How to Organize Your Recipes Offline
There are many – some might say “too many” – recipes around the world. Books and magazines are full of them, but thanks to the internet, you can cook a new recipe a day and never open a cookbook. There are tons of apps out there to keep track of your favorite foods online, but the truly special recipes deserve a paper copy.
For printed product
Food magazines are one of the few magazines I still buy, but I don’t have a place to store stacks of periodicals in my 600-square-foot apartment. The problem with printed recipes is that they usually come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes. Some are sidebar, some are full page, and some are form in between. A ring binder filled with clear plastic sleeves works especially well here, as you can mix and match sleeve sizes – I like using a mix of full page sleeves and smaller photo sleeves to keep things neat. as far as it’s possible.
You can also keep the binder organized (or not) however you like, with separators and tabs, and move things around without breaking the structural integrity of your filesystem. In addition to magazines and newspaper clippings, you can also use a binder to clean up your cookbook collection and photocopy your favorite pages before donating the book to the library. (Just make sure you only use copies for personal use.)
If this is a family matter
Recipe boxes are adorable, nostalgic filing systems that can be used to make great heirlooms, but it can get controversial if there is more than one sentimental chef in the family. A few years before my grandmother died, she made a spiral bound book containing copies of all her recipe cards, as well as photographs of her family, and gave them to her children and grandchildren for Christmas. She had a family friend (who owned a printing business, by the way) helped her make the book, but you can get it done on any major box office network or – if you want to be a little more interesting – create a bound book using a company like Shutterfly , Artifact Uprising or Snapfish .
If this is a personal project
I do most of my recipes in a notepad or notepad, but my dad sent me the Moleskine fashion magazine recently and I love it. Instead of developing my own sketches in it, I jot down winning combinations and tricks, and then write down how long it took, what heating elements I used and how difficult it was (there are neat little boxes for each). You can use the recipe journal for your own creations, or you can use it to keep track of your favorites as others have written, including any modifications, tips, and tricks you learn while making them. If the format – or price tag – of Moleskine magazine isn’t right for you, you can always use a cheap blank notebook and create your own hyperspecific format, bullet magazine style, and get creative with the look. feel and format.