I have my mother's cookbook from the 1940's and I am not going to part with it. The binding has come off of it. Anyone know where to find bookbinders? Just yellow pages/online "book binding"?
Also, many of my recipes are on cards written by someone I love, so I want to be able to touch them vs electronic. I got a 3 ring binder to put them in in plastic sleeves but not too pretty. Anyone have any other ideas?
Overall Rating: 3 votes
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Posted 2 years ago #
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Anna:
Re: recipes on cards. Go ahead and scan them electronically just so you have a copy in case something happens to the original. Scanning saves the handwriting as opposed to typing them into a word processor.
Sorry - no other ideas other than the 3-ring binder you mentioned. I'm culling my recipes so they all fit into a 4" deep box that holds 4X6 cards.Posted 2 years ago # -
I've got a small box with the recipes I use the most and a few cookbooks.
I wish I still enjoyed cooking. :(
I used to love it. I don't know why I feel the way I do about it. It's just a pain now.
Posted 2 years ago # -
I recently got all of my most used recipes organized and printed into a Tastebook (http://www.tastebook.com/). I am now culling the pack so to speak on the rest of my recipes. The problem, of course, is that I collect vintage cookbooks. So I have a hard time deciding when something is vintage and not just clutter and useless.
What I do for recipes I want to try is print it out, rip it out (magazine) or copy it so that all my recipes can be put into one manila file folder. I'm a paper person - if I leave it digital it gets lost and I forget about it. Besides I can't cook with digital - gotta have the paper anyway. Once the file folder gets too full I start culling it and deciding if I will actually cook some of them or actually just cook them and decide if the recipe is a keeper. If it is (very few pass the one time test) it goes into a second file folder of used recipes. Only when it makes it out of that folder a few times does it make it to Tastebook for organization (and maybe future printing).
Posted 2 years ago # -
I use google bookmarks which are searchable. They are also saved with a tag cloud. This seems the simplest and easiest way for me.
Posted 2 years ago # -
I have a subscription to Taste of Home and love using the website. I have a tiny laptop that I can place on the kitchen island if I'm experimenting with a new recipe so I don't have to print it out. If I like it I'll save it in the online recipe box. In cookbooks, I write comments on the recipes I've used. If a cookbook isn't marked up it needs to go. For handwritten recipes from loved ones or things I've clipped I have an expandable folder that is coming apart. I'm in the process of moving it to a better organized expandable folder and culling recipes that no longer fit our needs.
Posted 1 year ago # -
As a web worker, I just wanted to add a comment about saving web pages - whether it's online or to your hard drive.
For many free websites, such as About.com, the writers earn income by pageview counts. It takes a LOT of pageviews to make any money and every click matters. So it's not too bad if you're saving a page for your own use, but please avoid making those pages publicly available. A link, like on Delicious or Digg or whatever is great, but an actual copy of the content is bad.
Copied content can also affect your google rankings, which is a real problem. I don't think it matters so much with a private scrapbook sort of site like Evernote, but don't put them on your blog.
My favorite thing is when a reader makes a comment about something I've done, and links to it so people can see it on my own site. Bonus karma points for using good text (as in, 'check out the "free art lesson" ' rather than Check out this lesson. "click here" )
Just FYI in case you're blogging about fave recipes or something, and want to help your favorite author.
As for my own ridiculous recipe collection - since I realised I'm never going to be a domestic diva, I've ditched most and am taking the books to the secondhand shop soon, except for one huge collection of basic, classic dishes that I actually use.
Posted 1 year ago # -
I am looking for, in book form, a recipe index for my vast collection of cookbooks and the recipes that I have used from them....I have, by chance, found them, but need more books. I went to Booksamillion and they did not have a resource shown for such a book....does anyone here know where one can be ordered?
I honestly could not find the recipes I have used in cookbooks, without knowing exactly where to look. ThanksPosted 1 year ago # -
About 10 years ago I got all my mum's old recipes together and typed them all into a file on my computer added the recipes I frequently used and made a lovely folder with each page of recipes in plastic sleeves so they wouldn't get messed up when I am in the midst of ingreients and other splatter (sound like a messy cook don't I).
I don't buy recipe books or food magazines any more I just borrow them from the Library. That way I can only keep them for a month and then they have to go back. I sometimes scan the recipes I like the sound of and try them out later and add them to the file if they pass the taste test. I can always borrow them again if I need to.
http://www.365lessthings.comPosted 1 year ago # -
This is actually my current project – getting all my recipes into digital format. I bought a little program called YummySoup! for my Mac (http://hungryseacow.com/) and it's the best. It has this feature called an "Any Site Importer" which allows you to save online recipes very easily. I had a ton of bookmarks and just tore through them. (Now I'm on to the recipes I have to type in. Groan.)
Highly recommend!
Posted 1 year ago # -
I've just realized that I hardly ever even USE recipes! I rarely bake, and everything else (oven temps, etc) I mostly seem to be able to remember without consulting a book. Of course, my dishes are usually extremely simple and I don't bother to measure spices ("that looks about right!").
I think I'm going to make myself a tiny little book of basic reminders and get rid of half of the cookbooks in my pantry.
Posted 1 year ago # -
I'm a big fan of MacGourmet Delux. You can download a free trial and then after that you need to pay but your purchased code works on 2 computers. You can import from websites pretty easily using Safari (it's the only thing I use Safari for) and there is also an iphone/ipodtouch ap to go with it. On top of this you can also create menu plans, wine notes, input your own recipes, and create a recipe "book" that can then be printed and bound and sent to you.
I promise they haven't paid me to write this! I spent a long time looking at all of the different programs out there and downloading all the free trials and this one was the best for me by far.
Posted 1 year ago # -
i was a chef for years.
i hoarded foodie magazines! and cookbooks! and hand written folders of recipes!
i got rid of a lot of them when i changed careers, but i still have a couple of shelves of them.realistically, if i cooked a different recipe from the collection, at every meal, i'd still be going in ten years' time.
this helps me to buy no more new cookbooks.on my macbook i have sous chef and it's an ok program.
it's a bit buggy here and there, but on the whole, it works alright.
i cannot complain, but you can tell i am not in love.the funny thing is that 99% of the time, i don't cook with a recipe anyway.
i just cook.
unless i am baking. then i am pedantic.Posted 1 year ago # -
Hello I work with Evernote. (http://www.evernote.com). I actually took on a project a while back where I digitized my Grandmother's old paper recipe book using a digital camera and Evernote. You can check out the blog post and view the actual cook book here. --- Cooking Up Memories with Evernote http://blog.evernote.com/2009/10/08/cooking-up-memories-with-evernote/
Posted 1 year ago # -
Just curious ... so many mention using computer-based systems ... do you all have computers in your kitchens??
Posted 1 year ago # -
I bring my laptop in the kitchen. I have a special place for it so it doesn't get spattered or dusted with anything.
Posted 1 year ago # -
chacha, i take my laptop into the kitchen as well.
there is a feature on the souschef that blows the recipe up to full page....i can read it almost across the kitchen.
well, almost.Posted 1 year ago # -
The souschef software looks great. Is there anything about it that you don't like?
Posted 1 year ago # -
Only a couple of days ago did I download Gourmet Recipe Manager and it rocks! It arranges recipes according to tags you've assigned, you can import scanned pictures (basically the whole original recipe) and/or download stuff from the net. You can make shopping lists based on what you have in the cupboard vs. what you need to buy to make the dish. It has a built-in unit converter (if you like to cook in "languages") and you can count nutritional values directly from recipes. The software is on my laptop (Linux) so I can keep it in the kitchen while cooking - no need to kill trees :)
Posted 1 year ago # -
Years ago I discarded the large paper grocery sack of all the clipped recipes I had collected, and kept only a manageable number of recipes whose ingredients are foods I like (what a concept), and were easily obtained at a grocery store. These "keepers" I immediately pasted it to a 4x6 card and put it in my nice wooden hinged recipe box.
That process worked fine even up to the present day, but just recently I realized that since that big wooden recipe box does not fit my goals for a minimalist lifestyle, I decided to (1) sell the nice wooden box, (2) find new home(s) for the packages of blank 4x6 index cards, and (3) discard all but the small handful of recipes that I was raised on, that I was able to get from Mom.
Being single I really don't cook much anymore, and eating in my minimal lifestyle will be more of a whole foods/unprocessed regimen, so I am finally ready to release this part of my life. But I still get to keep only those recipes from my family history, where the memories are.
Everything else: if I need it again someday, I can probably find it (or something even better) online and print out a temporary copy.
Be patient with yourselves, de-clutterers: Stuff did not enter our homes overnight, and some things take time before we are ready to release them.
Posted 1 year ago #
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