Nearly every home cook I know has a system for organizing their recipes. Some of my older friends (and a few of the younger one’s as well) use a classic card system. My mother, for example, has this little open top card box stuffed to the gills with all sorts of recipes. Some of my other friends, who tend to use cookbooks as their source of inspiration, use a system where by they either dog ear particular recipes of note or they rip the pages from the cookbooks and three-ring binder that shiz. Under the old school umbrella, I’ve even got a friend – let’s call here Martha – and Martha hasn’t written a recipe down ever. Seriously – her head is like a freakish memory bank. It’s like instant Dewey decimal up in there.
The problem with these paper based systems is that they are incredibly difficult to manage. You have to commit to an underlying organization method (Cuisine type, Main ingredient, type of course). This can make meal planning incredibly cumbersome (unless you’re Martha of course).
So unless you’re blessed with a particular gift for list management, using technology to keep track of your recipes is incredibly beneficial endeavor. But choosing a way to store all your stuff electronically can be a daunting task.
