationwide.