That's a 2004 issue of Gourmet on the far right. Isn't the cover nice? We've had it sitting in a stack of magazines on our coffee table for years, through multiple moves, and still haven't thrown it away. And yet, we've never cooked anything from its pages. Now, facing another apartment move, we're trying to pare down...
We're not packrats (the rest of those magazines are pretty recent), but we aren't very diligent about clipping recipes and saving them in binders or recipe boxes.
And now, at the 11th hour before the move, we're doing a quick flip through these magazines, pulling out recipes that look interesting, and sending the rest of the pile to the recycling bin. The issues that have more than one or two good recipes, though, we're keeping. We just like having the whole magazine sometimes. Flimsy pages tend to get lost or destroyed in the kitchen.
What about you? Do you have a system to keep food magazines from piling up? Do you transfer recipes to cards or an online collection? Send us your ideas!
(Image: Elizabeth Passarella)
How to Make Easy 3-Ingredient Energy Bars at Home
How To Cook Tender, Chewy Wheat Berries on the Stovetop
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Straw Mat from The ...
Find Your Style: 20 Classic to Contemporary Kitchens to Add to Your Inspiration Board
Beth's Romantic & Retro Residence
no system, which is why when I moved into my current apartment, I had to convince my brother & dad that yes, I really did need 3 LARGE boxes labeled 'magazines'
and why they refuse to help me move ever again.
Every so often, I get the urge to clip out only the recipes/articles I might make, but I never seem to follow through...
I got a great folding organizer from Target for recipes. I think it's part of their Real Simple organization line. I used a label maker and labeled the different folders for desserts, cookies, appetizers, seafood, meat/bbq, poultry, salads, vegetables, pastas, casseroles, and dinner party ideas. I get so many magazines that I tear out recipes and store them in this organizer. To make sure the folder doesn't get too packed, I take out 2 or 3 recipes a week that I've never made before to prepare that week. If it's not that good, then I toss the recipe. That way the folder isn't overloaded with recipes that I never use and my apartment is free of excess clutter.
I really need to do this, too. I have been going through some back issues and clipping recipes, which I insert in plastic sleeves and put in a three-ring binder. But I need to go through old Gourmet and Bon Appetit issues, which are harder to throw away!
But my recipe binder has NO organization, so if I'm looking for a recipe, I have to just flip through the whole thing.
I have a folder full of clippings... and every once in awhile I organize them in plastic sleeves in a binder according to recipe type (appetizer, entree, side dish, baking, breads, dessert, and drinks are my categories I think. There might be a breakfast category too, and a category for general articles about health and nutrition). It works quite nicely, although I wish I could track down those peel & stick photo pages that have the plastic cover that you peel off and it kind of holds the photo in place with static cling and adhesive? The kind in really retro photo albums? Anyone know what I'm talking about?
I find that keeping magazines takes up too much space, so I started ripping out recipes that I want to make. They, along with recipes printed from the Internet, go into a vertical file box for each season. They look something like this:
http://www.containerstore.com/browse/Product.jhtml?CATID=74541&PRODID=61268
I used to keep the pages in binders, but then I would end up with a huge backlog of recipes that needed to be hole-punched. This way I can just drop the pages into a folder for each type of recipe. It's also easier for me to only reference the files and cookbooks for new recipes rather than looking in three places -- files, books and magazines.
i have no qualms with chucking buttloads of magazines.
however, when/if i clip something, most usually it gets lost.
i have no system. rats!
I've started a list of recipes in Google Docs. Not only can I have access to my own recipes where ever I have internet access, but if someone else wants one of my recipes, I can just email them a link to view the document whenever they want.
I subscribe to the online Cook's Illustrated. The complete archive is there. That's my where-to-go to try something new place. I find cutting down my recipe sources is a good thing. I probably will be creating some sort of notebook with go-to recipes printed out and in page protectors soon, if only for easily coordinating cooking among household members.
I've also started a Google Docs spreadsheet for all the recipes that I come across online on various blogs, or ones that I come across in print that have electronic versions. I've separated it into tabs like Dinner, Breakfast, Desserts, Appetizers, etc. and have columns for main ingredients (so if I'm in the mood for seafood or peanut butter I know which ones to look at) and a comments field for any tinkering I want to do in the future. It's worked great so far, and as a bonus I can share my recipe finds with others.
But alas, my print recipes are in shambles.
I try not to accumulate food magazines and I'm actually going to stop receiving them at home since I can get them at the library anyway. But with those that I do have I'll flip through and mark everything I want to save and then I scan them into my computer and donate the magazine.
I cut and paste all online recipes (thankfully the majority of Gourmet and Bon Appetit are available on epicurious.com and I use Cooks Illust online, too) into a recipe program called Mastercook. It's not the best design, but it does the job for me. My only complaint is that I have no way to bring them into the kitchen other than to print them out. I try to keep the printed copies organized into 3-ring binders, but they instead tend to accumulate into piles around the house.
Once I've noted all the recipes I want to save, I typically recycle the original magazine. I do keep special issues like the Gourmet December and travel ones. And for some reason, I hold onto all my old Cooks Illustrated.
gah, i am desparate to get a system in place to organize my print and online recipes. i was hunting for some kind of device for the kitchen like a mini-laptop that i could easily store/view/search for recipes in the kitchen. i hate having my laptop in the kitchen and having to print recipes all the time. i know martha stewart featured some HP computer targeted towards the kitchen, but too expensive...and i stumbled upon this http://www.coolhunting.com/archives/2007/02/cooboodigital_c.php which is a neat concept but needs better execution....
After reading magazines, I like to rip them apart and scan the documents into the computer.
I use this scanner -- http://www.fujitsu.com/us/services/computing/peripherals/scanners/scansnap/s510m.html
The scanner is sheet fed, very fast and saves in the PDF format.
It is great being able to keep tons of magazines without needing any additional storage space.
I use the three-ring binder, plastic sleeve method and it's great. The plastic keeps the recipe clean. I can just tear out recipes that intrigue me and recycle the rest of the magazine. I try to keep the recipes organized into categories but am not always successful.
I feel bad throwing out magazines too. I have about 4 years of Vegetarian Times magazines saved - with post-it notes sticking out of the pages with recipes I like. I thought I'd be clever and write the recipe name on the sticking-out-part of the post-it, but they've all gotten crushed, ripped or folded over so I have no idea what any of them say anymore. sigh. I also have a huge stack of recipe printouts, clippings and notebook (where I attempted to organize) stuffed into a vertical file folder.
Not very efficient to say the least! I've been looking for an easy way to wrangle them all, and ottan's system seems very doable. Thanks for the inspiration!
I still have newspaper clippings my mother saved (no, she's not dead yet, but somehow *I* have them)... I even have recipes from the 1972 election campaign (Eleanor McGovern's were much better than Pat Nixon's in case you are interested...).
Right now, most of my recipes are in file boxes, some actually in files, awaiting disposal (for those that are never used) or removal to a binder with plastic page liners (for those that are).
Currently, I have a plastic binder with integral plasticized sleeves for my most-used recipes.
However, Umbra's Portochef seems like an improvement over mere binders:
http://kuglers.stores.yahoo.net/porebobyum.html
I copy the recipe from the magazine site and paste it into my recipe database (PDACookbook Plus, if you're curious--it syncs with a handheld or smartphone), tagging it "to try" so I don't forget that I've been meaning to try out.
More often than not I just recycle the original magazine, because I don't like to keep the paper around waiting for me to try it (which is sometimes months). If I decide the recipe is a keeper, I print it out, put it in a sheet protector, and add it to my favorite recipe binder.
It's not a perfect solution, but I do like that it lets me collect recipes (an addictive habit of mine) without drowning in paper clippings. The only recipes that stay on paper are the ones I find myself making again and again.
my mom subscribed to bon appetit for pretty much my entire life, and she was good about getting the binders you can put the whole magazine in. bon appetit also published these recipe indexes for every year you could store with that year's magazines. she used them a lot, and i have many memories of heading down to the basement bookshalves to dig through old bon appetits with her to find a good recipe for ___________. i don't know if magazines still publish those indexes, though, especially considering most of the recipes from any magazine are online.
these days i just tag any recipe that looks good using del.icio.us. that way when my friend and i are im-ing back and forth to decide what to make for dinner, we can page through the tags on each other's del.icio.us pages. plus, that way you can add tags like "vegetarian" or "asparagus" or "spring" and search by whatever you might be looking for. i try to add as many tags as possible to i can search by featured ingredient or even just a kind of mood.
Thank you all for these great ideas! My magazines are piling up, I will take your advice and get rid of some over the weekend.