organising recipes - any tips?

Bargainloverbec

Nicki, I'm so impressed with your organisation - puts me to shame!

My own personal system involves a big pile of magazines and books on the kitchen window sill - not very organised at all! I think I might have a good sort out tonight and try and put my recipes into some sort of order. I may even push the boat out and try some of them...

pixie1

I know this is an old thread but this is just what i needed! Last weekend we started to have a clear out and i have so many cook books that i only use the odd recipe out of. So today Im going to go through them and cut out the recipes i use and may use and organise them in a folder, i have seen a lovely recipe organiser on ebay but i will only buy it with funds from sold auctions so that will have to wait for now My old cook books will then be put on freecycle with a note saying some pages maybe missing lol.

Pix
x

Snowy_Owl

Tell me about it Pixie1!!!!! I've not long started a recipe file which I started when I had the occasional ingrediant and wanted recipes for it. So did the internet searches, got a few, printed out and laminated and stuck in the folder for reference. Added to it this weekend with recipes 5 recipes for venison - one of which was very nice. Got a big stack of magazines from my aunty a month or so ago. tore out all of the recipes i liked the look of and they're in as well as the recipes gathered from other aunties and my dad (he is a fab cook!!!!) So. I just need to go through it now and put the dividers in. Thankfully just the 1 ringbinder at the mo but better to start as I mean to go on....

starfish_chimp

i know an old thread too, but what i have been looking for, thanks for starting and fab contributions.

i have a folder full of various torn out and printed recipes. if i want to find one e.g. !!!!!!!banana cake" this morning - i have to go through the whole file!

i have looked at recipe folders in shops/on line but often - too small and dinky - and lots of written notes - i rarely write, so its wasted space really.

The "Make your Own" sounds fantstic - like the original poster, something i had never thought of - much more flexible and possibly cheaper. I will buy a really nice big ring folder, some partitions and maybe the pockets as people say. Perhaps a 2009 xmas present to myself ....

McpPsl

Hi all,

I have combined my favourite recipes into a single computer file. Example screenshot below



Regards

mcppsl

kolobok

Great idea! :T

Kantankrus_Mare

This thread has really shamed me!!

I couldnt even remember posting on it till it came up. 2005:eek:

I still have the same file where I stick recipes I come across and at one point, I did make an effort to sort it into sections but I'm ashamed to say its a mess and needs resorting.

But.......a couple of weeks ago we dug out a recipe with pasta, stilton, spinach and leeks and it was so delicious, it will be a regular feature on our menu.

Have to say though that I have just discovered pinterest where you can file online recipes and though there are only three on it at the moment, I'm sure that also will fill up quickly.

monnagran

Flaming fishhooks this frightens me to death. As an ancient crone I have been hoarding recipes for more years than I am prepared to admit to. Not only mine but I inherited my mothers, my aunt's and more recently my father's when he had to take over cooking for the first time in his 70s due to mothers dementia.

My recipes are roughly sorted and kept in separate plastic wallets. Mother's and Aunt's are written in faded exercise books with bits cut out of newspapers and magazines either loose or stuck into the book.
Fathers are a mixture of bits cut out of sundry publications, some scribbled on whatever scrap of paper he had handy and a lot of letters from me when I was teaching him how to cook. One letter where I gave him the recipe and careful instructions on what to do and finished with a triumphant, "and there you are. Bob's yer Uncle."

To the end of his long life I would often ring him and ask what he'd had for lunch only to be told that he'd found a portion of Bob's yer Uncle in the freezer and had that.
All his recipes are kept in the most disgusting old file you can imagine. But this is my Dad so it was probably something he had in the army during the war and had finally found a use for it.
His great grandchildren can dispose of it when I'm gone for Ill never part with it.

All these plastic wallets, exercise books, files, sundry leaflets and booklets etc are kept in a large plastic box. I mean a REALLY large plastic box. I often spend so long reading through this valuable historical resource that there is no time to cook anything.

Omelettes again.

Chris25

Kantankrus_Mare wrote: »

Is anybody really disciplined and actually "make" all the recipes they save??

I know im guilty of seeing something in a magazine and thinking mmmmmmm that looks tasty..........file it away and still eat the same old stuff week after week

:rotfl::rotfl: not in my household - I have mounds cut out of mags & picked up in supermarkets. I look at them for interest but after a few years they migrate to the bin .

Even if I do decide to use one I'll find I'm an ingredient or two short so I substitute something else anyway - then usually guess oven timings too

I had a cull of recipe books a few years ago for a charity 'recipe book bring & buy' and decided to also go through the clippings and organised them into a photo album - well 4; one for starters; one for main; one for puds; one for misc items or whole menus.

Then I thought "well what about a Christmas one?" but because some of the meals could be classed as Christmas or just Sunday I thought I'd better photocopy them, start another album and put one into each.

I did have another de-clutter a while back & most of them were thrown away and the recipe books I'd bought since the last cull were taken to the CS. I think I copied maybe 5 recipes from them all.

I do ask myself why on earth do I continue to put them aside & just clutter up the kitchen? Trouble is, I don't answer back!

What a blooming load of time I've wasted over the years in cutting, sorting, photocopying, then more sorting, on recipes I've hardly ever used!

As you say with sites like Pinterest and all the different chefs and cookery programmes' sites, you're never too far from inspiration

Debran

I created a folder in Word called "Recipes", then cut and pasted recipes into it.