My goal for this week is to start organizing my recipes. As inspiration, I'm curious as to what method everyone here uses for keeping up with their recipes? Currently I have a combination of cook books, a few recipes saved on my computer or phone, and the rest piled in a desk drawer.
How do you keep up with your recipes?
- Thread starter econjoe
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I made a word file with an index where I have all the recipes that I use on a regular basis. I also use evernote to clip recipes from the web and file them in a "Cookbook" folder in evernote.
I use the iOS/OSX app Paprika. I also keep written backups. Also, I have a shelf full of cookbooks that I reference occasionally.
Joe - you're going to have another one for the desk drawer in the near future.
Joe - you're going to have another one for the desk drawer in the near future.
Give them to my wife.
- Thread starter
- #5
Joe - you're going to have another one for the desk drawer in the near future.
I'm looking forward to it, Chris!
It's all in my head. For me, it's never how to make it, it's actually remembering what is worth making again.
I've been using Evernote on iOS, but I'm thinking about checking out Paprika.
I have a ton of recipe books, but if I find something I like online or I come up with a good recipe, I write it down in a notebook. It was a decent enough excuse to get a nice fountain pen... 
I use a recipe database on my Windows Laptop named Living Cookbook. I capture recipes from the Internet using a Firefox Add-on named RecipeFox. I like a recipe database because it gives you vastly superior search capabilities.
I have a few in a folder on Google Drive. Most are written down on whatever piece of paper I could find at the time and placed in the front of one of my cookbooks. Call me old-fashioned, but I like dog-eared cookbooks and papers with stains on them.
I do have that too. My copy of Rick Bayless - Authentic Mexican 20th Anniversary Ed: Regional Cooking from the Heart of Mexico is well used. A lot of stains in there and I made every single recipes over the last 5 years. I still use it on a regular basis. I don't own many cook books but do have a few Mexicans and Italian recipe books. The rest is a collection that I copied in a file or via evernote.
Most of our recipes are hand written from my wife's mother and my mother. Any newer recipes get copy and pasted into a folder on my desktop. I print each one and place it in my pantry for easy access.
I have a bunch of cookbooks, but have not bought a new one for quite a while. Certain of the one's I have are well used and I continue to look to them often enough. I have some printed materials from various cooking classes I have taken, and some of my mother's hand written recipes.
Otherwise, I have a rather complete set of Cook's Illustrated in hard copy and an on-line subscription to I think it is Cook's Illustrated (as opposed to America's Test Kitchen--plus selected of CI's books. I also have a rather complete set of an older magazine "Pleasures of Cooking," which is the best thing I have ever used.
Otherwise, I do not usually "keep" recipes. When I want to make something I generally start with an on-line search, often in Cook's Illustrated. And I almost never bother to copy or print out anything. Pretty easy to go back and find the same on-line source for whatever recipes I have used. And I do used recipes. I am not one to completely wing it.
Otherwise, I have a rather complete set of Cook's Illustrated in hard copy and an on-line subscription to I think it is Cook's Illustrated (as opposed to America's Test Kitchen--plus selected of CI's books. I also have a rather complete set of an older magazine "Pleasures of Cooking," which is the best thing I have ever used.
Otherwise, I do not usually "keep" recipes. When I want to make something I generally start with an on-line search, often in Cook's Illustrated. And I almost never bother to copy or print out anything. Pretty easy to go back and find the same on-line source for whatever recipes I have used. And I do used recipes. I am not one to completely wing it.
I have mixture of cook books, plastic sleeves stuffed with cut outs or hand written snippets, typed up on computer and some kept in a local web app that I wrote years ago. Hmmm. Maybe I need to do some organisation.
My wife and I each have a binder with our recipes that we use.
We have cook books, but if we have tried it and we like it, it goes in the binder.
That way we know what we've tried and we know what we like.
If we try it and don't like it, it doesn't make it to the binder.
Computers are a hassle. We keep it all on paper.
We have cook books, but if we have tried it and we like it, it goes in the binder.
That way we know what we've tried and we know what we like.
If we try it and don't like it, it doesn't make it to the binder.
Computers are a hassle. We keep it all on paper.
We have cookbooks. Also, an accordian file for things we find on the internet or other places.
I download new recipes to my Dropbox. Then I copy-pasta them to Word docs I keep on my home network.
If I make it and like it, it's saved in one of a few 3-ring binders that include my regular rotation recipes, excellent "keepers", or dietary recipes like Gluten Free or Vegetarian that I keep around for when I have friends over who have those criteria.
(none of my friends are "trendy" gluten free, I have two who are both long time sufferers of Celiac Disease. I'm one of their few friends whom they trust to make food for them and be cognizant of cross-contamination, "hidden" ingredients, etc.)
I'll have to check out Paprika. Looks like they have an Android flavor too.
If I make it and like it, it's saved in one of a few 3-ring binders that include my regular rotation recipes, excellent "keepers", or dietary recipes like Gluten Free or Vegetarian that I keep around for when I have friends over who have those criteria.
(none of my friends are "trendy" gluten free, I have two who are both long time sufferers of Celiac Disease. I'm one of their few friends whom they trust to make food for them and be cognizant of cross-contamination, "hidden" ingredients, etc.)
I'll have to check out Paprika. Looks like they have an Android flavor too.
+1 - I have a few things on index cards or will look up something online from time to time, but mostly it's done from memory.
I was thinking about this exact problem a while ago and haven't found a solution I like. Paprika looks nice but I can't bring myself to pay that much for an app, currently I'm leaning towards using either Google Drive or Dropbox and basic files.
I mostly cook by feel and from memory. We have a couple cookbooks around just for ideas (for mother in law) and cook time/Temps. Lots of scraps tucked here and there from stuff I collected from friends and family. Anything found on the Internet is shorthanded onto a scrap and taped to the kitchen cupboards. All new creations are made in head and jotted down on scrap paper then taped to kitchen cupboards. There is probably 20ish recipes taped to my walls. If/when I redo my kitchen I'm going to do all the door fronts and certain places in dry erase board. I already "write" on the walls, this will save me on tape.
