I like to cook. I like to try new recipes.
These facts may seem mutually exclusive at first glance, but bear with me.
Why do I hate cookbooks?
- Even when I know exactly what recipe I’m looking for and which book it’s in, I spend too much time flipping through pages trying to find it.
- Most of the time, I can’t even remember which cookbook the recipe I’m looking for was in.
- I feel bad scribbling my recipe alterations in a shiny, purchased cookbook. Scribbles feel like me walking up to Julia Child and throwing her the z-snap while telling her I’m a better cook than her because I’m changing her recipe.
- Cookbooks may have three recipes I like and eleventy billion recipes I will never even try, but I have to flip through anyway because they are IN THE WAY. Recipe roadbumps are not my friends.
- Cookbooks typically have a flat spine, which makes it awfully difficult to keep them open while I’m reading the recipe. I have more than once had an open cookbook LUNGE at me from the counter, flip itself shut, and slam to the floor.
Like I said. I hate cookbooks. They obviously hate me, too, so I think that’s fair.
My Solution
My solution is simple, ridiculous, hodgepodge, and utterly fantastic.
I bought an empty spiral-bound scrapbooking book.
Every time I try a new recipe and it’s awesome, I make a copy of the recipe, cut it out, and glue it into my scrapbooking book, where I can scribble recipe alterations, notes, movie quotes*, and random doodles of green peppers, mushrooms, and tomatoes to my heart’s content.
The Black Book
The Black Book, as it’s called, is our repository for awesome recipes. I know that every recipe in there is one that is tried, tested, and loved. I have a few hand-written recipes from friends in there (hi, Jen!), various printouts from websites, and a lot of scanned copies from our three primary recipe books.
I don’t have to pain-stakingly hand-write recipe cards (they look amazing, but I am WAY too lazy for that). I don’t have to remember where the recipes came from, or remember that I added soy sauce and mushrooms to our favorite steak recipe.
The Black Book is messy, hideous, splattered with various sauces and foods, and I love it to bits.
You?
How do you organize your recipes? Do you have a dizzying array of cookbooks, a neatly stacked box of index cards, or a cluttered favorites folder for the internet?
* The meatloaf recipe has the original title scribbled out and the words, “MOM! The MEATLOAF!” inserted in its place. Similarly, the tuna and cauliflower casserole has “It’s a casserole, Sheila, it’ll keep!”. We refer to these recipes as “momthemeatloaf” and “casserolesheila”. Bonus points if you know what movies the quotes are from.
Oy.
We’ve a handful of actual cookbooks, and a LOT of handwritten/printout recipes stacked up haphazardly amidst them. Also, files bookmarked or copied to text files (the netbook makes a pretty good cookbook, actually >.>)
We’re HORRIBLY messy about it. And disorganized. But it’s worked for us so far…
Marianne´s last blog ..So why did I leave?
@Marianne
*laughs* I am waaaay too impatient for that to work for me. I do love hearing how other people do it, though! =]
@Marianne
Plus, I am SUCH a messy cook, I’d be terrified to use a computer as a cookbook!!
Well, it tends to be a “net book over THERE and working over HERE” but… David does it much more than I, and since it’s his, I’m not pointing fingers.
My favored is probably the random sheets of paper/printouts.
Marianne´s last blog ..So why did I leave?
A few years ago, Janet made her own cookbook: Compiled all the family favorites (and since she is an excellent cook, and an even better baker, there are a LOT of recipes), organized them, then had several copies printed and spiral-bound. Believe me, her three sons, mother, brother, sister-in-law and daughter-in-law think it’s the best cookbook they have!
Steve Hall´s last blog ..Instrospection on Writing
I have a Microsoft OneNote notebook labeled ‘personal’ with a tab labeled ‘recipes’ and when I find recipes online I copy/paste them there, I have one page for each recipe so I can make notes on it etc. Copy pasting even automatically puts in a hyperlink to the source for me in case I want to find it, and I can print out the pages I want to use, or just go look at the computer in between chopping/putting things in pan/setting oven.
But now I want to do your scrapbook idea just because it sounds like tons of fun.
Jack of Hearts´s last blog ..My Weight Loss Experience
@Steve
I’ve got a couple family cookbooks done that way, and I agree! It’s very nice! Hard to add new recipes or modify them, though. I do snag recipes from them from time to time!
@Jack
*laughs* Yours is, I think, the first of the commented organization styles that I might actually do, if I didn’t love my Black Book method so much. One of the downfalls of the black book is that it doesn’t have sections for types of recipes (breakfast/dinner/dessert/etc)
Let’s see, what do we have:
1. The aforementioned OneNote notebook method
2. Various food-splattered printouts from various cooking sites around the net shoved into a 3-ring binder. Not holepunched, no, just shoved in there because “I’ll get around to it”
3. Many cookbooks that look pretty on my shelf but I’ve never used
4. Stacks of cooking magazines that are dog-eared, food splattered and worn to no end. Cuisine at Home is my go-to “what do I want to make to eat” magazine.
Organization, what?
If you don’t have access (no pun intended) to OneNote, the free Evernote app for Mac/PC/Linux will help you accomplish the same thing.
Steve Hall´s last blog ..Instrospection on Writing
@Tristina
*laughs* How can you keep track of which of those methods actually holds the recipe you’re looking for? I’d go bonkers!
@Steve
Oh, good call on that. Thanks for the reminder!
Tami´s last blog ..Return of Warcraft
I hear you on the cookbook issue. I have several but I rarely use them for the same reasons.
I started using foodnetwork.com by looking up recipes there. If I like a recipe after trying it I’ll save it, you can create a profile there. You can also create different folders to organize the recipes.
If I want to follow a recipe I’ll either bring my wireless laptop upstairs into the kitchen, or I’ll run back up and down the stairs several times trying to remember it :)
I like the OneNote idea I think I might try that, because then I won’t even require an internet connection (and the FN website really sucks with all the flash and videos they have that slow things down.)
Cookbooks are still books to me. I find ideas, pictures and interesting facts in them. I love my Joy Of Cooking cookbook because it has pictures for all the different cuts of meat and gives you really basic information. I also really like my fundraiser cookbooks. You know, the ones that the Junior League of Baton Rouge put together and sold to raise money for something spectacular they did. And they signed all their recipe enteries as Mrs. Robert Importantman. I love that ! I can imagine some poofy-haired botoxed babe sitting at her table telling Consuela to script out a recipe to put in the book. Honestly, I love those community fundraiser cookbooks!! LOVE THEM!
I love your scrapbook approach, though. It is a nice personal touch. Recipes are more than just combinations of ingredients. There are stories and memories in recipes. Recipes should have personal notes written on the side.
And I have to redefine Steve Hall in my head after his entry here. The twenty year old in my head can not have a daughter-in-law, so I must find him a new face and identity. However, I know several people who have done family heirloom cookooks, and they all say what a great treasure that is.
I think you are wrong about hating cookbooks. I think you just forgot that there are stories being told.
@Daria
Yeah, I like recipe sites because of the rating and commenting system, but most of them are so cluttered with ads that I find it easier just to guess than use them.
@Anne
Hmm, well, on that note, you’re right. I don’t hate cookbooks. I hate trying to use cookbooks for finding and using recipes. =]
There are a lot of cookbooks I like to READ – for the stories and the photos and the beauty of them. Are you familiar with Pioneer Woman? Her cooking blog is out of this world hilarious (in some ways, she reminds me of you) and I hear her cookbook is even better.
http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/
And I’m sure Steve will be tickled pink that you thought he was 20 years old. And now I want to write a blog as “Mrs. Robert Importantman (and her maid, Consuela)”
Tami´s last blog ..Return of Warcraft
I have a recipe box that my sister-in-law gave me for my bridal shower. She then sent everyone a recipe card with their shower invitation for them to put recipes on to fill the box with. So cool! I use that, plus if I find recipes, I usually find them online or they’re emailed to me so I just print them out, sometimes cut them out, sometimes just fold them, and stick them in the box. Not really that organized because the box is organized by letter, but I can never remember if I’d file Chicken Soup under “C” or “S”. Ha!
@Adlib
I had something like that for a while! But then I realized I was folding and tucking more often than I was organizing and prettifying. *laughs*
Tami´s last blog ..Return of Warcraft
@Anne
Hmm…maybe we need to convince Tami to include Gravatars in her comments section–mine is a picture of me that was taken last summer. ;)
Now I'm curious what about me made you think I was a mere 20? If I were twenty years younger, I still wouldn't be close to 20! *cry* (And after yesterday, I could sure use 20 years back!)
Steve Hall´s last blog ..Instrospection on Writing