In the past, cooking was a necessity. Today, it has become a hobby.
New platforms have emerged that cater to different aspects of cooking. From blogs to books and YouTube channels, you can find almost anything about food these days. One of the most interesting shifts has been in cookbooks and recipe books themselves. Now more than ever people are looking for something more than just recipes inside their cookbooks - in addition to pictures and stories they want tips and tricks from experts on the subject matter or shopping list capabilities. It's not just about cookie recipes :)
As a result, there are a few recipe organizer apps that you might want to consider, like Recipe Keeper, Paprika and NoteDex.
Why is it Important to Organize Recipes?
Organizing your own recipes might seem to be a simple task, but it is not as easy as it sounds. The recipe ingredients can be found in any part of a recipe book and one often needs to keep flipping from one page to another to find the information they need. To make things easier, there are many ways you can organize your recipes - both books and online recipe keeper apps.
If you are using a book, useful for storing handwritten recipes, you can create a recipe index sheet which is usually at the start of the book and lists all the recipes you have within that book. It has columns for each ingredient and one numbers each column sequentially so that you can look up what you need and where it is found easily. Another way of organizing your recipes is by type: breakfast, lunch, dinner, desserts etc., according to what time of day or day of week they are best eaten on.
Are you tired of searching through piles of recipe printouts and cluttered folders on your computer to find that one dish you want to make? Consider using index cards as a simple and effective way to organize your recipes. Not only are index cards a versatile tool in the kitchen, but they also have a long history in the field of economics and have proven to be a valuable tool for organizing and recalling information. In this article, we will explore the benefits of using index cards for recipe management and offer tips for creating your own index card recipe system.
What are Index Cards?
Index cards, also known as note cards, are small rectangular pieces of paper typically used for note-taking and organization. They are often made of cardstock or lightweight paper and are typically 3x5 inches or 4x6 inches in size. Index cards are popular because they are portable, easy to write on, and can be easily sorted and arranged.
In the context of recipe management, index cards can be used to write out or print a recipe on one side and leave the other side blank for notes or modifications. Index cards also offer the flexibility to create custom templates or designs, such as using different colors or fonts for different categories of recipes.
Index cards are a simple yet powerful tool for organizing and storing your recipes in a physical format. They allow for quick and easy access to your recipes, as well as the ability to customize and personalize your recipe collection
How to Organize Your Recipes
Paper: One of the big problems in managing recipes is that paper recipes eventually get lost and are not easily shared - these days most people like to keep them in digital form. But while this may be convenient for most people, it can also still be difficult to organize and find what you're looking for after you add all your recipes to your virtual recipe box.
Emails: If it's just a matter of copying and pasting a recipe to an email, then that's easy. But emails are not organized. Let’s explore how dedicated recipe apps can help us with storing our favorite recipes electronically.
Many people today use digital recipe books to store their favorite recipes. In the past, we would have kept these paper-based recipes in a big cookbook or turned to several recipe cards that were stuffed into a drawer somewhere. Today's solution is far more convenient and secure! People can keep all of their recipes at hand on a tablet or even on their smartphone, ready to be cooked and shared with friends and family.
In this article we'll explore some dedicated recipe apps and one 'index card' style app called NoteDex.
Are there recipe keeper app to organize my recipes?
Yes! There are many online apps to track recipes - both mobile or desktop device in any app store. Add recipes and then organize recipes according to the classes and categories you desire. This is very helpful for meal planning and helps to save money when going shopping - having a shopping list ready so you don't stray down the wrong aisle!
Using Index Cards for Recipe Management
Using index cards for recipe management can be a practical and efficient way to organize your kitchen. Here are a few benefits of using index cards for your recipes:
Compact size: Index cards are small and easy to store, making them a great option for organizing your recipes in a limited space. You can keep them in a recipe box, binder, or even in a small container on your kitchen counter.
Customization: Index cards allow you to customize your recipe organization system to fit your needs. You can create different categories for your recipes, such as appetizers, main dishes, and desserts, and use different colored cards or fonts to differentiate between the categories.
Affordability: Index cards are relatively inexpensive and can be purchased in bulk at a low price. This makes them a cost-effective option for organizing your recipes.
Versatility: Index cards are not just for written recipes – you can also use them to clip or attach recipe printouts, photos, or other materials to the cards. This allows you to mix and match different types of recipes in your collection.
Index cards provide a simple and affordable solution for organizing your recipes in the kitchen. With a little creativity, you can create a customized recipe management system that works for you.
How do I keep track of my own recipes?
Other than your cookbook or recipes cut out from magazines, or stuffed into boxes, you can import recipes into these recipe keeper systems with their web page link, and even post on Pinterest or Instagram with a photo!
Can I organize my recipes on my computer other than a website app?
The best digital file systems are NoteDex, Google Drive and Evernote and they offer great choices. You can also paste recipes within folders, the categories are sorted by folder in each of these apps. You can also store PDF files or reference them in some of these apps.
Can I use these recipe keeper apps as a meal planner?
Absolutely! In fact meal planner capabilities feature heavily in all the apps. Just the fact you are using the app for meal planner capabilities will mean you are ahead of the curve in terms of saving money - having a shopping list when at a store really helps to save money. Meal Planner capabilities are particularly helpful both for families and even single people. By using a meal planner approach it means you think through your food choices and your nutrition choices consciously.
Printing Recipes onto Index Cards
If you prefer to have your recipes printed rather than hand-written, you can easily print your recipes onto index cards using a computer and a printer. Here are a few steps to follow:
You can open a word processing program such as Microsoft Word or Google Docs but it is much better to use a dedicated Index Cards app like NoteDex. Using NoteDex you can even create and print double sided index cards.
Type out your recipe or copy and paste it into the document. Adjust the font and layout as desired. You can use templates also if you create frequently the same format.
Print the document onto your index cards.
Regardless of the method you choose, printing your recipes onto index cards allows you to quickly and easily access your recipes in a physical format. It also eliminates the need to manually write out each recipe, saving you time and effort in the long run.
9 Best Online Recipe Organizers to Replace Your Cookbooks
Cookmate
Cookmate previously called my Cookbooks has some similar functionality as ChefTap's book. Cookmate connects to your computer browser so it can transfer recipe information between web pages and app applications. You can even start your own grocery shopping list immediately from the ingredients listed. It doesn't need to be necessary to make an exhaustive shopping list. Cookmate provides downloadable recipes so you can plan the entire day of your meals. Free versions limit your recipe choices to 60 recipes. Download Cookmates for Android (free subscriptions available).
AnyList
Although any list focuses mainly on grocery shopping aspects in cooking, it can also be used to organize a meal. The app displays the recipe as well as quantity of the ingredients in AnyList. They can easily be added to the shopping cart. When Anylist is aware of your location the app provides recommendations for food items. Alternatively, if someone else has gone shopping, share the list with them of the ingredient collection as a virtual shopping list.
Whisk
Whisk provides users with a complete app that can find and save recipes, create a shopping list and create weekly menus. When opening the mobile app, the choices are likely overwhelming. You are allowed to browse the wonderful recipes from Whisk community members, or you might have to download the recipe yourself. If you simply install the Whisks Recipe Saving extension in your mobile or computer browser you can start saving recipes directly from your browser and creating your virtual shopping lists. The Whisk recipe scanner app can help you scan and upload a print recipe for your current Cookbooks and store all your family recipes.
Recipe Keeper
Recipe Keeper is popular recipe organizing app. The app is available to download free from the Apple website on your smartphone or computer. Similar to most recipe apps on the list, the recipe can sync on any device. Recipe Keeper's interface is much more intuitive and visually appealing than the other items on this page. This is where your recipes are organized according to food genre, ideal for organizing your shopping lists. You can easily add a new recipe to a recipe list to store your family recipes and get rid of all those paper notes!
BigOven
If you haven't tried other online recipe organizers, you should try this. The free version does not offer full menu planning or any additional features, but you can access the Recipe Library to add recipes to it. When one pastes an image recipe on BigOven and selects import, BigOven scrapes the text from the page - neat. You must then mark and specify the title, summary ingredient information, and instructions to make text importable to the BigOven recipe.
Tasty
Tasty is a very good recipe keeper app. This is an easy and fast cooking guide that satisfies all the needs of the kitchen. All recipes are organized by steps and are easy to follow; however, Tasty also offers accompanying clips. Recipes are categorized according to various criteria – ingredients, time, difficulty, food - useful when utilizing as a meal planner. Lastly, when a recipe is found, hit the heart icon to save it, which is accessible by logging into My Recipe tab at the bottom.
Paprika Recipe Manager
Cooking is a lot of fun, but it can be hard to keep track of all the recipes you want to try.
This highly rated recipe keeper app helps you organize your favorite recipes and share them with friends. The app has a recipe search engine so you can find new dishes based on ingredients or cuisine type.
It makes cooking easy by allowing users to create their own cookbooks and add photos, instructions, and ratings for each dish they make. You can also import recipes from other websites or blogs into your cookbook using the "Paste From Web" feature in the app's browser extension. This way, when you're browsing online for new ideas for dinner tonight you have them right when you need them at the store and needing access to your shopping list.
OrganizEat
OrganizeEat provides a recipe keeper organizer app for iPhone and iPad. You have a lot of options in the app. You can click on Add New Recipe at the bottom of the application to add. Tap on Recipes from Photos in a cookbook to capture a picture. You may crop the photos to match the recipe.
NoteDex
NoteDex is a recipe keeper organizer that allows you to add recipes in your smartphone in the form of Index Cards. You can use the card style notes to list out steps, ingredients and add photos of the recipes from the cookbooks. It's a nice simple app with the familiar index cards style that you can also use a digital stylus to add handwritten recipes and notes. The app also can be used on mobile so it's handy when you are in the store and listing out your ingredients. Easily copy and paste recipes, or create your shopping list.
Being a note app, you can add infinite number of cards and they can be nicely categorized into folders and also marked with category tags so it's easy to filter and find the recipe you are looking for.
You can also create a stack of recipe cards and share them with family - password protected - and anyone can view the virtual recipe box using any computer browser - an ideal way to keep family recipes in one place and get rid of your old paper recipes. You can also copy/paste to import recipes from different apps and sites.
What is the best free recipe keeper app?
This will be a highly subjective choice, but we can suggest some top Recipe Software Apps for iPhone and Android. Food Network Kitchens Free. Delicious All Recipes. Dinner Spinnings (Free). Cook Pads (Free). Side Chefs (Free). Weber i Grill (Free). Cookbook Stories (Free).
What is the best recipe organizer app for iPhone?
Again, this will be a subjective choice depending on what you need but we will make some comments on this. The best recipe app for iOS, Paprika, is not just another recipe management app. Paprika helps you plan and prepare your favorite recipe with meal planner capabilities. Paprika also makes a good Mac app that can be easily accessed via the Internet.
Honorable Mentions:
NoteDex is a simple and easy way to add and find recipes. Recipe Keeper is also very popular.
Summary
If you're looking for a new recipe app, the above list of apps should give you some good ideas about what is out there in the app store. You'll want to figure out which features are most important to your cooking needs and pick an app that has those features, for example if keeping handwritten recipes or being able to import recipes is important to you.
All the recipe apps will help you to eat healthier and save money as you get more organized keeping all your recipes in one place.
Some apps help you with meal planner capabilities, all will store all your favorite recipes. Some will allow you to create and store handwritten recipes (NoteDex is the only one in the list above), and others will help you create and store grocery lists. Many will allow you to clip recipe webpages, and most will allow to create a shared family recipe collection. Some apps will allow you to attach PDF files, useful if you have say a scanned document of that amazing chilli recipe from your grandmother!