How I Organize My Recipes {And My Favorite Cookbooks & Blogs}
Check out this post for some kitchen tips on organizing recipes and ideas of awesome cookbooks and food blogs.
I get asked frequently how I organize the recipes in my life and thought I’d touch upon that today, as well as give you a few of my favorite recipe resources. In this day and age of recipe prevalence online/electronically, my method is twofold: 1) Electronic Organization and 2) Hard Copy Organization.
Basically, here’s how it goes down:
Most of the recipes I find that I want to try are online (on blogs and websites) or are sent to me via email. Because of that, my first line of defense is to save recipes in folders on my computer. I have a folder called RECIPES. Clever title, I know. Inside this folder are two subfolders: Recipes to Try and Tried and True.
Within each of these folders are my preferred recipe categories:
I save recipes I want to try in these folders. Mostly, the recipes I save here come via email and the recipes are already in a convenient Word (or similar) document. I download them from email and save them into one of the nifty categories in the RECIPES TO TRY folder. I also keep recipes here that I’ve copied or typed up from library cookbooks I’ve checked out and read like a novel (I have NERD tattooed on my forehead, I know, I get it). When I go to plan my menu or search for a recipe I want to make, I check these folders first. I print out the recipes I want to try (or drag my laptop into the kitchen, which can be dangerous to those who want to keep a spiffy, clean keyboard) and if the recipe is a success, then voila! I move the recipe from the RECIPES TO TRY folder into the TRIED AND TRUE folder on my computer. (If the recipe is a failure, the recipe is sent straight to the recycle bin, sorry failed recipe!)
There are many recipes found on internet sites that aren’t in an easy format to save to these folders and I don’t want to print out every recipe just because I want to eventually try it – my home is not big enough to house such a stack of paper. Behold the smash hit that is Pinterest! Pinterest has revolutionized the way I organize recipes found via the web. I have a board on Pinterest titled Recipes I Gotta Try
And another board titled Made It…Loved It, similar versions of the folders on my computer.
Any recipe I find online that I want to save to try later gets pinned to my Gotta Try folder. When I’ve made it and loved it, it goes…well, to the obvious Made It…Loved It Board. Some of the recipes on this board may at some point in time make their way onto this blog (probably revised in some way, shape or form because I find it impossible to make a recipe exactly as written) and some may not, but either way, at least I know I loved the recipe, right?
A quick note that you can create as many subset boards as you like in Pinterest (a board for Main Dish, Appetizers, etc.) – I only have one board because I don’t pin hundreds of recipes. I’m pretty selective about what I pin (am I the only one that’s noticed that 1,487 repins does not make a winning recipe? I’ve learned the hard way on that one…some pretty nasty casseroles have entered our kitchen thanks to Pinterest). Create and do what works for you.
In my house, if a recipe has been tested and devoured with love, not only does it change residence on the computer (moving to the coveted TRIED AND TRUE folder or moving boards on Pinterest) but I also print the recipe for a hard copy, if I haven’t done so already, which brings me to my beloved recipe binders.
These recipe binders have been around much longer than Pinterest and much longer than this blog. My famed Aunt Marilyn gave me a HUGE recipe binder full of extended family favorite recipes when I first got married ten years ago. As I started cooking and baking more, I quickly realized I needed more than one binder to hold all my favorite recipes and so I created a system of binders. I love systems. And I love binders.
I have four 2-inch binders full of sheet protectors and dividers with pockets (the pockets are essential and I’ll tell you why in a minute). When I have a recipe that has made it into the tried and true category (meaning, I want to make it at least 100 more times), the hard copy gets put in the appropriate binder. We have to really love and adore the recipe and consider it an immediate family favorite in order for it to make it into the binders. Not just any recipe makes it in. These are elitist binders, my friends. Here’s the breakdown:
Binder 1: Main Dish, Salad, Soup/Stew
Binder 2: Cookies, Cakes, Pies, Bars/Brownies, Candy, Other Desserts
Binder 3: Yeast Breads, Quick Breads, Breakfast
Binder 4: Appetizers, Drinks, Side Dishes, Sauces, Vegetables
DISCLAIMER: These binders could be broken out into a variety of different categories or organized in a myriad of ways. This is how I keep them but I’m sure your imagination and mad organizational skills could think of 100 different combinations to make you smile.
Let’s take a peek into the Desserts binder for a closer look.
I have dividers with pockets outlining each category subset (i.e. Cookies, Pies, etc.)
The pocket on the divider serves a very important purpose. Even in this day and age of finding recipes nearly exclusively online, what about those recipes I spy in a magazine that I need to store and refer to when planning my menu? Well, I pop them right into these pockets in the appropriate category. If they haven’t made it into a sheet protector, I know they haven’t been tried and tested yet. Take for instance this Strawberry Shortcake cookie recipe I snagged from an impulsive Martha Stewart Living purchase years ago. It’s waiting here for me to make it.
When I make it, if I love it, I’ll slide it into a sheet protector behind the divider to live amongst the other tried and true recipes. Some of my tried and true favorites are handwritten:
And others are typed up all fancy-like (most likely printed from one of the electronic folders that houses recipes I want to try).
You can also store other nifty things in the pocket dividers, like this detailed diagram on how to cut a circle cake into every plausible number of slices.
I stack these binders next to the very few cookbooks I own (seriously, I probably only own 5-6 cookbooks). They are monumentally indispensable for when I need a favorite recipe at a moment’s notice. And someday when I have all the time in the world, I’ll type up all the recipes into a beautiful format so I can bestow them onto my children when they grow up and leave me (although, by then, I’m not entirely sure paper will even exist anymore).
Here is a PDF of the files I use for the covers and spines of the binders, just in case you want to copy my exact method. The document can’t be edited, so if you have an entirely different vision for recipe binders, go ahead and create your own categories and covers. Otherwise, feel free to use what I’ve created.
Basically, when I start planning my menu, I start by looking at the recipes I want to try: 1) computer folders, 2) Pinterest, 3) magazine or handwritten recipes in the pockets of my recipe binders. Then I fill in the menu gaps with the tried and true recipes my family is pining away for me to make again and are conveniently stored in the sheet protectors in my recipe binders. I am old school enough to still love having a hard copy versions of my favorite recipes at my beck and call.
I hope this not-so-brief overview gives you some ideas on organizing recipes. I’ve been using this system for years and years and it works very well for me!
And just to end, in case there are inquiring minds, I thought I’d list the cookbooks I have in my possession that I refer to all the time (again, I don’t have hundreds, just a handful), the few cooking magazines I subscribe to, and a handful of my favorite cooking blogs. We can all use a little recipe inspiration now and then!
My Favorite Cookbooks:
The Joy of Cooking
Cook’s Illustrated Cookbook
America’s Test Kitchen Best 30-Minute Recipe
America’s Test Kitchen Best Skillet Suppers
Cook’s Country Cookbook
Cooking Magazines I Subscribe To:
*The list ain’t long, people, but I love both of these magazines for the fact that the recipes are tested, tested, tested and I have rarely made a recipe from either resource that wasn’t a hit*
Cook’s Country
Cuisine at Home
Recipe Blogs I Love:
*I have more blogs than I can count in my Google Reader and I love each of them for different reasons. Below are several of the blogs that have great recipes, plain and simple – I’ll share more of my favorites in the upcoming weeks but for now, here’s a start*
Favorite Family Recipes
Our Best Bites
The Sisters Cafe
Simply Recipes
Smitten Kitchen
Baked Bree
Annie’s Eats
Jamie Cooks It Up!
The Girl Who Ate Everything
Taste and Tell
Hello 🙂 my name is Paige and I wanted to thank you for inspiration to try and learn new things.I wanted to tell you about an app I found and I been organizing it’s called recipe keeper. It’s worth looking into when I don’t have my cookbook or my computer it’s a grate way to store and keep recipes when your away and you can always add them later. Thanks for sharing keep it inspiring people
Great ideas. I just usually file a recipe in my email under recipe. And of course I can’t find anything. I print out many of my recipes and my daughter organized them for me years ago. Now I have neatly organized binders and then a huge stack of recipes I’ve printed and haven’t put into the binders. Oh well. I’ll keep trying
Found your blog while searching to organize my computer recipes. Thanks for the great tip of having 2 sections, Recipes AND Recipes to Try and Tried and True. I have been saving all my recipes together: over 1500 files in 43 folders (just checked!). I will try your method so that all the tried and true ones are together! (it’ll take me awhile, tho, LOL!). I collect recipes…have a huge paper recipe box, 13 inches long. Plus 2 binders of recipes I printed…these in addition to the computer recipes. What a great idea to keep a binder pocket in each category! I love running across recipes my dear mom wrote (or typed-she got into the computer scene!). Thank you so much for sharing your great ideas!
hug,
Laura
I would be interested i knowing what your sub categories are for Main Dish. My system is crazily similar to yours but I struggle so much with the Main Dish. I generally file by protein type, but I haven’t loved it.
This post has been in the back of my mind for months, but I didn’t read the full thing until today after I piled my recipes and new binders onto the kitchen table. Thank you for posting your specifics and especially for providing the PDF. I LOVE using the perfect document that was already created by someone else!! You and your recipes are the best!!
I study for a cook and I think that this is the best way in which a cook may organize his or her recipes. I organize my own recipes in the same way as you do it. Lovely article!
Thank you for this post. I have thousands of recipes sitting all around me at my desk. Like you not mention the blogs and billions of recipes online. when we go to estate sales I try to get the recipes and the oldest cook books. I also discovered a electronic cookbook called livingcookbook2013.com last year. I think you would like it. 2015 is out is even better supposedly. My computer crushed a couple times but livingcookbook was back up on a cd.So my favorite recipes was saved. I have just begin in the infant stages of saving hard copies in notebooks. So this post really helps. Blessings, Ro
Mel, just found your blog…love it!! I planned our menu this week with all new recipes. We had the oatmeal pancakes for dinner last night and my family loved them! (Oldest had to add chocolate chips of course!) Anyway, just wanted to say thanks for that and for the great recipe binder covers. I organized a recipe binder last summer with our tried and true recipes, but it is growing so much I will have to split it up. Can’t wait to try some other recipes! 🙂
Thanks, Melissa! I hope you love any other recipes you try!
I just found this site and I’m in love!
I scan all of my recipes into my computer and keep my favorites on a thumb drive which stays in my purse. That way when I am at work I can print it out before going to the store on the way home.
The printed recipes go into a 3-ring binder which is labeled about like yours. Great minds! 😉
Mel,
I can’t believe my recipe binders are similar to yours. I have slowly started to organize recipes from many years of collecting. My printer has a scanner and I have figured out how to scan my recipes into separate categories. I have gotten an external drive so I don’t use the memory on my computer. Thanks for all your ideas.
,
I LOVE LOVE LOVE everything about your site and am having so much fun on just this page clicking around! thanks for sharing how to organize recipes! I told my mom I would do it for her for Christmas, but I didn’t have a clue where to start. This is super helpful. Thanks!! I’m about to read your menu planning page. As a young mother of 3 I love everything about you and this site. (ps I’ve been making your recipes for a couple years now, and never tried one I didn’t LOVE)
THANKS!!
Thanks, Joelle!
Mel,
You sound a lot like my oldest daughter Mallory. She is newly married and loves to organize AND cook. She’s always emailing me recipes, but I’m not so internet saavy as she. If you have time, can you point me in a good direction for a unique Christmas gift/s for getting her started in electronic (and otherwise) recipe organizational tools and props?
Even though I don’t spend much time on the internet, I WILL be checking in on your blog again and again.
Lisa
Just recently found your blog by searching for a potluck dish. So glad I did.
There is one thing I could add to your recipe system (which is way better thought through than mine – I’m copying like mad).
What I use for the dividers in my binders (set up about 20 years ago) could be the first sleeve in each secton for others. It is a handwritten “locator list” of recipes in cookbooks, magazines, etc. It has the title of the recipe, MAYBE mention of the key ingredient(s), the book or magazine name (and issue if a magazine), and the page number.
Examples (Eggs tab):
Asparagus Curry Omelette, Vegetariana, p. 65 (Easter)
Greek Omelette (Spinach, Feta, Dill), Eating Well, Winter 2004, p. 11
When that great day comes that I trim my cookbooks, these lists will help decide what to keep.
It’s fun to read about how you and the other commenters organized their recipe collections. I limited myself to 6 cookbooks and maybe 12 magazines, and I slowly hand-entered my recipes into bigoven.com. Once in their, it is super easy to search for recipes by ingredient or type, make shopping lists, make menu plans, and change things around at the last minute. But it was a ton of work initially, so I don’t think it would work for people with a huge recipe collection. [Eatyourbooks.com is perfect for that.] I also have a binder, but just one, since I mostly cook from my cookbooks. It’s organized by type, too. I write comments on my recipes so I know what we liked. If we loved it at least 2 times, the name gets highlighted in the cookbook. Duds get an X next to them. Anyway, it is cool to see how other people get organized too.
I have to second Sarah M way up in the middle of all these comments: you MUST try those strawberry shortcake cookies. I agree with her that they are really only amazing the first day, then pretty good after that. I’ve also made them in mini muffin tins with similar taste and texture results. My husband gets excited when he comes home and sees these little beauties on the counter.
I used your binder covers and I love them. Everyone that comes over tells me what cute font it is and how organized I am. I am not really, but thanks for helping me be better at organization. You are awesome!
I just wanted to say thank you for this post. My sister introduced me to your blog and I LOVE it. I’m just starting out in my collection of recipes and its been relieving to find a way to organize them that makes sense! Thanks!
I’m so glad to see that someone else has their recipes separted in binders as well. Now when my husband teases me and I tell him that Mel does it to! 🙂
Great tips! I have a similar recipe organization method, but I am so far behind! Have about ten magazines I need to go through and clip and a whole file folder of other recipes I need to put away in my trusty blue binder.
Mel… I think you wrote this post JUST for me! I have a pile (just moved from the drawer!) FULL of recipes that I needed to figure out how to put together in an organized fashion, and you solved my dilemma! Thank you lovely lady for sharing this awesome idea!
I actually started this same type of organization system and started typing up (!!!) ones I had collected from the newspaper since they were too small to really read while cooking. A friend was so impressed by my ambitious goal, he even went out and bought me sheet protectors, but alas, it became too overwhelming and I eventually gave up on the project. I am addicted to my Cook’s Illustrated online membership and the Epicurious app on my iPad. One day I’ll get around to organizing all of them again…
Thank you for reading my mind, and knowing I really needed to revamp my system. I love the way your brain works, and I’m gonna get on board!
Hey Stephanie – in answer to your questions, first, don’t rethink how many recipes you keep! Everyone is different and I tend to be very, very particular about the recipes I consider favorites and that I want in my binders. The recipes I keep are ones I know I will make over and over – not ones that were just ok. The ones I want to try I keep in the pockets of the dividers. The others that make it into the sheet protectors are favorites. When I find recipes in cookbooks, I scan them in and save them on my computer under the “Recipes to Try” folder. I haven’t looked into that phone app (mostly because I’m not quite hooked to a smart phone or iPhone – I’m pretty old school still). About your last question in the second comment – again, I only keep absolute favorites. But that’s also because we are pretty decisive about our views on a recipe. If it is just “ok” and I know I can tweak it to be awesome, I stick it back in my “to try” spots (either on the computer or in one of the pockets). Hope that helps!
Another question, if you have a chance… It seems your binder is for absolute favorites or recipes on loose paper you haven’t tried. What about those you’ve tried, liked (so didn’t throw away) but it’s not a “favorite?”
Thanks – I too like to try new recipes – but most of the time I make one, like it, and then forget about it. I realized I could save a lot of time when menu planning if I saved some of those recipes in an easy-to-access way rather than looking up new recipes, which takes a lot of time (as fun as it is!). So, the idea of reserving a place for “tried and true” will solve this problem. Also – pocket dividers? Genius!
My problem in the past has been that I have tried to have one place to keep recipes – either on Evernote, pinterest, etc. and I just can’t commit. I like that you have the three different storages. I think I will struggle with what to put in the elitist binders, though. I really do seem to like most recipes I try but I DO want to keep those sacred:)
I have one idea to add that I’m going to try and other readers might find helpful. I’m not as organized as you sound. I can start this method but my struggle will be keeping up with the moving of the recipes from the “to try” into the “tried and true” category. My husband suggested that when I sit down to do my meal planning, that is when I can move the recipes we liked from the previous month’s menu into the “tried and true” folders if they indeed were something we wanted to have again. So – that’s my plan.
I have a couple questions. First, do you have a system for marking recipes in your cookbooks (I’m shocked that you have so few – it’s made me rethink how many I have. I think I need to give some away)? Do you tab or mark the ones that are to try/favorites? Also, when you find recipes in cookbooks from the library are you scanning them in order to save them or do you have your own copy machine?? I’m going to look into the phone app another commenter mentioned, but I wonder what you do.
(ugh, another long comment from me!)
Mel,
Thanks for giving me a jump start on my recipe system. I actually use the same method you do (even cutting & pasting my magazine recipes), but I tried to put everything into 2 binders: Desserts & everything else. I use notebook dividers with tabs for my sections. My summer project was to go through stuff and rearrange, but I haven’t gotten to it. Now that school supplies are on sale, I’m going to go out & get myself a set of binders that fit your PDF files. I think I have time to get on it before school starts! (I should have a notebook called “Mel’s Recipes” because I use & love so many of yours!)
Thanks,
Shar
Megan – I break out the main dishes by beef, chicken, pork, pasta, seafood, and a couple others (including a miscellaneous to catch the ones that don’t really fit anywhere). It’s really up to your style of cooking. Hope that helps!
Hey I started to read through the comments to see if anyone else asked this question, but there are so many I gave up! So sorry if you’ve already answered this question! Do you have subcategories for your Main Dishes binder? If so what are they? Any other subcategories in other binders? I love the organization!
Lots of fantastic organizing ideas for me and I also love all of those blogs, and yours;)
thanks for the explanation! you are a wonder. btw, martha’s strawberry shortcake cookies are phenom. thanks!!