Grilling Journal

GrillinSailor · June 2018

Do folks keep a journal or a diary of all their cooks?
Date, weather, temp, rubs, prep - marinade and sauces? Charcoal?

how good was it? Over/under cooked? What could have been done better? What experiments could be tried?

i haven’t been doing this and regret the information and knowledge I’ve lost.

Im going to set one up today and wonder does anyone have a template they use that’s been successful for them?

thanks!

Grillin Sailor

CincyTiki · June 2018

I am a fan of keeping notes and use Microsoft OneNote on my iPhone and iPad for it.
if you want a conventional written log, this might get you started.
https://amazingribs.com/more-technique-and-science/more-cooking-science/use-cooking-log-or-diary

Hope that helps!

DoubleEgger · June 2018

Hell no

lkapigian · June 2018

Nope!

HeavyG · June 2018

I think it's a good idea. I have tried in the past but just don't have the discipline to do that every time I fire up a grill - I think the last entry in the little moleskine I bought for that purpose was at least two years ago.

lousubcap · June 2018

Not me. Of course during the course of the journey the trip will have been clouded and influenced by those adult supervisory beverages thus if notes were to be recorded any connection with reality would be left to chance.
But if you want to do it, have at it, at least for the first go-round with any protein. At least when someone then asks how do you cook a (protein of choice) you will have solid info to pass along. FWIW-

HendersonTRKing · June 2018

Wait . . . this forum isn't a journal??

Fred19Flintstone · June 2018

Taking notes? That's like work, right? I'm sure whatever I would write would be spelled with slurred words.

gdenby · June 2018

If a cook is noteworthy to me, something I've never done, or something I've had failures doing, I take photos, and make notes. Often, I'll post these, tho' at this point I haven't had anything really worth posting in some time. So I have a directory of photos showing prep, cooking and finished, usually w. a small text file.

I do have a general cooking diary, mostly notes to self. This worked, this didn't, maybe try this next time.

I do keep an extensive cookbook for everything, including sauces, spice mixes, general parameters, etc. I started it w. a programmers text editor, which allows extensive finds. Also mas text replacements to standardize input. Would have been better to have used a recipe database, but when I started, there weren't any I knew of unless i wrote it myself, and I didn't have time. Several people here have recommended the "Paprika" app, which looks pretty good to me.

lkapigian · June 2018

I do use the forum as a journal

GrillSgt · June 2018

I have found over the years that I need to write down sauces and rubs so I can adjust or replicate

Gulfcoastguy · June 2018

I keep a cookbook document in my iMac and iPhone but I am just as likely to search for where I posted it here or some other site.

Eoin · June 2018

HendersonTRKing said:

Wait . . . this forum isn't a journal??

^^^^^ This.

Simple stuff doesn't need recording, something special / different and you can record it as a thread on here. Helps others too, win-win.

lkapigian · June 2018

I do have a stash of notes in the cupboard , most not labeled, just ingredients with stains blurring the ink for me to figure out what it was supposed to be

Killit_and_Grillit · June 2018

If I had a dollar for every time I've gone back through my posts to find something from some random thing I made and one of my friends wanted recreated...

Other than that, I have been typing up a recipe book with some pics. Most of the time it's the kitchen cooking that I forget what to do, not the grill.

P.S. someone suggested this about a year and a half ago. I thought, "great idea". Drank too much, it got dark, found it water logged a few days later in the backyard. Get a "Write in the Rain" pad if you're hand jammin' it!

Theophan · June 2018

When I first started using the Big Green Egg, someone suggested keeping a cooking log. I don't do it anymore, but I did for a number of years, just in a text file, and BOY was it helpful! Being able to go back and review how I did it last time and what went well and what didn't go so well, what I thought might be good to try next time, very, very helpful! It's just too easy to think you'll remember, but you don't. Or at least I don't.

I don't keep that log anymore, partly because I just feel more experienced, now, but also because I use Paprika, a recipe app on my computer and my phone (automatically linked to each other) to keep all of my recipes, and there is a space for notes, so when I do want to write down something that I want to be aware of next time, that's an obvious and very handy place to keep it -- right with the recipe.

We're all different, but whatever way you think might work for you, some way of keeping notes on your cooks can REALLY be helpful!

Kcheves · June 2018

New to the egg, so I’m documenting my successes and failures using Notes on my iPhone.

The Cen-Tex Smoker · June 2018

Agree with a few others above. I never “take notes” but I will post something here if I think it’s good/bad/interesteing and may want to revisit. I’m all for taking notes and looking at them if that is your style at work/home/life away from here. I align myself with the note takers at work though

1WVU · June 2018

I do. My memory sucks and I like to know what worked, what Rub I used, how long the cook lasted etc.

Stubby · June 2018

I am keeping notes on my cooks..

Botch · June 2018

I have three systems going.
First, when I left home Mom gave me her old metal recipe box (her thoughtful son gave her a nice wooden one the previous christmas), and I hand-wrote my favorite recipes of hers, on recipe cards (which they still make!) I still use those cards, and there's been good recipes from ex-girlfriends, their moms, newspaper and magazine recipes, even Dear Abby that have been added.

Second, when I first got a "Dropbox" account, I thought that'd be a neat way to keep recipes. Some I'd record by hand (my own stuff, magazines/newspapers again) plus copy-pasting from this and other forums, Googlez searches, etc. I'm not using any kind of recipe/cataloging program, I just label the individual documents (done on Apple's Pages) in a way they'd self-arrange ("Chicken, Jamaican Jerk", "Pork Rub, Beer-Belly Billy's", etc), (this is an old habit from my MS-DOS days). I can find things pretty quickly; or, if I say pick up some pork chops on sale on the way home, I can scroll down to "Pork, Chops, yadayada" and pick a recipe that sounds interesting, or that I haven't tried yet.

Finally, I'm a cheese fanatic. About five years ago my favorite grocer set up a "Cheese Kiosk", which featured 125 different cheeses and always had a sample or two to try; HEAVEN!! I purchased a small, alphabetized notebook from StaplesYeahWeGotThat, and decided to buy a different cheese every week, and record my notes in this notebook. I'm still buying a different cheese about every week, but my note-taking is sadly lacking. Having to repeat a selection ain't such a bad thing....

alaskanassasin · June 2018

I keep a brew book for making beer and mead but that’s also nice for specific gravity logs and if I make a killer beer I want to know how I did it!

Botch · June 2018

Oh, and I highly recommend one of these, especially that its dropped $10 in price!

Image: https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41P-iDvGvJL.jpg

Amazon now has them for $5.95. The curve in the plastic is just enough to hold a recipe from a magazine, or a printer, upright without "folding" and just the right angle to read; the magnet in the thing is also strong enough to hold a thicker recipe card. I got mine as a gift, but its so slick I'd still pay $16 for one.