OT: How do you organize your recipes?

[C99]

I am looking for ideas to better manage/organize my recipes. I am not talking about cookbooks, but the recipes that get printed out from e-mail, Epicurious, ripped out of magazines, etc. Have you found a way to organize them that works? Tell me! Be detailed! :)

[Katia]

I used to have a three-ring binder and would slip recipes into plastic page protectors. It was OK, but honestly most recipes never made it into the binder, and those that did were often forgotten.

Enter Living Cookbook software -- http://www.livingcookbook.com/ . It is fantastic! It's great for importing recipes from e-mail and the web. When I want to add a recipe from a cookbook or a magazine clipping, I just Google an unusual phrase from the recipe and I can almost always find a copy online to paste into the software.

When I want to use a recipe, I just print a copy on scrap paper and toss it when I'm done. There are tons of other features -- meal planning, shopping lists, etc. -- which I've tried and opted not to use.

I also tried Mastercook software and didn't particularly like it, but I tend to be pretty picky about database design and user interfaces. Now, if I liked COOKING as much as I like organizing data, I'd be set! :-)

There were some good threads about recipe organization a year or so ago -- I'm sure you'd find lots of ideas there, as well.

Katia
DS 2003

[elliput]

Same here - three ring binder and page protectors. I then sorted according to type - entree, desert, etc. We only use one recipe regularly out of the dozens that DH has printed off (he does most of the cooking), and that is for homemade jerky. :-) So that recipe is the first one in the book of course.

Hadn't heard of Living Cookbook before, sounds very interesting!

[DDowning]

I have an organizer I bought from Once upon a Family:

http://www.onceuponafamily.net/main/products/products.cfm?CategoryTypeID=2&CategoryID=11&Page=2&ItemNumber=SI012

There are pockets that sort by category, and places to write more permanent ones. You probably could do the same thing more inexpensively by visiting your local paper supply store but this looks nice and i like the inserts that came with it.

[Karenn]

Same thing here with page protectors. The only thing different is that I also have some 3 ring pages that you put in a photo album to hold 4x6 pictures. Those work great for either recipe cards or smaller clippings.

[psophia17]

I print the recipe, fold it in half, and stick it into my preferred cookbook, Betty Crocker. The first time I use a recipe, if I don't like how it turned out and don't think I can make it better, I'll toss it. If it's a hit, I stays folded in the cover of the book.

It doesn't sound organized, but they're all in one place...which for me is something ;)

[trumansmom]

People do that? :P Mine are all squished in various pages of my favorite cookbook. If I ever drop the darn thing it takes hours to pick up all the little scraps of paper!!

Jeanne
Mom to Truman 11/01 and Eleanor 4/04
Independent Consultant, Do-Re-Me & You!

[nov04]

Pretty much what my post would have been!!!

[bostonsmama]

That's what I do, too. My favorite place for accessing the best tried and true recipes is www.allrecipes.com, where not only do people try and rate the recipes, but they review them, so you can know whether it needs extra sauce, less salt, or more cooking time at a different temperature. *LOVE* that website, esp since they offer 3 different formats to print: 3x5 or 4x6 recipe cards, or full page. I choose 4x6, cut them out of computer paper and slip them in those plastic picture album pages from a build-your own recipe binder (already organized into categories).

For magazine ones, I try my hardest to get them written down on recipe cards my mother gave me (since she knows how much I love to cook), but Lord help me I haven't gotten around to the majority of them. I have a huge Family Circle and Cooking Light collection, and usually I just stack the entire magazine in upright magazine files in my office's bookcase and take out "August 2003" when I want my signature shrimp paella dish.

Sorry I can't offer anything better. I hate that magazines print all their darn recipes in columnar format. And the Family Circle recipe cards are cute, but are never the calibre or quality of their columnar recipes. Well, I hear Family Circle started putting all its recipes on their website, thank God. But Shhhhhh, don't tell my DH or he'll make me get rid of all those magazines I've been needing to weed through and toss.

Larissa
who is still trying to give birth so she can have more to say

[squimp]

I have mine in a notebook, with the page protectors as mentioned before. They are sorted by loose categories, like "entrees", "soups and starters", "drinks and dressings" and "desserts". And each category has a different color pate. I put one recipe per page, hopefully with a picture - the pic triggers my memory.

At the front there's one of those half pocket inserts, and I stuff recipes I want to try in there. When I find new recipe, if I like it, I tape it to a colored page with double-sided tape, then put it in the page protector. If I don't like it (or more likely DH doesn't like it, he's very let's say particular), it gets discarded.

You wanted details :)

[trumansmom]

Hey! I should have read all the posts first! You use my system down to the same cookbook!!

And I agree, at least they are in one place!!

Jeanne
Mom to Truman 11/01 and Eleanor 4/04
Independent Consultant, Do-Re-Me & You!

[alkagift]

Caroline, I could have posted this exact question! Right now I have a tiny three ring binder thing that I got at a Hallmark store. It's servicable, but nothing fabulous. The box that it came in is the temporary storage area. If I really like something, it gets written down in the real book. If not, it's tossed. I would like something that is a bit more durable, though.

Allison
Mommy to Matthew, who is TWO!

Are you TTC and want to share with BBB friends? Join us! http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/BBB_TTC/

[m448]

electronically I keep them in my PDA and PDA destop program. They are in the memo section (1 recipe=1 memo) and they are organized by category. Super easy to access and has saved my hide when I lost that little scrap of paper my mom wrote a long time family recipe on.

DH started to say he wanted an easier way to access and also have a hard copy so I copied an idea I saw on TV. A large rolodex file with a flip down cover. I print out my recipes from my PDA onto the rolodex cards and the rolodex file lives next to the stove. If anyone needs a recipe it's right there at hand and easy to see hands free.

[psophia17]

We should copyright the system...let the royalties start pouring in ;)

[C99]

>That's what I do, too. My favorite place for accessing the
>best tried and true recipes is www.allrecipes.com, where not
>only do people try and rate the recipes, but they review them,
>so you can know whether it needs extra sauce, less salt, or
>more cooking time at a different temperature. *LOVE* that
>website, esp since they offer 3 different formats to print:
>3x5 or 4x6 recipe cards, or full page.

Just an FYI, Epicurious.com does this too.