What to do with recipes

[suziquzie]

I cleaned out the spare room. Apparantly I have saved more magazines for the recipes than I thought. I really don't have the space for them, but I hate to get rid of any recipe!
What do other people do with them? I guess I could copy them all on the printer, but thats ALOT of ink and paper. I'm afraid I would take up the rest of the space on the 'puter if I scan them all. Any ideas?

 

[Andy M.]

First of all, go through the mags and just cut out the recipes you want and toss the rest of the mag. You may have changed your tastes on some and decide not to keep as many as you originally thought. That will save you a ton of space.

Second, sort them by type; desserts, salads, soups and stews, etc. This will also cause you to refamiliarize yourself with the recipes which will help you with the next step.

Third, make some of the recipes and put the ones you'd make again into the computer where you should be saving them and toss the paper.

I have a manila folder with such clippings and go through the folder from time to time and end up tossing more than I keep.

 

[Bilby]

Definitely concur with Andy on step one. A bunch of papers takes up a lot less space than a bunch of mags. Also, again like Andy says, needs and tastes change. My mum has just started going through her recipe collection of ripped out pages etc and realised that as she no longer cooks for a family, very few are worth keeping. Most are not relevant to today's lifestyle choices either. She wants to get rid of them but is having a hard job "letting go".

I have a display folder where I put recipes and the like. I can sort them into categories within the folder then. As i get a chance, I transcibe them the ones that I really do like into my handwritten recipe book that I have had for several years. I also find that by writing them out, I remember the where they are easier than if I type.

The other thing you can do is search on the internet for the recipes that you are saving the hardcopy of. As you find them, copy them into your e-recipes folder. Saves typing and declutters.

 

[lyndalou]

I tear them out and go through them every so often (probably 2 times a year) If I haven't tried them, I probably never will, so they get tossed.

 

[expatgirl]

A ring binder photo album with pocket pages is what I use for recipes cut out of mags, newspapers, or backs of boxes, cans, etc. Buy a packet of folder dividers (they have tabs at the top) and label the food category (meats, poultry, desserts, Asian, etc) to keep recipes organized and easy to find. When I don't have time to file I just place the recipe inside the album until later. If you're in a recycling mood, local elementary/preschools might want your magazines for projects after you're finished cutting out recipes.

 

[GB]

Andy's plan sounds perfect to one. One thing that I would add is from this point forward, any time you find a new recipe you want to save, type it into your computer right away and get rid of the paper copy.

 

[jpmcgrew]

I tear out recipes trim them and put them in magnetic photo albums.I have 5 albums one for meat,seafood and pasta another for side dishes,vegetables another salads,salad dressings and soups,another for appetizers and breakfast recipes,another for desserts and baking.
I group the recipes like asparagus in the same pages.Sometimes I put in pictures of great presentations and other stuff like the smoke points of different oils how to calibrate a thermometer,cake pan sizes and servings and other tid bits that I know I wont remember.

 

[*amy*]

I do all of the above. (Still have some magazines to go through.) Then I save them in a program called Mastercook.

Many of the recipes from Magazines are now on the web. Do a search, then copy & save the ones you want to keep.

 

[suziquzie]

Thanks for the help!
I do have 2 ring binders w/ page protectors, stuffed full. I started putting some in Mastercook, but my version is VERY old and I can't even use it anymore! I'm just going to have to get in there and clip what I want, maybe copy them when I want to use them. I will keep the full cooking mags, like my Cooking light and Cuisine at home.
I didn't think to look online for them, that would be much easier, but then I just end up finding 6 more!!!

 

[PytnPlace]

Suzi, a couple months ago I took my HUGE piles of magazines and seperated them according to month. I'm giving myself a year to go through them. I.E. this month I'm going through the Dec. mags. I get online to the magazines website and to see if the recipe is rated. Some of my recipe I'm not sure about so it's nice to see what others think about said recipe. If I decide to keep it, I print it, put in the binder, and throw out the magazine.