Anyone else rate recipes?

[Judi Dial]

I go through cookbooks and "rate" my recipes for self-suffiency. (I find it's an easy way of knowing which recipes are expensive to make too.)

I divide ingredients into three categories: 1)I ALWAYS grow and/or make them myself. 2)I CAN grow them and/or make them myself (but may not). 3)I CAN'T grow or make them myself.

I do this as I make the recipes. For example, if I'm making Capelli with Parsley (from Sunset's Less Than 7 Ingredients cookbook). There's my rating, 1/2/3, at the top of the recipe.

This tells me that there's one ingredient in there I grow (parsley) and two I either can grow or do some of the work myself (green onions, garlic) and three ingredients I always buy (capellini pasta, margarine, parmesan).

What I'm working towards is getting the middle category to be 0 and the first category to be larger than the last, that is,

3/0/2

which would be a recipe where I make/grow 3 ingredients always, and have to buy only 2.

I don't normally try recipes where the first two categories are less than 1/2 the ingredients either most of the time, so anything that's like 1/2/9 I usually eliminate as too expensive. I will make those recipes, but they become special occasion foods, rather than being a regular part of our diet.

I have a set way I mark the items too. The ingredients for the pasta recipe above looks like this:

(8 oz capellini
(1/3C margarine
1C minced parsley
-1C thinly sliced green onions
-2 cloves garlic
(grated parmesan cheese

I do the marking and rating in PENCIL so I can (hopefully) change it later. This does keep me aware of how many of our foodstuffs come from the market and what we produce ourselves or can. This helps me remember that even if I always have margarine in the house and it's cheap, it ISN'T free or as cheap as it might be.

Does anyone else do something like this?

Judi

[nancycg56]

I don't rate them that way but I do write on a post-it next to the recipe whether or not we liked them, if I changed anything, etc. Then I put them into a recipe program on my computer when I get a chance

[Debbie-cat]

I always write a 'review' right on the cookbook page. I say if it is easy to make, who likes it, who hated it, etc. It has helped alot especially with muffins, cookies and squares so I don't waste ingredients when no one likes it and I have forgotten I made it before.

[thesightofoneself]

because of the specific foods i eat the only thing i compare is the supplies and oppournity cost vs store bought cost

[Momto2Boyz]

I keep a cost record of most of my recipes. I collect recipes, like others collect stamps, rocks, etc. So, I have TONS of recipes!

I have 3 recipe boxes that my recipes go in. New Recipes (which I want to try), Regular Recipes (which I've tried and liked, but are average, as far as cost) and Frugal Recipes (which are recipes that are money saving in one way or another...and all my "self sufficient" recipes from the garden go in here). Any other recipe that is tried and not like it pitched, unless I want to try to make changes, then it goes back into new recipes with notes on what to change.

I've found this is a great method for me, becuase this way, when I need a frugal week of meals, I just pull out the one frugal recipe box and I know I'll be able to stay well within a frugal budget.

I used to keep the costs of the recipes on each card, but I stopped in 2008, becuase I couldn't keep up with the rising costs of food! It was interesting though to see how expensive some of the frugal recipes had gotten!

[phoeny_moonstar]

This is a great idea, I like it alot. Thanks for sharing.

[McD]

I write on the page next to the recipe if we liked it, if we didn't, if I modified at all, what I would do differently next time. Sometimes, if I cooked a meal for a special reason, I'll mark the date next to it and write down why we cooked it.

[TexasPeanut]

I collect cookbooks old and new of all shapes and sizes....I never ever write directly on the page. Ever. Although I have numerous old cookbooks that have stuff written in them, it's hardly legible anymore and that's just one reason why I don't do it.

Okay back on topic, I do rate recipes, any modifications I've done, etc. But I do this by having a piece of paper stuck in the cookbook and I have the title of the book on the paper, the recipe name and the page it was on along with the information I wish to write about it. I also have several recipe boxes that only contain the most liked recipes that I have copied onto index cards and are broken down into categories (like a cookbook), that way it makes it easier for DH to find something he knows everyone will like when he gets the urge to cook dinner for us.

[IntlMom]

I date it next to the recipe and make any notes, like who liked it (ande who didin;t) plus any modifications......it's fun to see how long I;ve been making things, and notes about foods that I made when my boys were younger, and how some of their tastes have changed over the years.