How to Save and Organize Your Recipes in Cookbooks

Whether you’re new to cookbooks or just want to create more, here’s everything you need to know.

WHAT ARE COOKBOOKS?
Our online cookbooks are like a recipe box, but better! And every Food.com member can use them — for FREE!

Create as many cookbooks as you want to help you save and sort your favorite recipes for easy access later. Use your cookbooks to collect recipes for different cuisines, special diets, holidays or whatever you need. Get started by making one for quick-and-easy dinners or gluten-free recipes.  Or just keep it simple and save recipes in your Main Cookbook, which every member gets when they sign up. You can keep your cookbooks private for personal use or publish them to share your favorite recipe collections with friends.

Here’s what you need to know to get started…

Saving a recipe to a cookbook:
To use our free cookbooks, you must be a registered member and/or signed into Food.com. To sign in/register, go HERE. Signing up is free!

There are two key ways to save recipes to cookbooks…

Saving from a recipe’s page:

1. When you find a recipe you like, look for the Recipe Tools box to right of the ingredient list. Find the tool called “Add to Cookbook,” which is under the “Save This Recipe” section.
2. Click “Add to Cookbook” and a new window opens. You can select to save the recipe to your Main Cookbook (which everyone has once they are registered) or another custom cookbook you’ve created. Want to start a new cookbook? Do that by clicking “+ Create Cookbook” and save the recipe there, too.

Saving from a search result list:

1. Type any search term you like into the main search box at the top of every page — for example, try “macaroni and cheese.” This will give you list of recipes that match that term.
2. If you see a recipe you like, click the little green arrow next to the recipe’s title. This opens a new window, where you can select “Add to Cookbook”. A list of your cookbooks opens up; just choose which cookbook you want to save the recipe to.
3. Alternately, hover your mouse cursor over the recipe in the list and a description window opens to the right. In this pop-up window, select “Add to Cookbook” and choose which cookbook to save the recipe to.

Accessing your cookbooks and finding saved recipes:

1. Be sure you’re signed in! (You’ll know you’re signed in if you see your username at the top right of any Food.com page.)
2. Hover your mouse over the word “Cookbooks” tab the top of any page on the site, just under the Food.com logo.
3. This opens a new window that lists your saved cookbooks. Click the title of the cookbook you want to view.
4. To view a list of all your cookbooks, select “All My Cookbooks” under the “Cookbooks” tab menu under the Food.com logo. Or go HERE. Do we ever want to say you can get to your cookbooks page to view all your books by using the drop down menu that lives in the top right with your icon/greeting? Or let it go?
5. Not sure where you saved a recipe? Go to the All My Cookbooks page and search for the recipe by using the search box at the top. Try searching important keywords or what you think the recipe’s title was.

Deleting a cookbook or editing a cookbook’s info:

1. When you’re viewing one of your cookbooks, click on the “Edit Cookbook” link at the top right.
2. On this page, you can change your cookbook’s title, add a description, upload a cover photo and/or make the cookbook public for everyone to see or make it private again
3. If you make any changes, be sure to click the “Save Changes” button!
4. To delete a cookbook, scroll all the way to the bottom of the edit page and click the “Delete This Cookbook” button. You can delete all cookbooks except your Main Cookbook.

Publishing a cookbook to share with everyone (a.k.a. “make it public”):

1. Before you publish a cookbook, be sure that all the recipes saved in that cookbook are published publicly (this applies to recipes you’ve added to Food.com) or the cookbook won’t be able to be published.
2. Find the cookbook you want to publish from your list of cookbooks here: www.food.com/mycookbook/
3. When viewing that cookbook, click the “Edit Cookbook” link at the top right next to the cookbook title.
4. On that cookbook information page, scroll to the bottom and click the button to make the recipe “public” in the “Visibility” section.
5. Click the SAVE CHANGES button and now your cookbook will be available to see and share with others.
6. To make a public cookbook private again, follow the same steps above but select the button to make it “private”. And remember to click SAVE CHANGES.
7. Once a cookbook is published, you and other Food.com users can find it by searching the site. Just type in the cookbook title or keyword related to it in the main search bar and select “Cookbooks” from the purple drop-down menu to target your search.

Removing a recipe from a cookbook:

1. While signed in, hover your mouse over the main “Cookbooks” tab at the top of any Food.com page. From the menu that opens up there, select which cookbook you want to view and edit.
2. After you’ve opened your cookbook, find the recipe (or recipes) that you want to remove and click the gray SELECT box under the recipe in the list.
3. Once you have made your selections, scroll to the bottom of the page and click the REMOVE button.
   NOTE: You can delete multiple recipes on a page, but only on one page at a time. Be sure to refresh your browser after every time you remove recipes.

Have more questions about creating and using cookbooks?
Ask for help in our Cookbook Ideas Forum »