How do you store your recipes?

Tiffany_Aching

I have an embarrassingly huge stack of cookery books, all of which have been bought on a whim I probably use / will use one or two recipes at the most from each book, so I'm thinking of copying these out and then selling / donating the books.

The problem is that I'm a rather disorganised person and so I need a really simple way to keep them all together, and an equally simple way to find them again! I get a bit overwhelmed organising bits of paper and so make things far too complicated for myself. Lemon Curd, for example, I would would be tempted to store under 'Lemons' and 'Jams' and so I would probably never find it ever again!

Does anyone have a simple, foolproof way that they store recipes? I know it should be easy to just write them into a recipe book, but I just seem to have to over complicate things

missbiggles1

Some good ideas on here.

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2012/jun/20/how-do-you-store-your-recipes

Islandmaid

I had a bit of a cook book addiction, at the beginning of the year I took up Mari Kondo, and cleared SO much stuff.

I realised that I mostly used my iPad for recipes, so, apart from a few special to me books, I boxed them all up and sent them to charity.

I,ve gone from a couple of hundred (!) to about 20 - and I have,t missed one:)

I know that some people have sold their via Amazon etc too.

ilovemygarden

A local charity was looking for cookbooks to sell at an evening cookery demo so I blitzed through mine for them - really gave me the extra impetus to sort through them.

I used to store the recipes I cut out of the paper/magazines etc into 5 photo albums - 'starters', 'main course', 'puddings & cakes', 'Christmas', & 'preseves'. Then they got so big, & I started to get recipes cards from supermarkets which are printed both sides so more difficult to keep them in the albums that I decided to cull them. I ended up with just a few recipes from each and decided that the albums were taking up too much room so I got rid of them & put the cuttings into the recipe books I kept & have little post-it stickers in relevant sections.

Trouble is, the cuttings are mounting up again, will have to have another go & I seem to have similar recipes so might have several cook/bake sessions (&take notes) to determine which recipes I really need to keep.

PasturesNew

I use Evernote. I can copy/paste them online when I find them, with a link to where they are and include photos. I can write my own, I can even email myself a recipe from anywhere directly into my account. I could even take a photo/scan of a recipe from a book (e.g. in a library, or friend's house, or one of those you pick up at supermarkets that look like a good idea) and either email it into Evernote, or upload (copy/paste) it myself.

It also uses tags, so I can sort and sift everything, or do a full text search.

I now have an online account, reachable from anywhere, any PC, etc, without ever having to worry about losing it etc ... and every recipe has photos, my own notes and is instantly findable.

I can even, therefore, search for all recipes that use sausages, carrots and rice but doesn't use onions, say. (I just checked, two).

I can also click on several tags at a time and enter a search phrase. So, say, I could look for: the microwave tag AND desserts tag .... and search for something using jam that doesn't want brown sugar. (just checked that random thought, I appear to have 11 of those!)

Mr_Singleton

Tiffany_Aching wrote: »

Does anyone have a simple, foolproof way that they store recipes?

I use Moleskine notebooks.

Edit: There might very well be benefits to storing things electronically but do I want to be using the pokey screen on a mobile or risking a tablet? A well thumbed notebook with a few stains has a certain charm.

williacg

I recently had a huge clear out of some of my recipe books, but before taking them to my local charity shop, copied my favourite recipes into some pretty A4 (A to Z) ring binders. I bought a packet of A4 Nyrex see-through pockets to insert into the binders, for recipes where the picture is on the front and the recipe and instructions on the back. The binders cost me £1,00 each, and the Nyrex pockets £1.00 for 20, both from Poundland.

Alternatively, you could buy empty ring binders, and section it off into 3 parts for your starters, mains and desserts.

Petula

I've cleared out a load of my cookery books too. I scanned my favourite recipes and put them in a binder, I'm down to 5 books now which are really more general cookery books than simply recipes IYSWIM

Also use Evernote for recipes that I find online, go through that occasionally too so I'm not keeping ones I'm unlikely to try.

[Deleted User]

I have quite a collection of cookery books and do go through and cull some of them once in a while, I like to read through them for ideas if there's no TV worth watching though so I won't get rid of lots, it's my hobby. I have a hardback notebook that I keep in the kitchen and in it I record recipes that we've enjoyed and want in the menu on a regular basis. I don't put anything in there until it's been made a few times and we're both sure it's going to be a regular. It's useful not having to hunt down a specific recipe in a specific book each time I want to make it and having it written separately I can pop in the variations that are inevitably made sometimes if a necessary ingredient is not available or I haven't enough of it. Works well for me.

Eenymeeny

I did a cook book cull a while ago too. I find that some books are just to enjoy reading (love the pics but know that I'll never get around to making them) and some are well- thumbed, shabby and kept in the kitchen!
I realised that if I'm looking for advice or a variation on a recipe I usually check on this forum rather than ploughing through books so I've copied and printed off things that I know I'll really use. They are in an A4 loose leaf file labelled Recipes and Tips. I find it so useful to browse through when I'm looking for ideas and I can take out one page, hang it by a trouser hanger over a kitchen cabinet door keeping everything nice and tidy.

Goldiegirl

I've never had that many recipe books - I've currently got about 5


What I like to do is to search the internet for recipes.


I copy and paste them into word, print them up, put the sheet into an A4 plastic pocket, and put the pockets into a ring binder, so they are all in the same place.


When I want to use the recipe I get the sheet out of the binder to use, and the paper is protected by the plastic pocket.


I was given a large supply of plastic pockets when my previous office closed down, so it's making good use of them