How to Make a Journal Cookbook

A journal cookbook is an efficient way to store your food notes and recipes.

For hundreds of years, journal cookbooks have been used to store favorite family recipes. Historically, these cookbooks were also known to include gardening and homemaking tips as well everyday diary notes. Today a journal cookbook is a place where most people store magazine-clipped and shared recipes for reference, along with notes for any changes or suggestions for the recipe in the future.

Things You'll Need

• 2-inch scrapbook binder
• 3-hole lined loose notebook paper
• Binder pocket inserts
• Binder dividers with tab labels

Instructions

1. Label each of the binder dividers with section titles, such as: appetizers, poultry, beef, pork, fish, side dishes, one dish meals, quick meals and desserts.

2. Open the cover of the scrapbook binder and open the rings inside.

3. Place one binder pocket insert on the right side of the binder, threading each hole through the open binder rings. Top it with 20 sheets of notebook paper and place a divider on top of the notebook paper.

4. Repeat this process with each binder divider to make a section for each food category.

5. Add magazine recipe clippings to the binder pocket in the back of each section and write recipes on each sheet of notebook paper. Use the back of each recipe for notes and comments about how to improve the recipe, who ate the meal with you and what they liked most about the recipe.

Tips & Warnings

• To make the most of a journal cookbook, always make notes when you prepare a recipe on how it could taste better or be easier to prepare.

• Personalize your journal cookbook with colored paper, scrapbook stickers or with pictures of events where you served the recipes.

• You can also type and print your recipes if you prefer and three-hole-punch them to add them to the binder.

References

• Joyof Baking.com: Writing a Cooking Journal

Resources

• Archival USA: 3-Ring Binder Scrapbooks