Recently my personal recipe set has become to big to quickly sort through quickly so I am trying to figure out how to set up dividers. I really don’t go for the breakfast/lunch/dinner divisions (French toast for dinner? Why not?) So that seems like it is not a great system. So broad types of food seem to be a good idea.
I have most of my commonly used recipes on my computer, and opening them up on a laptop would be possible, but with the chance of food getting on the electronics and the lack of counter space a 3X5 card is still the best system.
You could combine two sets of categories by using dividers plus cards of different colors. E.g. You could use blue cards for “broiled” and use blue cards for salads, pastas, sandwiches, etc. if they are broiled.
If you want a third set of categories, you could get colored paper clips and color-code the color-coded cards.
Then you just need to remember what each color stands for…
I think the categories that you came up with sound fine. I would do an Excel Spreadsheet to accompany the recipe box (Access may work too but I don’t use that often). That way you could categorize the recipe names by the different categories and then go to your recipe box to use the actual card.
In the spreadsheet, I would add a column for favorites and a comments column to record anything that may have happened (3 out of 4 dinner party guests had seconds).
I’d scan those cards too.
But if recipe cards are useful, you stick to that system.
I’d echo Mutepointe and second “spreadsheet”. With a Spreadsheet you could index them by putting the four (say) main ingredients in columns and ordering by that column. You could also tag them as Vegetarian, Vegan, Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free for visitors with dietary requirements. Traffic-light them if that’s your choice, or just record the suitability in a separate column.
Be a piece of Cake with Filemaker, which can be moved to an iPad after development and avoid at least the worst of the food/electronics issues. Four fields, Title, Type of food, way of cooking, Recipe. You could add other categories for all sorts of things if you wished. Sure a spread sheet would work, but the results are much nicer and easier to use with a database.
For main dishes I have mine organized by region (American; Mexican/Central/South American; African, Italian, Indian, etc.).
I have other sections for quick breads/muffins/biscuits; desserts; yeast breads. But as you point out, things can become ambiguous – is naan Indian or bread?
As David suggested, I have my recipes on the iPad. It’s almost hermetically sealed, so few worries about spills. And it’s searchable, which how I usually get to a recipe.
