Recipe Organization

A few months ago, I was looking through our recipe box. It was pretty hard to find the different sections because our divider cards had just about had it. The tabs on top were torn off or almost unreadable.

 

Finally, I said to myself, "Self, why have we put up with this for months? How ridiculous....just make new ones already!" Out came the cardstock, paper cutter and contact paper, and this time I made sure to reinforce the tab part that we would be grabbing a lot.

Notice that I tried to match the color of the divider to the category. At least in my mind they kinda do. :) Now we have to figure out what to do with all the recipes that we've printed out from the computer. Those are building up in the back of the box, and we need to put them in a binder or something. But then would that be able to stay on the counter with the rest of the recipes? Dilemmas, dilemmas.

How does everyone else organize their recipes? Do you have a box? Just cookbooks? Discuss. :)

~Sarah

Comments

[Stephanie in Mi]

It always feels good to get organized. Wow, you have a lot of recipes! Good job! (I suck at cooking, so my recipes number about 10.)

[Carrie]

I have a mish-mash. I have 2 recipe boxes--one for desserts and one for other things. I also have a 3-ring binder for recipes printed off the internet, plus several cookbooks. I used to subscribe to Taste of Home, so I have a stack of those too. It's possible to have too many resources. . . When I recently made a 2-month menu, I had to put codes for where I got the recipe. :o)

[Julie Sacra]

I've thought about your family so often the last few weeks, but especially today, when I signed up for the Saturday Sampler class at Patchwork! It's been a few years since I've done one and I'm really looking forward to it. Will I see you there?

[Becka]

My system is similar to Carrie's. I have too many cookbooks to count, a large recipe file, and a notebook with dividers for recipes from magazines and printed off the internet. After I try the new ones if I want to keep them I write them out and put them in the recipe file. When the file gets too full I try to go through and weed out a few recipes that I am unlikely to make again. I've been trying to put my favorites on my blog so that my children (and anyone else who wants to) can try them.

[victoria]

My husband used to work for the publisher of Taste of Home so I have just about all their cookbooks plus a great big (over stuffed) recipe box. My daughter has her own box now as she started trying to cram her recipes in mine - didn't work. LOL

Victoria

[Tammy]

Mine are in a small recipe box.Have cookbooks with pages marked on where the favorite recipes are and some are on the computer.

[Dorothy]

Wow! You have way more recipes than I have! I have a recipe box with cards for some recipes. (I put the date and who gave me the recipe on the upper right corner of each card just for fun!) The printed recipes from the internet are in a gallon zip-lock bag...not the prettiest filing system, but works for now. I think the idea of a three ring binder with sleeves to slip the printed recipes in is a great idea & I may do that in the near future!

[Joscelyn]

I use a box as well. we had the same issue with printed recipes. We have since put a clipboard on one of our top cupboards to clip them to so we can easily read them while we're cooking. If we like the recipe enough I eventually get around to transferring it to a recipe card.

[Aunt Bet]

Nice work, Sarah. I have three recipe boxes (supposedly one for main dishes, one for veggies/salads and one for desserts), but the recipes I use most often have migrated from the box to the drawer right below where the boxes sit on my counter. I don't think that's a good plan!

I think I really should just redo the ones that I actually use. I could throw out a bunch that I absolutely never cook. I think it might be a good idea to take one of my boxes and whenever I use a recipe, I can put that recipe in the box. After awhile the box would contain only the recipes I really, really use! What do you think? :-)

[Aunt Bet]

By the way, why are breads blue?

[Sarah G.]

Hmmm...well, that's basically the only color that was left. Ha. That and Appetizers were two that I didn't have a good color for, and orange needed to not be next to the Veggies orange tab. (That stands for carrots, by the way. Pink for Fruit Salads=strawberries and raspberries. Eggs/Cheese and yellow are self explanatory. Pink for Main Dishes=raw meat. Salads being green, again self explanatory.)
So that left blue for breads, which I suppose kind of goes with one of our popular recipes near the front of that category - Blueberry Muffins. :)

[Vicki]

Box? Recipe box--- I just have a big pile!! :(
Guess I'm no help!!
Vicki

[Queen-acres.blogspot.com]

I have struggled so much with recipe organization. I've actually wanted to blog on it myself. My Mom has a closet full of binders with each recipe typed and put into a plastic page protector. She has a binder for each category and everything is alphabetized. I did this too, shortly after we got married, but soon realized that this method doesn't really fit my style. I hated lugging out those huge binders and I would always question, did I file this under soup? or beef? orrrr crockpot??? I don't know!

I'm so excited about this new organizational system I'm currently working on. I'm entering all my recipes into a website: www.keyingredient.com You can sort your recipes by your own categories, you can add tags to help better find something (tags like crockpot, grill, strawberries, etc). You can add sources as to where you got the recipe, pictures, and you can even rate your recipe and comment on it (which I take advantage of when I try new recipes - I'll comment with what I'd like to tweak next time, how much we liked it, etc).

Now - all that sounds great, but what I LOVE about this website is now everything is digital. So I can access it from a laptop on the kitchen counter, or an iPad (if I had one) = no digging through tabbed folders or pulling out huge binders of recipes. I can even look at them on my phone!! So when I'm at the grocery store and I decide I want to make a certain recipe, I can just look up what ingredients I need, right there.

AND I'm super super super excited because I got a new device called the Demy. I've yet to try it, but it specifically works with keyingredient. Think iPad for the kitchen -- meaning easy to read, wipes up easily for all those spills and splatters, etc. It's awesome!

When I finally try it out, I'll blog about / let you know. Or I'll show it to you the next time I see you.
April

ps -- I love your blog :)

[Madeline H.]

Hi, Sarah. My Mom has a recipe box, but our printed recipes always get put in with the recipe cards, or stuck in the front.

Madeline H.