I had several binders of recipes clipped from food magazines, and it had become difficult to look recipes up because there were so many. Downsizing, curating: you name it, my recipe collection needed it. So with a recycling bin at the ready, I began to downsize.

My decision of whether to keep a recipe came down to two questions: Would I try it again? And, would I try it ever?

Recipes that once appealed but now seem odd (i.e., I’d never do them): Sauteed yams with prunes and bacon
Chilled cream of zucchini soup with mussels and fresh mint.

Recipes I might have tackled but now seem like too much work:
Pot stickers: make dough for 68 pot stickers; make filling; dab filling on dough; pinch dough shut; steam in batches. That’s just for the appetizer.
Caramelized shallot vinaigrette: too much work for salad dressing.
Chocolate roll with banana rum ice cream: make the ice cream; make the cake; make the filling; spread the filling on the cake; roll the cake up; serve with ice cream. A lot of work for dessert.

Recipes I just can’t see myself doing:
Gnocchi with Gorgonzola sauce: a chef’s recipe with three cups of crumbled Gorgonzola; fine in a restaurant where the cost is borne by the customer. A home cook eats the entire cost, as it were.
Madeira mincemeat: the recipe yields 12 cups of mincemeat; perfect if you’re a baker and Christmas is nigh. 
Potpourri: wonderful ingredients – red hibiscus, ground orris root, oil of bergamot, bayberry – though the store that sells them probably also sells potpourri.

I write notes about recipes I’ve tried, like who was at dinner and how the recipe turned out. If my note didn’t rave about a dish, that recipe was gone:
Gluwein: hot, spiced wine I made one Christmas. My note said, “Seems like an odd thing to do to a good bottle of wine.” I won’t do it again.
Mulled cider: my note said this was “okay.” Hardly a ringing endorsement.
Pine nut and cardamom scones: my note said, “rather dry by the time we ate them,” and we ate them that day.
Cold tomato and cucumber soup: I wrote that one guest ate this and headed straight for the bathroom. I never made any cold soup again.

These recipes are keepers, based on my notes:
Chocolate-espresso brownies: “Wicked, wicked brownies.”
Caramelized onion tart: “Wow!”
Hearty goulash soup: “A very, very cold day and this hit the spot nicely. Delicious result. Love the flavour of paprika. Nice tender beef. Mmmm!” 
Sticky toffee pudding: I first made this in 1989 and my note says, “Oooh! This was so delicious!” When people ask what’s in it, they tend to look skeptical when I say dates; I sit back and wait for the rapturous look that invariably follows their first taste.

My curated collection now fits in one binder. It can still use downsizing (7 recipes for beet salad, for example), but there’s room for new recipes, carefully vetted, of course.