43 replies to this topic

[Brandie]

Hello all! I was busy reading thru magazines the other night. Then it dawned on me that all those recipes I want to try don't need to be ripped out! So, I took out my phone, opened Evernote and added a photo note for each recipe. I put them all in a notebook I call "Recipes To Try". After I try them, (and if they are worth keeping) they are moved to the "Recipes" notebook.

How do you manage recipes you'd like to try, or want to keep?

[Owyn]

I add a checkbox followed by "Try this" followed by a horizontal line at the top of the recipe.

When I do try it I add any appropriate changes to ingredients/instructions to the note and finally my opinion of the recipe with any notes about things to do differently next time (e.g. more/less liquid, etc.)

If the recipe is a real keeper, then I merge my notes into the recipe text.

[BurgersNFries]

I have used Mastercook for about 20 years & still enjoy it & use it as my main electronic source of recipes. But I like having a backup (b/c as OC as I am, I just know someday, there's a chance I won't be able to use it any longer.) So the really favorite recipes are also added to Evernote. I also have a "recipes to try" tag for the recipes I, uh, want to try. http://discussion.ev...tyle_emoticons/default/icon_wink.gif When I try them, I remove that tag & make a note whether we enjoyed it or not. BTW, I love cookbooks & have several hundred of them. When I use a recipe from a cookbook, I write notes that I tried it & what we thought of it. Sometimes, those don't always get added to Mastercook (time constraints.) One thing I want to do going forward, is to scan/photograph the recipe from the cookbook & add it to Evernote. First, that should make it easier to find a recipe, if I don't remember which cookbook it's from. Second, if the cookbook gets lost or damaged, I still have the recipe.

[BurgersNFries]

Update: This is my initial workflow for saving favorite recipes from cookbooks into Evernote. As I said in my above post, I prefer to use Mastercook, since it's a true recipe app. However, I want to have a backup, in case I ever lose the ability to use Mastercook. Plus, adding recipes to Mastercook takes time, since you have to type the ingredients, quantities, directions, etc. So here's what I'm currently trying in order to at least get them into Evernote.

I scan a copy of the front cover & save that under the cookbook name followed by " - cover" to keep as a starting template. I then copy the cover page & add the scan of the recipe. The file name is now something like "The Savory Way - Black Bean Soup.pdf" The first page of the PDF is a scan of the cover. Subsequent pages are the recipe itself. I still keep a copy of the pdf on my hard drive just...in...case... but drop a copy into Evernote, too. By having the cookbook cover as the first page, I can quickly visually find recipes from a particular book, using the snippet view. Or I could isolate recipes from a particular book using:

intitle:"the savory way"

I also think maybe having the image of the front cover in Evernote, that it may be helpful if I want to pull the real cookbook from one of my many shelves, since it would remind me what it looks like. Ok, maybe that wouldn't happen. But since I really enjoy cookbooks, I do think it's fun to see the front cover. Now that I'm thinking of it, I may even start scanning the dust jackets...yeah...gonna do that.

I'm going to need to start sleeping less... http://discussion.ev...tyle_emoticons/default/icon_wink.gif (And more EN upload limits!)

[TdeV]

For recipes I'm particularly interested in trying, I have a "Try this!" tag, but the recipe is not modified in any other way. Originally I got EN because I wanted a way to organize my recipes (have been using a paper system for years). I now have >1000 recipes in EN. I do have a fairly extensive list of tags set up, so I can flip through all recipes of a certain category. So many things might come up in a text search so that, for me, the tags are more specific.

[dasevilla]

I tag my recipes with main ingredients (beef, chicken, pasta, etc.), cooking method (braise, bake, fry, etc.), and cook time (quick or slow). This lets me easily find my recipes for quick fried chicken or slow beef stews.

[Brandie]

@burgersnfries I love using my phone or camera to capture pics of recipes!

[linz]

i just started putting my recipes in and am tackling my cooking light magazines first. Whatever recipe i see that i might like in the magazine i actually go clip from the website. For others I'm either scanning with Canon p-150 or my phone. I still need to go back through and scan all the recipes i've pulled/marked out of books/magazines over the years.

I tag my recipes based on type (ie main dish, side, appetizer, etc) and search by ingredient. And then tag with "I've tried" and add any notes, ie easy, yummy, my daughter loved, what occasion i made it for, or any modifications. I also menu plan (with a "menu" tag) in evernote with a note link to each recipe and my weekly grocery list below the links.

my recipe related tags are nested for easy viewing:

Recipes

Menu

Rec_MainDish

Rec_App

Rec_Side

Rec_SlowCooker

Rec_Casserole

Rec_Ref (for any cooking related references I scan...measurement conversions, list of best cookbooks, etc)

Etc....

[Matraya]

At this point, I have no idea how many recipes I've collected. As many there might be my hope is to compile a "cookbook" (digital via notebook) to share with family and added notes about ones I have used or why not or any other comments about it and why I clipped it. Some recipes I rather send to my "rip-proof" Kindle than print it out but...I print out some of them anyway...sometimes printing from EN so I can see it better and leave it posted on the cupboard door for use again and again.

As far as tags? I haven't bothered yet. I never figured I'd collected so many. *shrugs* Maybe I have another hobby coming up...adding tags?

[Tracey Smith]

What a fabulous Idea! Starting a recipe notebook in EN right now!

[Tracey Smith]

Not sure how to do the "tags" thing...what's easiest way to learn? love this tool but still a bit overwhelmed learning how to put it to use.

Thanks,

my recipe related tags are nested for easy viewing:

Recipes

Menu

Rec_MainDish

Rec_App

Rec_Side

Rec_SlowCooker

Rec_Casserole

Rec_Ref (for any cooking related references I scan...measurement conversions, list of best cookbooks, etc)

Etc....

[Matraya]

Hah....so far I haven't bothered. Just collecting everything I like is enough and later, when there is enough, a system that works for me to tag and categorize everything will show up. If I have a lot of one kind of recipes, that category is something that will need to be made. If there are enough tags, do we need categories? A guess a lot of ways to categorize stuff. Important tags might be the main ingredients.

[Tracey Smith]

I figured out the tags and the notebooks thing and am scouring my old email and pc files and getting my recipes in there.

Also figured out how to make myself a to do list in evernote and am learning all sorts of cool stuff.

This is a GREAT TOOL and you folks in the forum are SOOO helpful.

[Brandie]

Tracey,

Think of tags like the dividers in a notebook. The notebook itself is your personal "cookbook", and the tags are the sub-categories.

That being said, I don't tag too often, as I use search a LOT. However, I've gotten to the point where the search results are pretty extensive. If I had to do it all over, I'd be better about tagging in the beginning.

[MrNewsGuy]

I have a subscription to the E-Mealz weekly menu/recipe service:

E-MEALZ Easy Meals for Busy and Frugal Families

Each week I download the PDF for my menu plan and email it to my Evernote account. So when our family ends up liking a particular recipe, I can just search my notes for a keyword. I don't even have to bother organizing the weekly PDFs. So easy!

[Nicoel]

Huge fan of tagging, and using of photos. I like photos because I can quickly scan through and know what I'm looking at.

Search is nice, but I tend to split my recipes into niche notebooks over excessive tagging, so I have a cooking notebook, a baking notebook, summer cookout, and so on.

I tend to tag based on the type of meal, casserole, cookies, comfort food, than ingredients, because that's usually how I decide what I want to make.

If I've collected a lot of recipes in a given week, I'll sort of merge the ingredients list into a shopping list so that I'm set for weak ahead.

[Lauren Atkins]

I have 1007 recipes in my evernote cookbook, "A Moveable Feast." I include tags, pictures and links to recipes I find online, or make myself. I've made it publicly available and a lot of my friends and clients use it as well. You all can get to it here. Enjoy!

[cmouse01]

I used to spend lots of time gathering recipes from the internet and then either printing to PDF or copying and pasting into Word. But I didn't find that to be the best solution because searching was slow, and I had to switch between two different apps. Now, I use the web clipper and save to a "Recipes" notebook. I have tags for general categories like "desserts", "bread", "appetizers", etc. I also have a tag that is "Our Favorites" so I can easily find the ones that we've tried and liked enough to make again.

[BurgersNFries]

Also, keep in mind it's helpful to make a note of the recipes you don't like & why. (If there's a specific reason.) I have done this with my cookbooks for years. Kind of a drag making something you didn't like a second or third time!!!

[RenaeMer]

I have 2 EN Notebooks for Recipes, one for Baking, the other for Cooking. Both are organized under another Noebook, Recipe Box. I use them to clip recipes from the web and also to store family favorites from cookbooks and recipe cards. I like the idea of taking photos of the cookbooks they come from. I'll use that idea now. I'll also take photos of recipes written by hand from my mother and mother-in-law. I tag the recipes with main ingredients and category. Also from whom it came.
Using EN allows me to share recipes easily with my friends and family. When someone asks for the recipe I just mail it to them from EN.