One of the reasons I have started buying cookbooks more often is I loathe paperwork. Yes, the convenience and no-financial cost of being able to print recipes from the internet can not be beat but I can not keep up. Going through all the recipes I had printed out took me over a week last month, a week!
I started off by going through each and every recipe and asked myself, when did I print this out? If it was over a year ago and I am no closer to making it today then I usually toss it. If it is a special recipe for a dessert and I am just waiting for that perfect moment to make it, I will probably hold on to it.
During this process I am ruthless. I tear them out of my binder and throw the rejected recipes on the floor and move on.
Here is the tricky part. How do you organize them? I have two binders, one for cooking and one for baking. Baking is pretty easy, I divide the recipes up by what type of baked good they are: cake, cookie… but what about things like a recipe for raspberry coulis or a strawberry fool? I just ignore the fruit and file the coulis under “C” and the fool under “F”. I used to be very uptight and make sure that part was perfectly alphabetized. Then I would have a stack of recipes to be filed and I would never file them. No wonder!
The cooking binder drives me bonkers! Right now I have the main dishes divided up by the kind of meat that is involved. I tried once to just have sections for Asian, Mexican… but they would get ignored because I would ask myself, “OK, what can I make with ground beef tonight?” and have to go through all of them. I do not like having the sections divided up by types of meat but so far, this is the easiest way for me to browse and find main dishes I want to make. From there it is divided up into sections such as: side dishes, soups, bread, dips…
Then I have another folder. The purple one in the photo above. This folder is for my regulars. I do not want to have to go through my big binders on a regular basis to find something I make three times a month. I have divided that folder up between cooking and baking and find this has saved my mind and spirit in the kitchen. Minimal handling and organizing of recipes, as well as heavy binders.
I bet there are a million ways to organize recipes and I would love to hear your ideas!
Is there anyone else who gets panic attacks just looking at their pile of recipes or am I the only one?
I have a recipe card holder and a file folder where all my trusty “regular” recipes are. Everything else is stuck in a bunch of folders, waiting for that far-off day when I have time to try them out. I’ve actually stopped copying recipes anymore. I won’t have the kind of time I need to try everything out until I am retired. So what’s the point? I’ll start copying recipes again when I’m retired. Now I just go buy lottery tickets instead.
I have the same issue Suzie, paper piles of recipes in a folder. I’ve started using several websites regularly now like the Foodnetwork, Allrecipes etc..that have a recipe saver feature, so I just save them on the site itself and login and print when I need them. Once I’m done the paper copy goes in recycling or scrap paper for my daughter’s drawing and colouring. At least this way I know I will always find my favourites if they are saved on my “go to” websites.
For other recipes from blogs and websites that don’t have a recipe saver feature, I just save the recipes on “my favorites” or “bookmark tab” and put them in favourites folder marked “recipes.” This has been working for me, but from the looks of it, you probably have way more recipes than I do. Hope this helps to alleviate at least some of it. Have a great weekend!
Oh god if you could SEE my recipe “organisation”…..
i have a binder with plastic sleeves, ideally for the recipes i rip out of magazines. In theory. Right now the cupboard above my stove is jam packed with books and magazines I have yet to go through. And yes, I need to organize them soon. Ah! Go Suzie! Your system sounds great 🙂
I am an avid meal planner. So i print out all my recipes on index cards, then place them in the appropriate sized plastic protectors in binders that are divided into categories. Then when I meal plan I can go through and take the recipe cards out of the binder and place them in my index card holder box that i keep in my kitchen. that way i only have to go through it all once a month.
I have a recipe binder for the favourites / regulars and put notes with page references to favourites that are in books. Other recipes end up in file folders sorted by category – dinner, lunch/sandwiches/salads, breakfast, appetizers/snacks, desserts. I also have one for international flavours.
I’m like you when it comes to being ruthless though. If I haven’t made it, made it but it wasn’t up to expectations or it won’t get made in the next month, into the blue box it goes!
oh i have heart palpitations when I look at the pile of recipes ripped from magazines or copied down… I have started to stick them into a journal.. in no order at all.. I may never use them, but at least I am creating a thing of beauty 🙂
I think your foodie blog will help me through the next few weeks xo
Can I join the ‘rubbish filing clerk’ crew lol! I used to keep all sorts of recipes, but now only keep things out of magazines that I have actually made. I did do a bit of categorisation on my folders with those sticky tabs that you get, but I still find particular recipes by visual clues and sometimes I can’t find them at all.
I used to do the whole paper thing in organized files but now I just keep everything in my gmail. If I find a recipe I want to try I email it to myself and then file it with recipes which can be searched by keywords. It is so fast to find the recipes I’m looking for. In fact, now I scan my favourite recipes from my books and keep them in my gmail recipe folders as well. When I want to use a recipe, I just dinf it by keyword, open my laptop onto the cupboard and I’m good to go. It’s so much easier than dealing with paper and books.
I’d love to implement the filing system I found at Johnstone’s Vin Blac but I haven’t had a chance to even start. Right now I have recipes in google reader, bookmarked on springpad, and since I’ve been low on ink I haven’t really been printing them lately I’ve just been pulling up the recipe on the laptop (my husbands laptop but I’ve been using it to study with lately) on the kitchen table. I really don’t have anything organized at this point.
I’m building a new online recipe organizer that already has 1,500 members. We make it easy to lookup your recipes at work or the grocery store. You can also share them easily, and add notes, and put recipes from every website in one spot.
try it free at http://www.kartme.com
you can reach us with suggestions at http://twitter.com/kartme
happy cook’n!
For web recipes, I discovered that Microsoft One Note just can’t be beat. Anywhere you are on the internet, if you highlight and click on the one note icon at the top of the browser it will add it to unfiled items. It works like a giant filing cabinet. I created a recipes notebook, and within each one a folder for seafood, poultry, soups/stews, etc. After I go through a session of saving a bunch of recipes I go to the unfiled tab and quickly sort them into folders. I’m telling you, I have hundreds of recipes stored away, and when the recipes are sent to one note they go with the link to where you got it. And I don’t have to print them unless I’m ready to make one. The one note folders get saved in “My Documents” and when I back up that folder they get backed up with them. And, as you might imagine, there are about a thousand other uses for One Note. Now that I have it, I can’t live without it. And, no, I don’t work for MS!!
I use MasterCook Deluxe software by Valuesoft. Just love it. It does nutritional analysis. You can also categorize your recipe for easy searching and organizing. Pretty nice printing features too, including printing the cookbook. I have set up two cookbooks. One of my tried and true recipes and the second one is “Recipes I Want To Try”. There is a great import assistant feature too which really minimizes the keying if you have the recipe in an electronic format (like from your favourite website!)