If Jimmy Webb were to write the classic 1968 song “MacArthur Park” in 2007, his lyrics about leaving a cake out in the rain would surely need to mention the Internet. In the digital age, you can sometimes find that recipe again.

With a new searchable database of Washington Post recipes that launched Wednesday, we hope eventually to turn sometimes into always.

And judging from my own week-long experiment, using the system to plan and cook all my meals, we're off to a strong start.

Our goal is a quicker resolution to the sort of dilemma we hear about all the time: “A few weeks ago you had a Staff Favorites recipe for short ribs made with prune juice,” one reader wrote.

“It sounded so great I ran out and bought prune juice, only to come home and discover that the section had been accidentally recycled with that day's paper.”

Other times it's a “lost recipe” for mini-cranberry tarts, or a clipped-and-saved recipe for “delicious chicken pho” that got buried in a storage unit after the moving trucks came and went.

We're happy to help, of course.

But for every question we get, we know that scores of other readers probably had the same thought - but didn't have the time to ask.

Epicurious, Food Network, Recipezaar and food bloggers all give Web surfers ways to find something to make for dinner.

We use a network of everyday cooks of all skill levels to test them, and we sample the results, making changes big and small to improve the workability and appeal.

Besides Food section recipes, the Recipe Finder database includes recipes that have run in the Sunday Source, Weekend and The Washington Post Sunday Magazine.

It launches with more than 1,000 recipes and counting, but not with quite all the functionality we plan to introduce later, such as user comments.

However, we'll be adding recipes to it steadily, with the goal of reaching at least five years' worth -even further back when it comes to holiday collections. And eventually we hope to include some exciting features we haven't seen anywhere else.

In preparation for the launch, we and colleagues at washingtonpost.com have been putting the database through its paces day in and day out, editing, debugging and streamlining the look and the interface so your user experience can be as seamless as possible.

My own personal beta-testing has also taken a somewhat simpler form: meal planning. This was no role playing. As a busy but committed cook, I rarely take time to think about what's for dinner until my stomach has already started growling. And my hundreds of cookbooks are stacked willy-nilly in a new apartment that I haven't had time to fit with niceties such as built-in shelves, meaning that my favorite Paula Wolfert tome is none too easy to extract without sending a pile tumbling down.

I start on a Sunday, just after my weekly trip to the Dupont FreshFarm Market in Washington. I access the beta-testing version of Recipe Finder on washingtonpost.com and start with a search that could hardly be more basic.

Keyword: “eggs.” 239 recipes. How about “eggs” and “main course?” 52. “Eggs,” “main course” and “fast?” 30. I scroll down, and second on the list is former recipe editor Stephanie Witt Sedgwick's Arugula and Spring Onion Frittata, which catches my eye - especially once I realize that if I substitute sorrel for arugula, I've got the makings in hand. As in no further trek to the store required.

It makes for a perfectly sunny, lemony brunch that suits a warm March day in Washington.