Organize Your Cookbooks

How to Sort and Catalogue a Recipe Book Collection

Aug 4, 2009 Prerna Malik

Cooking enthusiasts always have shelves crammed with recipes and cookbooks. Here is a 3-step guide to organize all of them and make cooking a greater pleasure.

Novice and expert cooks understand the importance of having a well-organized collection of cookbooks. This means not having to hunt for the recipe for lasagna or the instructions to bake a chocolate gateau. Here is a simple three-step guide to organizing recipes and cookbooks easily and effectively.

Collect All The Recipes and Cookbooks Together

The first step is to sift through all the loose recipes and handwritten notes on cooking collected over the years as well as all the cookbooks that are lying around, and gather them together at one place. Use the kitchen or dining table for this, since it will be easier to sort and stack them there.

Categorize and Sort

This is the more difficult task of sorting and categorizing all the recipes and recipe books. However, there are several ways of doing this. Choose the one that suits your cooking style and requirements the best. It is also, possible to combine two style of sorting to create one unique style. The idea is to make finding recipes and cookbooks as simple as it can get.

• Categorize according to Cuisine. This is fairly simple. All Italian recipes go together as do all Lebanese cookbooks.
• Categorize according to Level of Difficulty. This would involve classifying all recipes into beginner, intermediate and expert. However, with cookbooks, it may be a little tricky since some recipes would be easy while others could be more complicated.
• Categorize according to Author/Source. Cookbooks by Nigella Lawson or Jamie Oliver could all go together while recipes handed down by mothers and grandmothers could be filed together.
• Categorize according to type of Food. Vegan cookbooks would be placed together while healthy eating cookbooks, which also have of non-vegetarian recipes,could be stacked together.

Storing Recipes

Cookbooks are easier to organize and stack than loose recipes culled from magazines and websites or handed down by mothers and aunts. So decide on a storage system for all such recipes. Recipe card binders, recipe boxes, or even an online recipe book would all serve the purpose of keeping recipes, properly categorized, in one place.

Another simple and easy way to organize them would be to use a three ring binder and separator sheets to sort and file recipes. Dedicate a set of bookshelves in the library or the kitchen to hold the now organized collection of recipes and cookbooks. This would allow quick and easy access and keep this collection separate from all other books.

This easy three-step guide to organizing cookbooks and recipes will ensure never losing a recipe or hunting for cooking instructions again. Not only that, it will also make your kitchen shelves look neat and well-organized. So, go ahead and organize your cookbook collection and make menu planning and cooking even more fun.

For more on organizing, do read Organizing Books Made Easy.

The copyright of the article Organize Your Cookbooks in Home Management is owned by Prerna Malik. Permission to republish Organize Your Cookbooks in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Recipes and Cookbooks Are Organized Easily

A Recipe Card Binder Keeps Recipes Together

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