How do I keep track of recipes saved across TikTok, Instagram and websites?

On r/PaprikaApp, someone called this the recipe junk drawer: years of saves in folders and apps, and nothing to hand when it is time to cook: r/PaprikaApp thread. A commenter in another thread said their social media bookmarks are black holes: r/PaprikaApp thread.

The fix starts with noticing that a recipe comes in three forms, and each needs different handling.

Three kinds of recipe

• Website recipes are text, so they are easy to keep. Copy them, or use a recipe app that imports them. Do not rely on the link alone. A commenter on r/PaprikaApp said many of their saved Pinterest links are now broken: r/PaprikaApp thread.
• Recipes in a caption are also text, but hidden. Expand the caption, then copy it. If the app will not let you select it, take a screenshot and copy the words with Live Text by pressing and holding on the text.
• Recipes only spoken in a video are the hard case. Pause and type the ingredients into a note while you watch. If the creator deletes the video, a link to it is worthless, so do this the first time you decide it is worth making.

Text you hold beats a link

An r/PaprikaApp user asked what happens if a website deletes a recipe. Replies said the app stores its own copy, so the recipe stays and only the original link breaks: r/PaprikaApp thread. That is the reason to keep text, in any tool. Screenshots do the same job. On r/apps, a developer said his wife had 40,000 screenshots, with TikTok recipes among them: r/apps thread. A screenshot survives deletion, but it is only useful if you can find it again.

The free setup

Use Apple Notes or any notes app. Make two folders: To Try and Tried.

• Saving: paste the text, the link, and the source's name. Add one word for how you would search, like chicken or quick.
• After cooking: move it to Tried and add what you changed. If it was bad, delete it.
• Finding: use search, not folders within folders. Ingredient words are all the sorting you need.

The two-stage idea came up again and again. One Paprika user keeps recipes on Pinterest until everyone at the table approves, then promotes them to the app with notes. Another emails themselves recipes to try and only adds ones they would cook again. In the first of those threads, another person uses a tag for things they have not made yet.

Big catalog or small?

Paprika users split on this. Some keep a tight list of tried dishes. Others hold thousands, with one user at more than 13,000, and argue that a big catalog is fine because search finds a half-remembered noodle dish faster than checking several devices. A 2,000 recipe owner felt buried by the backlog: r/PaprikaApp thread. Commenters there said to start with the unsorted recipes, and to tidy up each one as you cook it. Cooking is a better trigger than a weekend of sorting.

When a recipe app is worth it

If you cook from saved recipes every week, a dedicated app earns its place by scaling, grocery lists and importing. Paprika came up most on Reddit, and its users say it can pull recipes from Instagram, TikTok and YouTube if you expand the description first: r/PaprikaApp thread. Others said this was unreliable, or that it failed when the steps were only in the video: r/PaprikaApp thread.

For people happy to run their own server, Mealie is free. One user said YouTube links work out of the box, while Instagram and Facebook need extra tools: r/Mealie thread.

Hundreds of old screenshots rarely move in bulk. One Paprika user said tracking the recipes down again took less time than expected: r/PaprikaApp thread. You could start with the ten you actually want to cook.

Where Nemos fits

Nemos is a place to find recipes, not a cooking app. It saves links with previews from the share sheet, reads the text in your recipe screenshots on your device, and searches them with your notes, so a search for miso can find a website and a screenshot together. A reminder on a saved item can bring it back on the day you plan to cook.

It keeps a link and preview, not a copy of the video, so screenshot the caption too. If you want grocery lists and scaling, use a recipe app.