COLUMBIA, S.C. — What's your trick for organizing recipes?

Do you neatly clip them from newspapers or magazines and file them in page protectors that are then snapped into binders? Or do you deposit those tidy clippings in folders or recipe journals by category — appetizers, salads, entrees, breads, soups, desserts, even with wine suggestions to accompany your dishes?

Or maybe you're a piler. Do you accumulate piles of favorite recipes, swearing to one day go through and sort them?

Perhaps the computer is your friend. Oodles of recipe filing systems can be found online these days. The systems will do everything from creating shopping lists to cookbooks. The prices are as varied as the products.

And then, of course, you could be a cook who searches recipes through the generosity of Google. Simply enter the recipe idea you're searching for and, voila, dozens of pages of recommendations pop up instantly. Of course, you have to search through these to find your preference, but you'd be searching your piles or folders if you weren't online, right?

We asked some local cooks their recipe systems, hoping to snag a few organizational tips. Here's what they told us.

Abook and a list

Tom Jennings of Branchville, S.C., prepares great feasts for family and friends at Cattle Creek Camp Meeting in Bowman, S.C., each summer. His menus are vast — fried chicken, cubed steak, mashed potatoes, stewed rutabaga, string beans, okra rice, Italian cream cake, red velvet cake, lemon pound cake, chocolate cake. You name it, Jennings has it.

And he spends extensive amounts of time planning, keeping a notebook for his camp meeting menus complete with recipes and shopping lists.

The rest of the year, he said, he files with a little less earnestness.

"When someone gives me a recipe or I see one in the paper that I like, I put all of them into one cookbook — I have several cookbooks on a shelf in my kitchen and the first one on the shelf is where I insert my recipe."

That way, Jennings said, when he goes to look for a recipe, he knows to go to that cookbook, flip it open and start searching.

Later, when he's preparing a menu, he lists ingredients for the recipe, item by item, so he'll know what he needs. He'll have some items in his pantry; others, he'll need to buy at the store.

"This tip has helped me many times," he said.

Binders, binders

Chrissie Poore of Irmo, S.C., is another serious cook. An associate at Williams-Sonoma at Columbiana Centre, Poore shares her passion during the store's free cooking demonstrations.

As someone who has been cooking for more than 40 years, Poore has hundreds of recipes. Hers are filed by category in three-ring binders.

"I've got about 10 binders," she said. They're filled with page protectors stuffed with favorite recipes. Her binders are sorted by category: chicken recipes, beef recipes, etc.

Poore said she considers a recipe a suggestion more than an exact plan so she's often adapting. She doesn't consider herself super organized, but she does like to collect recipe "suggestions" in her binders — much more so than using the computer to file favorites.

"I'm a hard copy person," she said.

If you become dependent on a computer, Poore said, "when your computer goes down, you're sort of up the creek, aren't you?"

Amother's plan

Sarah Sawicki, a Columbia mom who participates in a dinner co-op with several other friends, follows an organizing plan she learned from her mother.

"I bought a spiral notebook in which I tape recipes that are either e-mailed from friends, cut out of magazines or the newspaper, or handwritten on old-fashioned recipe cards from family. It gets a little stained from food, but I kind of like it that way," Sawicki said.

Before she files a recipe. Sawicki places it in a "ones to try" folder and then tests the recipe with her family. If it's a keeper, it goes in the spiral notebook.

Sawicki also keeps an extensive list of recipes on her computer, which makes it easy to e-mail a favorite to a friend or print and share when someone asks.

Cooking by computer

Many programs are available to organize recipes, determine nutritional values and create shopping lists. Among them:

n www.dvo.com/recipeprogram.html, $79

• echef, thecookingrevolution.com, $39.95

• Cook's Palate publishing system, cookspalate.com, $199.99

n Bigoven.com, $29.95

n LivingCookbook.com, $29.95

n AccuChef.com, $19.95

Before purchasing a system, experts advise that you consider these things:

n How easy is it to enter a recipe?

n How long has the program been around?

n How intuitive is the program?

n How easy is the program to navigate?

n Is a free trial offered?

If you don't want to purchase a computer filing system, there are recipe databases online, including:

n allrecipes.com

n epicurious.com

n The sites for major cooking magazines or food associations such as Cooking Light (cookinglight.com), Southern Living (southernliving.com), Washington apples, (bestapples.com), S.C. Peach Council (scpeach.com) or American Egg Board (www.aeb.org).

And remember. You can always Google.

1 pound Italian sausage¼ cup olive oil5 to 6 garlic cloves, minced¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper1 can crushed tomatoes2 tablespoons vodka1 cup heavy cream1 pound penne pasta, cooked and drainedBrown sausage, drain and set aside.Heat olive oil in saute pan. Add garlic until just browned. Add red pepper. Add sausage and crushed tomatoes.When sauce begins bubbling, add vodka and cream. Heat through. Toss with pasta and serve.Makes 8 to 10 servings.— From Sarah Sawicki of Columbia, S.C.

1 cup strong coffee½ cup brown sugar¼ cup soy sauce½ cup ketchup½ cup wine vinegar2 tablespoons butter2 tablespoons lemon juice3 cloves garlic, mincedcouple of dashes hot sauce4 to 6 boneless chicken breastsCombine all ingredients except chicken, and slow boil for 5 minutes. Cool. Reserve some marinade for use as a dipping sauce.Use remaining marinade to marinate 4 to 6 boneless chicken breasts. Marinate at least five 5 hours; overnight is ideal.When ready to cook, remove chicken from marinade and discard marinade. Pat chicken dry, and grill over hot coals, or in an indoor grill pan, until done. Chicken can also be baked in an oven for 1 hour at 350 degrees.While chicken is grilling, reduce reserved marinade over medium-high until about half the mixture remains. Serve with chicken. This makes 4 to 6 servings.— From Chrissie Poore, Irmo, S.C.

For cake:5 tablespoons plain flour3 tablespoons cocoa1 teaspoon baking powder6 eggs1 cup sugar dividedFor filling:1 pint heavy whipping cream½ cup sugar1 teaspoon vanillaFor icing:1 pound powdered sugar3-4 tablespoons cocoa1 stick margarine1 teaspoon vanillamilkMeasure dry ingredients for cake and set aside.Separate eggs, placing yolks and whites in separate mixing bowls. Beat egg whites at high speed until foamy. Gradually add ½ cup sugar and continue beating until stiff.In bowl with yolks, add ½ cup sugar and beat until they are a lemon color.Add flour and cocoa mixture to yolks and blend well. Fold this mixture into the egg whites and mix well.Spray a jelly roll pan with nonstick cooking spray and pour in the batter. Even out batter over pan.Bake at 375 degrees for 15 minutes.Just before the cake is done, lightly wet a clean dish towel and spread towel on the counter. Dust towel with powdered sugar.After the cake is finished baking, remove from oven and let cool just a few seconds.Invert cake on dish towel and dust cake with additional powdered sugar. Roll up in dish towel and let cool completely, seam side down.Beat whipping cream until slightly stiff, add ½ cup sugar and 1 teaspoon of vanilla and continue beating until stiff like whipped cream.Unroll chocolate roll, spread cream over entire roll, roll back up and put on oblong serving tray.Make chocolate icing by mixing margarine, cocoa, powdered sugar and vanilla. Add enough milk to create a consistency that allows the icing to spread easily. Spread over entire roll and ends. Sprinkle with chopped nuts, if desired.Makes 12 to 15 servings— From Tom Jennings, Branchville, S.C.