Recipes - how do you organize them?

[marrelam]

Help!! I need to organize my recipes - you know, the ones you cut out of magazines, newspapers, written on note cards. Right now they are in a recipe box but it's overflowing and just not working for me anymore.

[TiggerToo]

You aren't going to like what I have to say. I actually am such a computer geek...I retype all of my recipes into a recipe software. I absolutely love it. It sorts by category, dish, you can search etc. It saves on paper and you can print out the recipe or bring your laptop into the kitchen with you.

[foggierbard9]

You REALLY don't want to know my organization of recipes...some are on note cards, some are on the computer, some are bookmarked on the internet, some are in cookbooks, some are printed out on paper and yet others are on receipts. Yes that says receipts...I have been known to quickly grab whatever is by the computer(usually a couponing receipt) and write down a recipe...then the receipt ends up with all the other recipe stuff and I fumble through stuff until I find the one I am looking for.

I think I need a system to organize them, but I just don't know what would work. I was thinking about a 3 ring binder with page protectors(like my coupon binder, sort of) that I could file everything in that would be easy to add to.

[TiggerToo]

The only thing I could think of, is if you are sticking with the recipe box, is to get one for each category, desserts, meats, etc and separate them based on the prominent ingredient. That may be the most beneficial. Then you could categorize them within the ingredient box based on how you wanted to organize them...for instance if you only wanted a few boxes. So your system (by box) would be something like this:

• Main Dish
  
  • Beef
  • Chicken
  • Pork
• Salad
  
  • Pasta
  • Potato
  • Veggie
• Dessert
  
  • Cookies
  • Ice Cream
  • Cake

...or something like that...but you would have individual boxes for each category. It would take some time to sort through and categorize but (for me, being such a foodie) it could be fun and if you have children, you could get them involved and make it a crafting project, with them desiging the separators.

[3timesoccermom]

What system?? LOL Actually mine sounds very much like foggier's.

Kudos to you for getting organized. Mine are currently: some on refrigerator, many in a plastic "shoe box style box" with a lid, bunches of them on the computer in my recipes file which is nicely organized into sections.

Then I have about 8,000,000 recipes, recipe sites, tip sites, etc., bookmarked on the internet.

Have a bunch in cookbooks too.

Plus I have a small, cheap, clear, acrylic box with a hinged lid that has my grandma's recipes. That's the way she stored them so that's the way I kept them. I used to be an organized person . . . .

You'd think with all those resources I'd be an amazing cook. Nope.

[Shy2481]

I just went out and got a binder and some clear sleeves to put the pages in. I thought about retyping or writing them but i am a sucker for pictures, and want to keep the actual pages from the mags. I just started that the other day.

[marrelam]

I just went out and got a binder and some clear sleeves to put the pages in. I thought about retyping or writing them but i am a sucker for pictures, and want to keep the actual pages from the mags. I just started that the other day.

I'm with you on the pictures thing. The more I'm reading and surfing the net for ideas, the more I think the 3-ring binder route is the way to go. I've got alot that I've transferred onto 3x5 note cards but still plenty that are ripped out of mags for the pics.

phaedraval - what recipe software do you use? I thought about this style only because of the luxury of being able to sort in various ways and search by ingredient.

[TiggerToo]

It is called BigOven and I think it is fantastic. It allows you to copy and paste directly from the pc...so if you are...ahem...copying a recipe directly from a website, you can just copy and paste it into their website instead of retyping it in. You can add pictures, so if you have a scanner, you could actually scan the pic in of your mag/artic etc and attach it to your recipe. It allows you to enter in servings/nutritional (if you have it)/cateogry, etc.

[marrelam]

It is called BigOven and I think it is fantastic. It allows you to copy and paste directly from the pc...so if you are...ahem...copying a recipe directly from a website, you can just copy and paste it into their website instead of retyping it in. You can add pictures, so if you have a scanner, you could actually scan the pic in of your mag/artic etc and attach it to your recipe. It allows you to enter in servings/nutritional (if you have it)/cateogry, etc.

I'm going to check them out now

[marrelam]

Oh! What about those "wand" scanners or small portable scanners??