We have a lot of cookbooks.
I have a bin full of handwritten recipes from my husband’s two grandmothers. I plan to scan those in to my computer so they’re never lost. I’m working to organize them in page protectors or even a printed scrapbook cookbook.
All recipes tell a story.
I have two BHG cookbooks. My mom’s with handwritten notes and a newer one. I prefer my mom’s where she jotted down when I made wheat bread for a colonial class project. She also added the years she made which Christmas cookies or cakes.
We also collect a lot of recipes – from magazines and online sites.
How to Organize Recipes
Recipe Binders
Super easy to make a recipe binder and fun for gifts for the cook or foodie.
I have started compiling recipe binders for my kids as keepsakes of our favorite family recipes for them.
What you need for a recipe binder:
- Big 3 ring binder or several small binders for various cooking styles (desserts, main dishes, grilling, baking)
- Pretty cover for binder
- Dividers
- Clear page protectors
- Clear small pockets for small recipe cards and/or recipes clipped from magazines
Cooking Journals
I have a couple recipe journals to make notes when I try new recipes.
I seldom follow a recipe exactly, and it’s a huge joke with my kids that no recipe is perfect for me. I always want more of something, add a little of this or that, or don’t measure.
My grandmother never measured anything.
We measure garlic with our hearts.
My husband is often irritated that I don’t make the same dish twice because I often don’t measure or follow the recipe the same way or I don’t remember how I tweaked it last time and everyone loved it. I’m trying to remember to make notes in the journal!
Computer and/or Software
- Eat Your Books
- Trello
- Dropbox
- OneNote
- Office documents
- MasterCook
- Cook’n
Apps
Many cooks prefer to declutter and have recipes digitized.
This makes recipes searchable by several criteria, saving time and space. You can easily pull up a recipe on a tablet or laptop on the counter or table while you cook.
- Evernote. I love this app for all sorts of digital organizing.
- Wunderlist
- BigOven
- Basil Recipe Manager
- Pepperplate
- Taste
- ChefTap
- Paprika Recipe Manager
- Copy Me That Recipe Manager
I have pin boards for lots of our family interests, and several for various cooking genres.
This helps me to find the recipes easily again and also share my faves with you!
Organizing recipes is a huge task to undertake, but I may digitize most of our recipes this summer to clear up space and get them all in one place.
Linking up: Welcome Heart, Modest Mom, Little Cottage, Mostly Blogging, Kippi at Home, Flour Me with Love, Create with Joy, LouLou Girls, Confessions of a New Mummy, Home Stories, April Harris, Mary Geisen, InstaEncouragements, Purposeful Faith, MaryAndering Creatively, Dedicated House, Yesterday on Tuesday, Our Home, Grandmas Ideas, Sarah Frazer, Anchored Abode, Worth Beyond Rubies, Soaring With Him, Anita Ojeda, Wise Woman, Abounding Grace, Ridge Haven Homestead, Miz Helen, Gingersnap Crafts, Fluster Buster, Girlish Whims, Ducks in a Row, Welcome Heart, Penny’s Passion, TFT, Over the Moon, Apron Strings, Crystal Storms, Mommynificent, Debbie Kitterman, Life Beyond the Kitchen, CKK, OMHGW, Chic on a Shoestring, Anna Nuttall, Answer is Choco, Simply Sweet Home, Della Devoted, Susan Mead, Lyli Dunbar, Counting My Blessings, Pieced Pastimes, Fireman’s Wife, Create with Joy, OMHGF, Life with Lorelai, Sew Can Do,
I love how you are making a recipe book for each of your kids. Great idea and the binders sound perfect!
My very first cookbook I received when I was 1fifteen years old. My mother gave it to me when she finally had to work outside the home. She cried bitterly. I eventually went to culinary school and had a catering company and then streamlined to gourmet cheesecakes before my stroke. Now I treat my family and friends to gourmet cheesecakes on special occasions. My asst. pastor wants me to show him how to make them. Thanks for sharing all these creative ideas, Jennifer. Have a fantastic holiday season, and God bless you and yours.
What a lovely testimony. Thank you for sharing!
I love this! Recipes are so important, and I love having things online, but there is something special about a recipe card or an old cookbook. I find even with online recipes I write it on a sticky note and bring it to the kitchen. It’s just easier than looking at a screen.
But, I definitely could use more organization!
I still prefer paper!
That is so great that you are already compiling recipe books for each of your children. When I received the handwritten recipe cards from my mom, mom-in-law, and grandparents, I tried to share those with my children too. Holding one of those old cards is such a treasure! But I do love Evernote for so many ways to organize my thoughts too! Blessings to you!
I think Pinterest may be the new recipe binder for many. BHG cookbooks are the best!!! And I love that you have your mom’s. with handwritten notes! Pinterest has nothing on that!!!
Pinned.
Thanks for linking up at InstaEncouragements, Jennifer!
I still like Pinterest and use it as it was originally designed! A digital pinboard.
I just recently purged the recipes in my card file box, keeping only the ones I know I’ll use and it’s made all the difference in the world. I have SO many cookbooks…
I guess that’s the next project.
I have a wooden crate under my island with all my cook books, binders and handwritten notes in it. It is far from being organized.
Great ideas for organizing recipes!
Thanks for sharing.
I love that you are making recipe binders for your kids. My mom made my sister and I a recipe book one year filled with our grandparents’ recipes and it meant so much to me!
I appreciate all these options for organizing our recipes, Jennifer. My current one is to just cram them in a drawer and take forever to find the one I want—NOT the best method! ha.
But I have been using Evernote more and more for my recipes, especially because I often want to cook something at my daughter’s house butI don’t have access to my physical recipes there.
What a wonderful legacy for your kids! They will appreciate it even more when they have kids. Great job, mama.
I bought al the materials once to make a binder…but never made one. I HAVE learned to write a recipe that I invent down as I make it ;). That way I can replicate it!