Recipe Box

Does anyone remember the little wooden boxes with recipe cards in them? I would love to find a blueprint to make one and start putting my favorite recipes in them. Are these little boxes still even made. I remember having both index cards, magazine cut out cards and even some post cards in the box growing up. I think it would be fun to get a group of folks with recipe card boxes together to do a recipe exchange where we each send out multiple copies of a few of our families traditional recipes.

One of my projects for this holiday vacation is to organize my recipes so my kid can use them. I love the box idea but I am not sure how I would organize it. Ingredient? Course? Type of cuisine? (so far I have them in many books, and a hard drive. What a mess) No matter the format, I`ve been collecting recipes for years and I would love to have them be easier to use/find.

I had several of the wooden boxes that I got from work when the Department went to using computers. I sold them on Ebay filled with recipes that I had collected over the years.  Every now and then, dear hubby says why don't you cook such and such.  "Well, I no longer have the recipe!"  I also accidentally, without thinking sold my favorite Thanksgiving recipes when I got rid of my cookbooks.

You can still buy wooden recipe boxes though I am sure they are not as well made as one you would make or even like the ones I sold.



Amazon Link to elm recipe box



Amazon Link to vintage wood recipe box

I've seen them at high-end kitchen stores and at craft stores.  It's popular to paint flowers on them and sell them at Christmas Shows.

Most of mine, I picked up at yard sales - still full of recipes.  It's neat to see what the people valued and how well worn the card for "Judith's cookies from that dinner party" is.  

Tereza Okava wrote:One of my projects for this holiday vacation is to organize my recipes so my kid can use them. I love the box idea but I am not sure how I would organize it. Ingredient? Course? Type of cuisine? (so far I have them in many books, and a hard drive. What a mess) No matter the format, I`ve been collecting recipes for years and I would love to have them be easier to use/find.

You can organize it different ways and the divider tabs were blank and my mom and aunt wrote on them. My Aunt even had some tabs by person she got the recipe from My mom was more conventional and organized them by meal then main ingredient. I would probably divide mine by main meat as I usually have a lot of chicken one time of year, a lot of venison another time of year etc.