the archiving dilema

In 'Epicure' today, Stephanie Alexander makes reference to all her boxes of recipes. Boxes! Now that’s an idea. Currently I have old hand written recipe books in various states of disrepair (most without covers), cut/ripped out pieces from magazines and newspapers, hand scrawled notes on backs of envelopes and other scraps of paper and digitalised recipes. By digital I mean, scattered throughout various hard drives (3, one of which is in a shed and will never see the light of day again) word documents, pdfs, lists of links, scans and photos. The most effective source to date is the blog, I can't count the times I have searched it for something I have previously cooked but not recorded elsewhere.

My last trip home saw me snap a few childhood favourites written in my mothers hand (showing a similar leaning to mis-spelling so I guess it’s genetic).



None are in any order. There are clear files filled to the brim mixing savoury and sweet, computer files exploding all over the place.


So how do you archive your recipes? What works for you? I must admit that even with a laptop, paper is more practical to take to the kitchen. The loving smears of food only enhance its worth – showing it has been made. Adding hand written notes in the margin. But lone pieces tend to get lost (where is the muffin recipe I was perfecting? It was on the table a month ago?) and I would need about 100 folders if I am to keep one recipe to a page.

So many recipes - so little time!