Organizing Recipes Digitally

How do you organize recipes?  Do you use a recipe book complete with index cards and food dividers?  Do you use a three ring binder to cut and sort all those magazine recipes you are dying to try?  Do you print off recipes from the internet to try later and then forget about them at the bottom of your recipe drawer?  Do you have so many recipes pinned to your pantry corkboard you can’t find what you are looking for?  I can tell you right now I’ve tried each of these methods and more, but none have worked nearly as well for me as organizing my recipes digitally with Evernote.

For those of you unfamiliar with Evernote, Evernote is basically a glorified list making app that is available for iPad, iPod, iPhone, Android, Windows, Mac, and via the internet for free.  People use it to collect images, take notes, create to-do lists, and more.  So why do I like using a glorified list making app for recipes?  I’m so glad you asked!

1.  Easy Search and Find.  I can search for any ingredient or recipe type just by typing in a single word in the search box.  It will search the text in the recipe as well as all the data I’ve entered about the recipe whether I typed it, scanned it in or copied it from the internet.  Yes, it can even search scanned documents!

2.  Easy Save.  I can “clip” and save a recipe from the internet to Evernote with the click of a button.  It automatically saves it to Evernote, categorizes it, titles it, and scans the recipe word for word without me doing anything else!  That pin button has nothing on my Evernote button.

3.  Automatic Titling.  Just by copy and pasting a recipe into Evernote, clipping it from the web or scanning a magazine recipe via my printer, Evernote automatically recognizes and titles the recipe.  I don’t have to re-type anything.

5.  Multiple Folder Option.  I also keep my goals, monthly and weekly task lists on Evernote for easy retrieval.  I can keep these all separated with the creation of separate Evernote folders.

6.  Custom tags.  I have used the tags to sort my recipes by recipe type…aka poultry main dishes, desserts, to try recipes, etc.  If I want to know what recipes I have for cake, all I have to do is click the “cake” tag or type “cake” in the search box and viola, all of my cake recipes are listed in the middle box along with a picture (if included) and a short summary.

7.  I’m synced; it’s green.  This is probably my favorite feature of all and why I continually use Evernote for my recipes.  With the single click of a button or when closing the program, it will automatically sync my recipes on my computer, iPod, iPad, iPhone, and the internet for future retrieval.  It’s great!  Rarely do I ever print out a recipe anymore with this feature.  I just carry my iPad to the kitchen and open up my Evernote Cookbook to begin.  And, if I’m on the go and a friend wants my recipe for homemade dinner rolls, I can easily open Evernote and share it with her before I forget.

So how do you organize your recipes?  Have you tried to organize your recipes digitally?  Are you a paper-only type girl?  What’s worked for you?


I know that going digital is not for everyone, but if you are looking for a recipe keeping software that is free and effective you might consider giving Evernote a try.  I have and I won’t ever turn back.

Disclaimer:  I was not compensated in any way, shape or form for the above review.  I just seriously like Evernote and couldn’t help share it with you!  I know, I’m just kind of nerdy like that.  ;)