Comments on: A Recipe Problem Becomes Much More, Then Much Less

By: Samantha

Samantha — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 21:19:39 +0000

Try http://recipe.gauzza.com its free/easy to use and you can access all your recipes where ever there is an internet connection

By: Bea

Bea — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 23:14:44 +0000

ah, sweet to see this post Rekha. You have been putting some thoughts into it, haven’t you?

By: rekha6

rekha6 — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 20:49:11 +0000

I thought about scanning them all in, but that would be one more hobby that has migrated to the computer. I just couldn’t bring myself to do it.

By: David

David — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 17:27:25 +0000

I understand the problem and have turned to a 3 ring binder and a manilla envelope. The other thing I was thinking is that you could scan your recipes and store them with taglines etc. This gives you a searchable database and the option to print them out. Then again you need a laptop in the kitchen but who doesn’t have one of those?!

It is an interesting problem and personally I would organize by course (app, desert, etc) because it could help to quickly limit.

By: rekha6

rekha6 — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 01:24:15 +0000

emilyshaw: I think you’re right, there’s a number somewhere around 100 over which a more structured system is useful

eve: it seems that the categories are only part of what makes the solution work for you. the other part is simply having things in a folder or file. i (used to) do this with media clippings (before pdfs and delicious) – i have 4 huge binders with every page in its own plastic sleeve (i could do things like this before i killed so much time online). there’s no particular order, but when i want to retrieve something i know i have, it’s less scary to open a binder than it would be to attack a pile.

By: Eve

Eve — Wed, 26 Dec 2007 03:58:29 +0000

Ha! I did not mean to create such a quandary for you.

In my case, I organized them into the file because I had all those stacks of magazines that I needed to throw out and the resulting pile of recipe clippings was too large to sit on a shelf.

Now that I have the file (although I’ve outgrown it and am thinking I need to move it all into one of those plastic filing boxes and add lots more categories as tehre are now a bunch of recipes that don’t fit into my current set of categories) I find that I use the recipes a lot mroe than I would have before – partly because I do read through them more than I would have because doing so is soooo much less overwhelming thanks to the organizational system.

For example, if I have an ingredient (a type of meat, vegetable, herb, etc.) that I am not sure what to do with, I flip to that section of the file and read through all the recipes. In general, there is usually at least one recipe that sounds good to me that I then make or one that gives me a good idea for something to use the ingredient in and I just make up a recipe that is loosely based on it.

I agree however that working with computers does kind of spoil you organizationally. I often forget that I cannot just google things in “real” life.

By: emilyshaw

emilyshaw — Tue, 25 Dec 2007 20:04:27 +0000

my mom has lots and lots of cutouts and they're in manila folders based on loose categories (i.e., desserts, entrees) but things always get misfiled so you always have to look through all of them anyway if you want to make something. The act of riffling through them all is a mnemonic in itself, however, and you have visceral memories of dishes that you wouldn't have thought of making if you hadn't touched that torn magazine page. In Oakland, when our minds were generally on other things but we still wanted to be able to make dinner (as opposed to now, where our minds are on other things but neither of us has any interest in making dinner) we had index cards on the refrigerator that just had a list of all of the dishes we liked for dinner. That was easy enough to scan. Anything under 100 recipes is not too big for the pile method of organizing, I think. Anything over 100 recipes might deserve its own cookbook.