How to Organize Recipes: 5 Ways Compared
Screenshots, Pinterest boards, a notes app, a binder or a recipe app: five ways to organize your recipes, with honest pros and cons, and how to pick one.
By the Matlaro teamPublished 7 min read
The best way to organize recipes is the one you will still use in six months: one place, searchable, that you can cook from. For most people that means picking a single home for every recipe, whether a binder, a notes app or a recipe app, and moving the screenshots and bookmarks into it a few at a time.
Here are the five ways people actually keep recipes, what each is good and bad at, and a quick way to choose.
First, the real problem
Most people do not have too few recipes. They have recipes in five places: screenshots in the photo roll, a Pinterest board, links in a chat with their sister, a stained printout, and the browser history. The one you want is always in the other one.
So the goal is not a perfect system. It is one place.
1. Screenshots
Screenshots
Pros
- Zero effort: one button, done
- Works for anything, including captions and messages
Cons
- Lost among thousands of other photos
- You cannot search by ingredient, and amounts do not scale
- Small text, and you zoom with floury fingers
Good as an inbox, bad as a home. If you screenshot recipes, make an album called Recipes and move them there the same day.
2. Pinterest boards
Pros
- Very visual, and great for browsing ideas
- Boards by theme are quick to set up
Cons
- A pin is a link: if the site changes or disappears, so does your recipe
- Every cook means loading the original page, with its ads and its story
- Hard to use at the stove
Pinterest is a fine place to find recipes and a poor place to keep them. Pins only point to the page, so the recipe itself lives on someone else's site.
3. A notes app
Notes app
Pros
- Already on your phone, free, and searchable
- Easy to copy and paste text from anywhere
Cons
- Every recipe looks different, however it was pasted
- No servings maths, no timers, no cook mode
- Grows into one long scroll unless you are strict with folders
A notes app is the best of the free options if you are disciplined. Use one note per recipe, the dish name as the title, and a folder per type of meal.
4. A binder or a box of cards
Binder
Pros
- Lasts, survives phone changes, and is lovely to pass on
- Easy to read on the counter
- Handwritten notes in the margin, exactly where you need them
Cons
- Takes time: printing, copying, filing
- Not searchable, and not with you in the shop
- Stains, and there is only one copy
Binders are wonderful for a family's core recipes and tiring for everything else. If you have one already, digitizing your family cookbook gives you a searchable copy without giving up the original.
5. A recipe app
Recipe app
Pros
- One place for recipes from links, photos, captions and your own
- Searchable, with servings that scale and a mode built for cooking
- Same layout for every recipe, wherever it came from
Cons
- One more app to learn
- Worth checking where your recipes are stored and what happens if you stop paying
That last point matters. Before you move your collection into any app, find out two things: where the recipes live, and whether you can still read them if you cancel a subscription.
How to choose
| If you mostly... | Start with |
|---|---|
| Find recipes on Instagram and TikTok | A recipe app, or screenshots plus a weekly tidy |
| Cook from a few family classics | A binder, plus digital copies |
| Save from blogs and websites | A recipe app that keeps only the recipe |
| Want something free right now | A notes app, one note per recipe |
| Browse for ideas more than you cook | Pinterest for ideas, somewhere else for keepers |
Moving everything into one place
- 1
Pick the home
One place. Not two.
- 2
Start with what you cook
Move the ten recipes you make most often first.
- 3
Clear the inbox weekly
Every Sunday, move that week's screenshots and links into the home, and delete the originals.
- 4
Sort by how you look things up
Most people look by meal (weeknights, baking, for guests), not by cuisine.
How Matlaro keeps recipes
Matlaro is a recipe app built around the "one place" idea. You can add a recipe from a link through your phone's share menu, paste in text someone sent you, add one from an Instagram or TikTok caption, type your own, or photograph a cookbook page with Matlaro Unlimited. Every recipe comes out in the same layout: ingredients, steps, servings.
On the two questions above: your recipes are stored on your phone and work without a connection, no account is needed, and everything already in your cookbook stays readable and cookable with or without a subscription. The free plan includes 5 imports a month and one cookbook; Matlaro Unlimited adds unlimited imports, unlimited cookbooks and photo pages. You can rate and tag recipes and search across everything you have saved.
For the two inboxes that cause most of the mess, see saving recipes from Instagram and TikTok and getting just the recipe from a long blog post.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best way to organize recipes?
Pick one place you can search and cook from, and move recipes there from everywhere else. For most people that is a recipe app or a well kept notes app, with a binder for family classics.
How do I organize recipe screenshots?
Make an album called Recipes and move screenshots into it the same day. Once a week, move them into your main recipe home and delete the originals.
Is Pinterest good for saving recipes?
It is good for finding ideas. A pin is only a link to the original page, so if that page changes or goes offline, the recipe goes with it.
How should I categorize my recipes?
By how you look for them. Most people search by occasion or meal, such as weeknight, baking or for guests, rather than by cuisine.
