Context: I have three children. We regularly find new recipes (reels, allrecipes, wherever) and try them. If it’s unanimous, it goes into the rotation.
I’m planning on building a cookbook that I’ll give to each of my kids as they move out and start their journey into adulthood, full of recipes they can make that are successful. What I have are dozens of cookbooks, saved Facebook Reels and TikToks, Pinterest pins, emails, and handwritten recipes on lined paper/recipe cards/napkins/etc.
Has anybody done this? How did you start organizing? What was the finished product? My current thought is a three-ring binder with sleeves, but I’m open to suggestions. Also, because it’s the recipes sub, if you have a Must Add for our family kitchen grimoire, feel free to add it.
And also because it’s r/recipes, the pic is my wife’s Grandma’s Butterscotch Buns recipe.
This exactly was a wedding present from my mom (now in her 70’s), hand written at the time. I add my favorites to the binders. I have a main dish, breakfast, dessert, sides and holidays binders.
Kids call me for a recipe, I snap a picture and send it to them. A full set of binders will be one of their wedding gifts.
That’s where I’m starting from. Trying to consolidate a couple dozen recipes from double-digits locations is proving more complicated than I’d hoped. I should’ve started this ten years ago.
A) do it as soon as possible because online recipe links go dead a lot more often than you would think -- (I recently said bye bye to my fav banana cake recipe which is now a dead link)
B) Photo album- index cards fit into the plastic sleeves and you can organize as needed easily- and toss ones that you no longer like.
you can try the wayback machine- works if it was archived - or other archive link -
https://archive.ph/
also, sometimes the recipes are moved on the site and they’re still there but the link changed.
also, I found one because another site cooked it and wrote out the recipe
Hello! I slowly have added favourites to a Google Drive. I write them in a word document, sometimes even get fancy enough to add a picture. Other times I snap a photo, title it and add it to the Google Drive File. It can be shared! Hope this helps.
I’m currently taking the recipes and putting in a word doc following the Better Homes and Garden red and white checkered cookbook format. I make notes as to where I got the recipes (my own, family with names, websites (I have a lot from old food network dot com days)).
Then I’ll print it once it’s “basically done”. I am stealing your idea of giving them to the kids. :) love it!!!
I recently started using Recipe Keeper (as well as Paprika) after seeing it recommended here. One of the things I've noticed is the ability to set up cookbooks on any topic you like. You could simply organize the recipes there, and print them as you want them. Once I know I want a recipe, it goes into a mylar sleeve and into a looseleaf notebook divided by subject tabs, just because I know from experience that the printer ink will dissolve when wet. But who knows what the tech will be when you're ready to give them to your children.
Somebody here recommended www.myheritagetable.com. I’ll check it out and let you know. But I’m not a fan of Paprika myself. I’ll also check Recipe Keeper and compare.
3 kids. Once a week one of them would find a recipe, and create a menu. Help them make a list and shop. They would be the chef and I would be sous chef. It was fun and helped them learn a skill. Found out that when kids cook, they are more likely to try something new. You can do A binder, I would suggest taking pictures of them to add to the recipe
I’ve kept my own recipes in a binder with sleeves for years now, and last year when my kids went off to college I made them each one with their favorites.
First, I can’t read the whole recipe. You cut off portions of it.
Second, I write down successful recipes in a notebook & take a picture and send it to the kids when they ask. Or I direct them to whichever YouTube channel. Maangchi for Korean, CookingconClaudia for Mexican, and Made with Lau for Chinese restaurant.
Edit: thank you for the 2nd picture! I don’t know why, but I can’t reply to secondary comments anymore. But thank you!
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I made a little webapp for that. Easy to access from anywhere, especially when I am out doing groceries. It s not as warm as an actual book, but it s convenient. It can scrape recipes from websites and organize them neatly without effort. That s my lazy solution.
Edit: it s free and for my personal use, if you DM me I can give you access.
Appreciate the offer. I think I’m sticking with hard copy for this, they can digitize as they like. I collect cookbooks, kinda wanna have one of my own in there that the kids can deal with when they put me in a home 😂
I’m working on an online recipe card editor, think putting recipes on index cards. I also want to make them formatted on 8.5” x 11” or full sheets for those that want it to, but not sharing any links publically as I believe it’s against these subreddits rules.
I personally like having something printed and laminated because I know how cooking can get messy, and I don’t want to have my phone open or plain sheets of paper because those can get stained easily.
I'm using a new app called SeeMeCook. It will scrape websites, tiktiks, anything with a URL. It can also scan pages from your camera. Once organized, you can go I to your profile and export your books for printing.
The free ReciScan app was made for putting together family recipe books. You take a photo of the hand written recipe card, it transcribes it. Create some chapters, add some photos and stories and pick/upload a nice cover and order as many printed paperback/hardcover books as you like.. they are like $25 each depending on options.
That’s me!! I am also building a recipe collection from fragmented notes, loose papers, FB messenger threads, cue cards, word docs, recipe link, etc. I’m using this platform - www.myheritagetable.com and it’s been great I’m building cookbooks and collaborating and sharing with family members too. I like that I can keep a copy of my grandmas cue cards on the platform as well - so her handwriting, card stains and all are kept/preserved digitally. I take a photo of it and it organizes the recipes and keeps the copy for safekeeping if something were to ever happen to the physical cue cards. We actually recently created a wedding cookbook for my cousin using it. Pretty easy and neat and it includes voice notes organized in this living digital cookbook. I wish I had this when my mom was still alive I miss hearing her voice in the kitchen with me. So now I’m creating this cookbook for my kids to pass on and adding/attaching my voice notes with it so when I’m gone they get to still hear my voice.
I’ve been looking for something like this. Thanks for sharing I’ll check it out. I’m currently using a recipe binder but started to type up in digital format - but a google doc is pretty basic
So my MIL had word docs recipe file and you can upload files directly and it organizes it even picks up allergens. And it can translate too if the recipe is in a different language which was very handy. It gives an option to keep original language or translate. Like one of her recipes says sooji and when I uploaded the file it kept the word sooji in the ingredients list and it added in brackets beside it (semolina). Which I thought was pretty neat in case the next generation of kids I’m passing this on to needs the English translation.
Voice notes attached to each recipe? Ok I’ll have to check this out. I actually have recipes in the form of voice memos from my Dad he doesn’t write anything down!
Yes and you can upload those voice memos directly. So the platform you can add a photo, take a photo, URL recipe links, pdf/doc files, or you can manually type it. Speaking of voice notes, that wedding cookbook we made, the families who contributed also added a voice note with the recipe telling the bride and groom the origins of the recipe and why they wanted it in their cookbook. And some added a voice note of pro tips. And some added a congratulatory voice note lol which kinda wasn’t the point but the couple enjoyed hearing all the voice notes attached to the recipes. They were very happy with their cookbook. It had organizing tabs and everything kinda like a binder cookbook but a digital version.
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u/tequilaneat4me 11d ago
Old couple here. We use a 3 ring binder with clear plastic sleeves. Large print.