Organizing recipes

mjd

mjd

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How do you organize your recipes? Does anybody have a list of categories or some other way of doing it? I'm going through thousands of recipes from sites where I could save them. It's getting overwhelming.
 
I just have a file folder containing word pad files that is uploaded to cloud storage every so often so that other computers/devices can be used to access it. I title them so I can search by a keyword or 2 to get the recipe I want. I have them as viewed by name so they are alphabetized.
 
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medtran49 said:
I just have a file folder containing word pad files that is uploaded to cloud storage every so often so that other computers/devices can be used to access it. I title them so I can search by a keyword or 2 to get the recipe I want. I have them as viewed by name so they are alphabetized.
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How are they divided inside the folder? It is separated by type (ie dessert, chicken, pork, etc.) or some other way?
 
mjd said:
How do you organize your recipes? Does anybody have a list of categories or some other way of doing it? I'm going through thousands of recipes from sites where I could save them. It's getting overwhelming.
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When I was doing that, I had a folder set up called Recipes, and within that subcategories like Drinks, Starters, Mains, Desserts, Breads, etc, and one more called Tried.

When I made a recipe, I moved it from whatever category folder it was in to Tried. I didn't bother sorting by category in that folder.

I had a revelation several months ago: after downloading thousands of recipes online, and clipping thousands of recipes from magazines and copying them from borrowed books, I suddenly realized if I lived to be 150yo, and made a new recipe every day, I'd never get through them.

That's when I stopped, and over the next several months, I was brutal in getting rid of things that fell into a category of "Ohhhh, that looks good," but I knew I'd never really get around to making.

It's easy to get almost addicted to saving recipes, to develop a real hoarder mentality, which I was on my way to doing. Now, I have a handful of cookbooks, a few reliable online sites, and one scant actual folder of treasured magazine clippings, and that's it.
 
TastyReuben said:
When I was doing that, I had a folder set up called Recipes, and within that subcategories like Drinks, Starters, Mains, Desserts, Breads, etc, and one more called Tried.

When I made a recipe, I moved it from whatever category folder it was in to Tried. I didn't bother sorting by category in that folder.

I had a revelation several months ago: after downloading thousands of recipes online, and clipping thousands of recipes from magazines and copying them from borrowed books, I suddenly realized if I lived to be 150yo, and made a new recipe every day, I'd never get through them.

That's when I stopped, and over the next several months, I was brutal in getting rid of things that fell into a category of "Ohhhh, that looks good," but I knew I'd never really get around to making.

It's easy to get almost addicted to saving recipes, to develop a real hoarder mentality, which I was on my way to doing. Now, I have a handful of cookbooks, a few reliable online sites, and one scant actual folder of treasured magazine clippings, and that's it.
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I think that's where I'm headed and I'm trying to cut it off quickly. I don't have any of my original recipe books or food magazines so I've been going back through my favorite recipe sites and Pinterest to try to put it back together in some manageable way. My main goal is making a scrapbook album of recipes my kids enjoyed.

I joined about 6 digital design groups and now I'm getting about 1,000 emails per day (they are filtered to go into subfolders until I can deal with). Just in scrapbook designs, I have about 600G! and that's only the stuff I've saved in the last couple of months.

My biggest hurdle is not really knowing how to tag recipes so I can find them later. I usually just add a few keywords to the actual document and save them as a PDF (so I can do a keyword search).
 
mjd said:
How are they divided inside the folder? It is separated by type (ie dessert, chicken, pork, etc.) or some other way?
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They aren't. But you could make sub folders for that if you wanted to divide them.
 
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I use a ring binder divided into sections so I can add alter or take out recipes I have. I made one for our daughter as well for when I'm gone. She wants to be able to carry on my recipes. Her son loves cooking so it's kinda cool to think my grandson might be cooking my recipes in 30 years?

Russ
 
rascal said:
I use a ring binder divided into sections so I can add alter or take out recipes I have. I made one for our daughter as well for when I'm gone. She wants to be able to carry on my recipes. Her son loves cooking so it's kinda cool to think my grandson might be cooking my recipes in 30 years?

Russ
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From now on, when I see your name in my alerts list, I'll just grab the tissues right away. I just love the way you love your family (between you and detroitdad, I better stock up ;-)

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The only storage I have is here on CookingBites - a few hundred (?) :ohmy: of my own recipes. I really need to make some sort of index but the job is far too daunting. If I want to find one of my recipes I use the search box on the forum.
 
I have my parents' old handwritten card file (it also contains magazine & newspaper clippings attached to index cards). I need to weed through this some day.

Actually, I'm saving most recipes to Pinterest. Both ones I make, and ones I find on line that tempt me. Doesn't take up space.... categories like Breakfast, Soups, Seafood, Asian, Greek, Mexican & Tex Mex, Salads, etc.
 
Morning Glory said:
The only storage I have is here on CookingBites - a few hundred (?) :ohmy: of my own recipes. I really need to make some sort of index but the job is far too daunting. If I want to find one of my recipes I use the search box on the forum.
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That's the problem I'm having. I have been trying to piece it together from sites where I've saved them and it is SO overwhelming. It is so easy to collect recipes. I didn't even realize I had that many all around the net!
 
Mountain Cat said:
I have my parents' old handwritten card file (it also contains magazine & newspaper clippings attached to index cards). I need to weed through this some day.

Actually, I'm saving most recipes to Pinterest. Both ones I make, and ones I find on line that tempt me. Doesn't take up space.... categories like Breakfast, Soups, Seafood, Asian, Greek, Mexican & Tex Mex, Salads, etc.
Click to expand...
I lost everything in the divorce so I'm rebuilding this for my kids. I have thousands of recipes saved on Pinterest and a few recipe sites. I didn't even realize I had that many. :eek:
 
Morning Glory said:
The only storage I have is here on CookingBites - a few hundred (?) :ohmy: of my own recipes. I really need to make some sort of index but the job is far too daunting. If I want to find one of my recipes I use the search box on the forum.
Click to expand...
One reason I started my blog (11 years ago) was to have a searchable record of recipes I've made. I do add many of the better ones here when I get in the mood to format appropriately. Or, "hey wow, my friends at Cooking Bites were just talking about such and so... here we go!")
mjd said:
I lost everything in the divorce so I'm rebuilding this for my kids. I have thousands of recipes saved on Pinterest and a few recipe sites. I didn't even realize I had that many. :eek:
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Pinterest is great - No idea how many recipes I've posted there - although most are ones I am considering to make at some time, but haven't gotten around to. Most I probably never will make - but they're in as ideas. Some of the categories need a bit of tidying up but, the ideas are there. mjd, that's sad about the fallout from your divorce. :thumbsdown:
 
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Mountain Cat said:
One reason I started my blog (11 years ago) was to have a searchable record of recipes I've made. I do add many of the better ones here when I get in the mood to format appropriately. Or, "hey wow, my friends at Cooking Bites were just talking about such and so... here we go!")

Pinterest is great - No idea how many recipes I've posted there - although most are ones I am considering to make at some time, but haven't gotten around to. Most I probably never will make - but they're in as ideas. Some of the categories need a bit of tidying up but, the ideas are there. mjd, that's sad about the fallout from your divorce. :thumbsdown:
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I think for those of us that enjoy cooking and baking, hoarding recipes is just part of the process. LOL

Thanks, dear.
I lost everything I ever owned. The important part is I found my children (they were missing for about 4 months) and I'm rebuilding. Honestly, the stress almost killed me but I made it through. I might not fight back when somebody is hurting me but I could and would fight to the death to protect my children. As long as I have life, nobody will hurt them. Actually, if I died, I'd figure out how to become a ghost and still protect them. ;-)
 
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