Organising recipes

bappy, May 31, 6:45pm
How do you organise your recipes so that you find the one when you want it?Over the years, I have collected so many books and so many printouts, that I never seem to find the recipe I want, when I want it or when I am looking for ideas.So all you very organised people, your ideas would be very welcome.
rainrain1, May 31, 8:49pm
Funny you should ask this as I have just cleaned out my recipe drawer, and have all the books lined with the spine facing upwards, so they can been easily identified.The larger books I keep on a shelf elsewhere.My PC printouts are in a plastic see through bag, which means I have to go through them each time I want a recipe, then I put the one I want to the top, which is a right pain.They are messy and need to be in folders, but then I would still have to go looking :-)
The rest of the recipes are in a folder on my computer which i have also saved to a USB stick.How's that then?See, I am probably not the best person to answer your question.
dippychik, May 31, 8:57pm
My mother has a wee book that she writes down favourites in. Not all recipes, but just some favourites, or ones that there is a recipe that would be better than just the first one you find in the first book you grab. eg. Anzac Bikkies... in x book on page 214 or something like that. It's just one of those wee notebooks that have alphabet tabs
kinna54, May 31, 11:04pm
I had a sort out, and filed mine in clear files,you can buy them with different page quantities or files you can add to, they aren't all that expensive. I have different colours for different things: i.e meat, soups etc in a red1, cakes in a larger file, some of the old hand written ones of my mum's which were getting a bit fragile I scanned into the computer as well.
When I was tidying up some of my old office stuff, I had some of the plastic stand up file holders spare, so I stored the clear files in them,made room on the pantry shelf, and hey presto! Mind you it took awhile, and I have to push myself to make sure when I add a recipe that I keep it tidy. A good job for doing on a cold wet day! My other cookbooks are also stored in the standup holders, or for the bigger ones I have a plastic bin.
lindylambchops1, May 31, 11:53pm
You sound just like me!I am desperate to sort them all out.I used to write them down.Now like you have so many printed off.Started a filing system in a large plastic box.Tried pasting some into scrapbooks labelled Baking, Desserts, Bread, etc etc.But can't seem to keep them all together & tidy.Can never find the recipe I want!Hope you get a good response.Yesterday I asked if anyone stored their recipes onto an e-reader like Kindle.
wheelz, Jun 1, 9:38am
I put all my favourites and often used recipes in one big clear file. I have an index under fish, chicken, puddings, muffins etc. Real easy to add more recipes and pages. Just time consuming to get it started, but once done, sooo handy.
lindylambchops1, Jun 1, 9:44am
BTW...I always pencil a tick on a recipe when I have made it!& I throw out any that were not to my liking!
sooseque, Jun 1, 9:57am
I had heaps of recipes ripped out of magazines etc. so I got some coloured plastic covered ring binders and put all the meat recipes in a red binder (like kinna54 above) and a divider between say beef/lamb/pork etc. and a white folder for poultry and fish and so on, managed to fill 8 folders.The folders were on special at Warehouse stationery. If the recipe is no good when I make it, out it goes, if it is good I score it out of ten and maybe make a note on what to alter next time.