Cooking diary method?

Legume said:

I have to be honest, I half expected a handcrafted wood binder.  Kinda disappointed.

I don't document anything outside my cranium.  Probably should've.

Were talking meat and fire. Like cave people. Thus, I chisel my notes into rocks and keep them in the garden

DoubleEgger said:

Wow. Documenting cooks? You guys put a lot more effort into this than I do.  I fly by the seat of my pants. I have a few "best of the best" recipes in a 20 yr old envelope. That's it. 

I don't do it nearly as much as I did when I was newer to the Egg, but it was hugely helpful to me.  I still have notes from "First Brisket" and exactly what I did and what the result was, "Second Brisket" and what I did and what the result was, etc..  It wasn't until my FIFTH pork butt that I see that I wrote, "I think this is 'my method' now, for this..."

There are so many variables you can change, and it's not like I cook any of these dishes every week.  I can't remember what I did last time.

Once I nail down what I think is the best way to cook something, I have much less interest in writing down anything about the cook.  But even when I have, but if I haven't cooked a particular type of dish in a long time, it's really handy to be able to look back and see what was the exact way I thought turned out the best.

Another vote for Evernote. 

I have a notebook in Evernote for recipes,  and each recipe title has tags that make it easy to search e.g. Appetizers - bacon - pig shots

I can access each recipe from my phone, tablet, or computer. Easy to make notes about changes, etc. so i know what worked (or didn't) the next time i use the recipe. Also, I have instant access to all of my recipes if I am visiting family and cooking with/for them. 

I have been using it for a few years now, and it works great. 

We've gotten into talking about two potentially different topics:

(1) what we're keeping a cooking log in, and
(2) what we use to keep recipes.  

Some folks use Evernote for both.  I like Evernote for the cooking log, but I use Paprika for keeping recipes - it's available for Mac, Windows, iOS and Android, and more.  Among other things, it's just so darned easy to grab recipes from an online source and almost instantly they're in my recipe file in Paprika.  It's TOO easy, as a matter of fact: I now see that I have over 1200 recipes in my Paprika, most of which I haven't cooked, yet -- they just looked so yummy I put them in Paprika to try at some point!  

I have it on my computer, my phone, and an iPad, and they're all synced, so I have my entire recipe collection anywhere I am, I can do the "managing" of it on my computer where there's a keyboard, but I can use it in the kitchen (or even out with my Eggs, though I'm not sure I have) on my phone or iPad.

In case you're interested at all, here are a couple of screen shots:

I will say Google Keep and Google Drive is where I save ideas, etc.  That way it's tied to your Google login.  

CheeseheadinAZ said:

@Theophan thanks for the screenshots!  Never heard of Paprika I'll definitely give it a look.  I sometimes think of a recipe I'Ve seen but then forget where the hell I saw it.  Also would you mind doing a screen shot of Evernote?

Evernote is much more general purpose than Paprika, so it's a bit less capable specifically for recipes, making grocery lists from a recipe you're about to cook, etc., but very much more capable as a sort of general purpose collection of information.  Here are a few screen shots, but of course they're of what I do with Evernote -- what each other person does with it will be different.

Here's a shot from my "Big Green Egg Cooking Log," which is in a collection within Evernote I labeled "Cookbooks."




And here are the collections I've set up at the moment, which Evernote calls "Notebooks," of which "Cookbooks" was one:




Just to illustrate something different, here's one about some wines I tasted and wanted to remember whether I liked them or not for future purposes (I don't really keep up with it because I wound up drinking cocktails very much more frequently than wine).

YukonRon said:

My recall is almost non existent. My sight is even worse. I have just a few recipes, mostly for sauces, that I keep, the rest of my cooks are prep, season cook. 

I get worried, sometimes, about how my memory is going.  My short term memory is non existent, like yours, I guess.  But I think that's why I love having so much information instantly available on my phone -- it's right there in my pocket, anywhere I go.  If I don't remember, which is more and more common, I can look it up!  

Jeepster47 said:

I keep a running list of cooks (Microsoft Word and Dropbox) loosely filed under beef, pork,etc.. The cooks are numbered similar to Wings #1, Wings #2, etc.. Each cook has a section at the bottom that addresses what we thought about the final product and, most importantly, ideas for changes the next time that cook comes up.  If it's not written down it's too easily forgotten ... 

You can upload all those docs to google drive and be set!

That, I don't know. I don't use dropbox. I have google for everything so im already logged into it and my google drive becomes interactive with my gmail so i can attach stuff. I tried both dropbox and evernote but nothing seemed easier for sharing and multi-person editing like google drive. Google docs is the free version of microsoft word online that saves to google drive. you can upload .doc files direct to it.

I have been using Microsoft OneNote.  I like it fine but I use Office all the time so I have already become used to the cumbersome "ribbon" UI.  I have played around with EverNote some as well and I think it might be a little easier to get up and running.  I also like the fact that EverNote is synced to the cloud automatically.  You can do this easy enough with OneNote but you have to sign up for a OneDrive account separately. 

I think the best advice is to just start using it to see how you like it.  You can sign up and start using it in your browser without installing any programs.  They have have programs you can download and install for both Windows and Mac desktops as well as apple/Android smartphones or tablets.  You can just start making notes and then you can move them around and reorganize later. I think the way I would use it is:

• Create a new notebook called "Cooking". 
• Add a new note to the cooking notebook for each cook.  
• Use the tags to organize things.  You can have multiple tags per note if you are cooking multiple things or want multiple categories.  For example you could have tags for beef, chicken, pork, sides, appetizers. You could also use tags for different types of entries recipe, notes, etc.

I write up recipes in Word Perfect (still preferred to Word) and then save them as a PDF files to share with family.  Recipes I use often (ribs, Belgian waffles, etc.) are printed and put in a 3 ring binder.