# How to organize my recipes? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 16, 2017, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-organize-my-recipes/796495 "2017-09-16T21:11:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2017, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-organize-my-recipes/796495/21 "2017-09-20T00:48:45Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > I would also like more information. How does the knitting needle not get blocked by anything that doesn’t have the chicken hole punched, as an example? I’ve been scratching my noggin over this as well. Anyone? mmm ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2017, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-organize-my-recipes/796495/22 "2017-09-20T03:02:18Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > I would also like more information. How does the knitting needle not get blocked by anything that doesn’t have the chicken hole punched, as an example? He’s presumably talking about [edge-notched cards](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edge-notched_card) which were not generally machine-readable. A notch that goes all the way to the edge of the card at a certain position corresponds to True (e.g., the recipe contains chicken) whereas a hole in the same position that doesn’t go all the way to the edge corresponds to False (the recipe doesn’t contain chicken). Stick the needle through the chicken position of the stacked cards and give it a shake. The chicken recipes will fall off the stack while the non-chicken recipes will stay on. Using multiple needles in different positions (serially may be more practical than simultaneously) allows you to narrow down the search (e.g., to find the recipes that contain chicken and contain tomatoes and that are appetizers). ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2017, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-organize-my-recipes/796495/23 "2017-09-20T03:17:19Z")
Now that is an idea! ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2017, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-organize-my-recipes/796495/24 "2017-09-20T03:30:11Z")
> [@bibliophage](#): > > He’s presumably talking about [edge-notched cards](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edge-notched_card) which were not generally machine-readable. A notch that goes all the way to the edge of the card at a certain position corresponds to True (e.g., the recipe contains chicken) whereas a hole in the same position that doesn’t go all the way to the edge corresponds to False (the recipe doesn’t contain chicken). Stick the needle through the chicken position of the stacked cards and give it a shake. The chicken recipes will fall off the stack while the non-chicken recipes will stay on. Using multiple needles in different positions (serially may be more practical than simultaneously) allows you to narrow down the search (e.g., to find the recipes that contain chicken and contain tomatoes and that are appetizers). That’s exactly what I was coming up with (in a serial, not simultaneous style), but I’m not entirely sure how it works out in practice. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2017, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-organize-my-recipes/796495/25 "2017-09-20T03:49:36Z")
I can only imagine the drudgery of repunching the cards should you need to add a new category. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2017, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-organize-my-recipes/796495/26 "2017-09-20T03:52:40Z")
Actually, now that I think about it, I see how it can work. I actually had the complete opposite idea in mind; that is, notches to the edge are False, and holes are true, such that using the needle pulls OUT the cards you want rather than leaving them behind, but the opposite way, it seems like it should work for sorting 255 categories in a simultaneous fashion. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2017, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-organize-my-recipes/796495/27 "2017-09-20T04:15:06Z")
Or maybe not, because it would leave behind all those with those particular bits set. That’s what I’m trying to figure out how to work practically. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2017, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-organize-my-recipes/796495/28 "2017-09-20T11:20:54Z")
> [@bibliophage](#): > > He’s presumably talking about [edge-notched cards](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edge-notched_card) which were not generally machine-readable. A notch that goes all the way to the edge of the card at a certain position corresponds to True (e.g., the recipe contains chicken) whereas a hole in the same position that doesn’t go all the way to the edge corresponds to False (the recipe doesn’t contain chicken). Stick the needle through the chicken position of the stacked cards and give it a shake. The chicken recipes will fall off the stack while the non-chicken recipes will stay on. Using multiple needles in different positions (serially may be more practical than simultaneously) allows you to narrow down the search (e.g., to find the recipes that contain chicken and contain tomatoes and that are appetizers). Holy cannoli, the OP is trying to make the system efficient and practical; this seems like something that would have been considered innovative in the 1940s. _“Honey, I feel like herb-crusted lamb chops with a balsamic reduction tonight - where are my knitting needles?”_ mmm ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2017, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-organize-my-recipes/796495/29 "2017-09-20T13:42:59Z")
It wouldn’t be that hard to modify a cute recipe card box to have a thin dowel attached that you could use. What would be cool would be if the box opened up with a second level that you cold slide the unwanted cards onto when you lifted them up so that the dowel is free to filter the initial search results. Then when you close the box, it somehow moves everything from the second shelf back to the bottom of the box for new searches. ---
**Author:** ![Grestarian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grestarian/32/3227_2.png) [@Grestarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grestarian)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2017, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-organize-my-recipes/796495/30 "2017-09-22T04:47:48Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > I transfer every recipe, sometimes by clipping and pasting but usually by retyping in a larger font in a Word document, printing to 8.5 x 11 sheets, then putting them in three ring binder plastic protector sleeves. I group types of meals into different one-inch binders - meals, desserts, crock pot, etc. I can never manage to keep the individual binder recipes in any order, but the binders aren’t that big - it isn’t hard to search through to find what I am looking for. I’ll add pictures if the original recipe included one - often printing it on the backside. One recipe per binder sheet, and then you can see both sides easily. > > Above my workspace, I have a spring clip stuck to the cabinet. I take the recipe from the book, still in the sleeve, and clip it overhead at eye level. I can follow along easily without having to keep a full sized cookbook on the counter and opened to the right page. Keeps it out of the way, but right where I can read it (this is where the large font helps.) I also try to fit the entire recipe on one side - a lot of on-line recipes tend to print to two pages, so I cut and past and reformat it so it fits. (I also remove all the empty chattiness that on-line recipes love so much - “my mother loved this recipe, we made it before going to funerals”. Who cares! Get to the recipe part!) > > I’ll try recipes that are still in cookbooks, but if one works well, I’ll retype it to Word and print it out. I can fix the ingredients lists, too, or resize the recipe for smaller portions, or eliminate the variations I’ll never use. I do a lot of this, as well, but with just one medium-sized binder split into sections by course & main ingredient (e.g. appetizers, soups, salads, Main - chicken, main - beef . . . desserts). It’s mainly for my wife’s collection of recipes because she actually looks for an closely follows recipes while I’m really more instictive (though probably less complex) in my cooking efforts (q.v. various threads around here about Wok cooking). Basically she finds recipes, tries them, and if we like them she hands them off to me to add to the book. I have a preformatted WORD template that I use with sections for equipment, ingredients, pre-prep, main steps, and serving suggestions. All of that is done in larger-than-normal-sized fonts because our eyes aren’t what they used to be. We double-up recipes within a sleeve (front & back) unless there’s so much detail that it requires two pages, in which case I print the recipe double-sided and let it sit alone in the sleeve. What we tend to like best is the fact that, because they’re in the page sleeves, any ingredients that get spattered on them during preparations are easy to wipe off. We’ll have to try that clip idea; seems like it would keep the spatters (unless they’re REALLY BIG ones) off the recipes even better. We also like the fact that, because the sleeves come out of the 3-ring binder, we can deal with one or two recipes at a time, and not have to wrestle with a whole book of stuff we’re not cooking at the moment – and besides, such a book wouldn’t stay in a vertically-mounted clip! As for searching, I save every recipe I’ve transcribed in a folder on my computer and Windows is able to search individual folders or entire drives by key-words now. Once we’ve chosen a particular recipe, we can easily find it in the right section in the binder, pull out the sleeve, and tuck the binder away while using the recipe. –G! I can do a lot with blades. I can even cook! ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2017, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-organize-my-recipes/796495/31 "2017-09-22T14:20:40Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > I transfer every recipe, sometimes by clipping and pasting but usually by retyping in a larger font in a Word document, printing to 8.5 x 11 sheets, then putting them in three ring binder plastic protector sleeves. I group types of meals into different one-inch binders - meals, desserts, crock pot, etc. I can never manage to keep the individual binder recipes in any order, but the binders aren’t that big - it isn’t hard to search through to find what I am looking for. I’ll add pictures if the original recipe included one - often printing it on the backside. One recipe per binder sheet, and then you can see both sides easily. > > … > > I’ll try recipes that are still in cookbooks, but if one works well, I’ll retype it to Word and print it out. I can fix the ingredients lists, too, or resize the recipe for smaller portions, or eliminate the variations I’ll never use. This is what I do. Sections for Beef / Poultry / Pork / Seafood / Other Proteins / Carbs / Sauces / Breakfast / Dessert. As my refrigerator is across from my stovetop, a magnet works fine. My binder is overflowing, so it may be time to start a second. One for Proteins and another for Everything Else. Recipes in cookbooks that I want to add to my collection get scanned to PDF, not re-typed. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-organize-my-recipes/796495.md?page=1)