Tell me how you store your recipes

[spikemomma]

I need to work out how to store my collected recipes, which are not in a book. How do you do it, what do you recommend?

My wife stores hers in a book. She sticks them in to a school exercise type book.

I tend to type them up and store them on the computer. She has more recipes than me, and is not so quick at typing. I think I might start scanning them, however, as we are running out of cookery book space in the kitchen.

I have an ancient book that I cut and paste the recipes into. I have covered it in photos and magazine pictures of food, laminated Blue-Peter style. I am slightly panicking now because it is very full and I may have to start another one.

My address book is similar, with cut-out photos of friends and rellies all over it.

I love them

I have a book that I paste or write recipes into. It even has an index, which sounds mad but does mean I actually use it (I was on maternity leave when I did it!). I numbered the pages, divided it into sections as a cookery book might be, and wrote the page numbers in columns in the back. When I add a new recipe, I write it in the index.

I stick them to the kitchen wall...or write them on bits of paper that get shoved behind the toaster! [hmm
My friend on the other hand, has a tin that she keeps both hers and her late mothers recipes in(actually, I think it was her mums).

I have an A4 plastic pocket file book thingy. Useless at explaining but look here.

This is a relatively new development, I used to store recipes folded up in a paper bag not sure why.

Solo. is behind a hot toaster the best place for flammable paper?

i put them in plastic document wallets in an A4 ring binder.
(i put A4 sized ones in on one side, then glue the smaller ones to the other side, so that they look like a double sided sheet: that way it looks more like a book.)

and i'm very sad in that i have a spreadsheet with a complete list of the recipes on it.

I have a tatty but much loved old notebook that I write them in. Must update the system I think and get one of Bicnod's shiny folders.

Ah yes, devon - its very very exciting putting your new recipes into your new shiny folder. I am still a bit disorganised though and just put them in any old how. I need one of nickel's spreadsheets. Although I'm slightly averse to spreadsheets after DH created one in excel while timing my contractions when I was in labour with DS and then showed me a graph

I'm glad my freakish behaviour re:recipe books has been calmly passed over by Mn. When I wrote that, I was a bit shocked at myself.

Bicnod!
i have to admit, my spreadsheet is even sadder than it first sounds: i have the recipes listed, along with columns for the main ingredients in the recipes, so if i have in the fridge/cupboard onions, potatoes, carrots, cheese, eggs, then i can find recipes that have all of those ingredients in using the sort function.

Omigod. I hope you never meet my DH as he would definitely leave me for you

meltedmarsbars - I love the sound of your address book

I keep the ones I use all the time in a posh recipe box file, I have some old faves handwritten in a recipe book and numerous other files with plastic inserts for others. Its all hopelessly disorganised but tbh I only really use the first 2. It takes so long to riffle through those I usually lose the will to live, let alone be able to face looking in the other files.

I couldn't do it on a puter as I like the pictures too much. I also like the globs of past efforts encrusted on my faves.

nickelbabe - OMG (hangs head in shame with knuckles trailing on floor).

Some really good - if not slightly anal ideas! I so need to get anal. I do need an index thing (or at least categories), so when i'm peering into the fridge in despair, i can reference my book/folder/filing cabinet with a small chef inside, and they can fill me with inspiration.

I love the idea of a cherished book, but how do you add recipes in an organised fashion without having too much space for one section? - if you see what i mean?

Meltedmarsbars! I move them if/when I use the toaster, which is occasional
Tbh, most of my recipes are in my head, with no need to measure except by eye, so there aren't that many paper types at all.

I use MacGourmet on my laptop (only for use on Apple Macs though, as the name suggests). It's great, it looks a bit like iTunes and allows you to quickly search for recipes or specific ingredients, organise them in 'folders' (a bit like you would a playlist), it's easy to input a recipe from the internet (just highlight and drag) including photos and you can print out individual or multiple recipes. It's also got an optional mealplanner which I love.

Obviously, it takes time to input recipes that you might have cut out of magazines or want to copy from books but I found that a lot of my recipes were from magazines like Delicious, Olive and Good Food Magazine so I was able to copy a lot of them from the internet.

I cannot believe how obsessed you lot are! Do you actually have the time to file and index? I think I'll stick to my homely jumble.

!

nice notebook. I only ever write/stick them in when I've made and enjoyed. It isn't organised by category but I have another folder to put cut out recipes in and this has plastic wallets/dividers. Even then I'm ruthless about what to keep because I like to read recipes more than I like to cook them! Like the idea of an index for my notebook. One day...