By Mary Lynne Murray
Reprinted from Contra Costa Times, May 11, 2003
AS A TEENAGER in the 1970s, I gave my mom a new recipe card box
and organized her recipes one Mother's Day. Today, we have more
options for organizing recipes than our mothers did. Here are
two methods; one is low-tech and one is high-tech.
But first, let's consider those piles of yet-to-be-tested recipes.
Are there bushels of yellowed, crumpled recipes cluttering your
space? Most people use only a quarter of the recipes they have.
Be a smart cook and evaluate your recipe collecting habits. How
do you feel when you see those piles? Do you feel guilty or hopeless?
If you haven't used it, it's time to lose it!
The same goes for recipes you tried but weren't crazy about: Didn't
love it? Lose it. Think "less is more" in the kitchen.
Start a new habit of clipping a recipe only when you have a specific
use in mind. Set a goal of trying one new recipe (more if you
enjoy cooking) each week.
Use a 3-ring binder with plastic page protectors and pocket pages
with tabs for categories. Print broad categories on the tabs,
such as appetizers, soups, salads, breads, meat/fish/poultry,
main dishes and desserts. (If you cook and entertain frequently,
you may need several binders with more specific categories. For
example, divide desserts into cakes, pies, cookies).
The ease of this system is that it accommodates recipes collected
from varied sources: newspapers, magazines, printed from the Internet,
cookbooks, or handwritten. By pasting the recipe to a full sheet
of paper and inserting it in a page protector, your recipe is
protected from spills and splashes while cooking. If the recipe
is short, there will be room for another on the same page. Economize
space by inserting additional recipes on the flip side of each
page protector. Your binder can also cross reference your cookbooks.
No need to copy the recipe; simply record the recipe name and
cookbook with page number on a sheet. Then insert the sheet in
the page protector and place it in the appropriate category.
Whatever system you choose, set it up with recipes that you use
now. Don't concern yourself with the backlog until your tried
and true recipes are incorporated in a system.
After purging the backlog of untried recipes down to a reasonable
amount,you are ready to organize what's left. Keep untried recipes
separate from others. Untried recipes may be slipped into pockets
with tabs within the appropriate category, or filed in folders.
If you like using the computer, try The Paper Tiger Software for
organizing your recipes (www.thepapertiger.com).
In the software, enter an item name, i.e. "Cajun Meatloaf."
In "keyword," add as much or as little descriptive information
about your recipe as you prefer; perhaps the name of the person
who gave you the recipe or the occasion it was cooked. The software
assigns each recipe a number and the hard copy of the recipe is
then dropped in the corresponding numerical hanging file, keeping
your recipe in its original form. If you have a large recipe collection,
recipes can be further identified by category, such as "Meat."
The end result is a customized database to which to you can easily
add or subtract recipes. Search for a recipe by entering a descriptive
word in quick find, or refer to an index printed in alphabetical
order.
What about paper scanning of recipes? Generally this isn't practical
because it's very time intensive, and scanners may not recognize
handwritten recipes.
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