This is a topic that comes up fairly frequently. I like seeing what other people use. Some people use sites such as Pepperplate, others like Google docs.

I like the old way of binders. I have binders for to-try recipes and if they're a success, they go in page protectors in my keeper binder.

But I also find it relaxing to write out recipes, and usually do that while watching tv. Maybe that's why I often ask hubby what's happening :-)

This past winter I finally sat down and made binders by category. Beef, chicken, pork, seafood, pasta/veggies, dessert/baking and canning. Each is a 3 ring binder and the recipes are in sheet protectors. Only tried and true recipes go in there. So much easier to find what I am looking for.

Recipes to try are in their own folder or hanging on the fridge so that I use them.

And when cooking, I pop the recipe out of the book and hang it on the wall with museum putty. The sheet is out of my way and never leaves a mark on the tiles or wall.

All recipes are backed up on the computer also.

We like both...two methods. Pepperplate is easy and on both our phones/computers. AND we print hard copies in a folder for favorites we have in a folder on a shelf in the pantry with some favorite cookbooks. Hard copies are 'old school' but so nice to pull out and tape up on an upper cabinet while prepping. (we do have an iPad resting spot)...but the ye-olde paper recipe card is such a nicer method sometimes. Internet holding places make me nervous if all is lost as many of us have experienced....so i use them, but print out hard copy back-ups.

Never trust an on-line method for recipes. Ever.

I type all the printed recipes I tear out of disposable periodicals, as well as anything given to me and ones from my books which I want to use a lot. I store them in my computer. Most are in Word. Some in Notepad (basic text editor). I also copy over and save ones I find online. I have a Recipes file on the computer with a whole bunch of categories that make it easier to find what I'm looking for because the titles are totally ad hoc and can start with the name of whose recipe it is. I also have subfolders in many categories for Traditional Home, which are for family recipes.

I also have a couple of binders, one for cooking and one for baking, where I put recipes I've printed out and expect to use again. They're in page protectors, and easy to pop out and set on the counter when I want to use one. If it gets too messy, I recycle and print a new one when I need it. If someone wants the recipe, I hand it off and print a new one when I need it, so as not to kill a party by going to sit at the computer. It's great being able to adjust the arrangement and print in an easy to read way.

Having the recipes in the computer also makes it a lot easier to make shopping lists, especially while entertaining.

The first time I make a recipe from a book, unless it's hard to read, I just use the book. Same if I'm making a lot of recipes out of the same book, like Local Breads.

The other great thing about having them in the computer is that I can customize them for friends who don't really know how to cook and put in all the little directions and tips that it's assumed you know.

I don't do brevity well enough for cards. :) My recipes don't fit!

If I make a recipe, I put it in t word doc on the computer....if I share a recipe, that isn't already there, I put it in a word doc, if I see an interesting recipe...you got it...word doc.

It's all searchable....I just do a search for say "leeks" and I have every recipe containing leeks.
They are organized by things like cakes, pies, soups, stews, breads.....etc so I have many ways of laying my hands on somethign....or just browsing....say salads.

Well, some are burned on CD and some are in binders and some are word docs. I just haven't decided on one form yet!

Annie

Mine are near God on the google cloud up in the sky LOL

The really important recipes, the ones I've made over and over again, are in my head. The rest are Word docs that are saved on my main Windows workstation, my laptop that I use when we travel, and the Linux server in my office.

I don't trust the cloud and the age of paper is slowly fading away.

Binders. A zillion binders. Too many. I have begun to cull them, but not well enough. Some day.

Word documents filed in folders by category and subcategory saved on my laptop, backed up on a Seagate external hard drive and online in Dropbox. I also keep a hard copy binder of T&T recipes that I use often.

For nearly two decades, I have done as Lindac92. If I wanted to make a recipe with lots of ingredients, I'd just print it out. I could also just e-mail a recipe as an attachment to anyone who requested it.

After I retired from working full-time, I started working on a family cookbook for our daughters and granddaughter. All my favorite recipes were already on my computer and at the end of the most recipes, I added The Story of it. the Story section evolved into much history of me, family members, friends and occasions.

I put the entire file onto a Zip drive and mailed it out to them. I later found cooking themed notebooks and printed out all the recipes and put them in plastic folders. They filled two fat notebooks for each of us.

i keep "to try" recipes in a plastic expandable folder with divider tabs and if I really like it and want to make it again, I'll add it to the computer files. My daughter promises that by the end of the year, we'll have our reopens on The Cloud, where we'll be able to access them.

In my gluten free bakery and jammery business I have a wooden 3x5 card holder that can hold 20 recipes on the wall at eye level that my DH ahd made for his woodshop workers for the days' work orders. All my recipes are filed in boxes on 3x5 index cards with tabs separating what type of baked good (cake, pie, bread, etc.) and a couple of boxes for jams and pickles with tabs separated by each fruit or vegetable so I can find it during harvest season. Everything on those little cards are abbreviated and I doubt if someone could come in and make something from those cards!!! I also have all the TNT ones on the computer with the same tabs.

For my personal recipes, I have a gazillion cookbooks littered with book markers, my handwritten recipes scanned in on the computer, and a treasured spiral bound notebook that my sister wrote out her favorites in 1975, with pages left blank for me to add mine - that is a real treasure!!! My son compiled 5x8 index cards with his favorites, his wife's, her family's, and mine, put them in a large card box for each of his kids. None of the grandchildren cook so that was for nought for all his work. Maybe the great grands will cook, if I ever get any.