The 5 ways compared
Method | What you keep | If the post is deleted |
|---|---|---|
Instagram’s Saved folder | A bookmark to the post | Gone |
A link sent to yourself | A link to the post | Gone |
A screenshot | A picture of one moment | Kept |
The caption copied into a note | The caption’s text | Kept |
The Reel shared to a recipe app | A written recipe with ingredients, amounts and steps | Kept |
The first two are the fastest and keep the least. A bookmark and a link both point at the post, so they depend on it staying online. The last three keep something of your own, and only the last two can be searched by ingredient.
Where the recipe actually is
A recipe on Instagram is rarely in one place. Before you save it, look at where the creator put it:
The caption. Tap more to open it fully. This is where most written recipes are.
The voiceover. Many cooks say the amounts out loud and never write them down.
The text on screen, shown for a second or two at each step.
A pinned comment from the creator, often with the amounts that did not fit the caption.
Somewhere else: a link in the bio, or a message you get after commenting a word such as RECIPE.
A method that saves only one of these can miss half the recipe.
How to save a recipe with Instagram’s own tools
Tap the bookmark under the post or Reel. It is now in Saved, on your profile menu.
To keep recipes apart from everything else, press and hold the bookmark and choose or name a collection.
This is fine for inspiration. It is weak for cooking, because what you saved is still a video: to find the amount of flour you watch it again, and the list has no search by ingredient.
How to copy the caption into a note
Open the caption fully and take a screenshot.
Open the screenshot in Photos, press and hold on the text and choose Copy. iPhone reads text in pictures from iOS 15 on.
Paste it into a note and add the creator’s name, so you can find the video again.
You now own the text. It will not include anything the cook only said or showed on screen.
How to save it to a recipe app
A recipe app that reads video does the copying for you. In ReciDeck, a recipe app for iPhone:
Tap the share arrow on the Reel and choose ReciDeck. You can also copy the link and tap + in the app.
ReciDeck reads the caption and what the cook says. When the recipe is not all there, it also reads the text on screen and, where it can, the creator’s comments.
You get one recipe card with ingredients, amounts and steps. If the creator left something out, the card tells you what to check. It never makes an amount up.
The card stays in your collections even if the post disappears, and you can search it by ingredient.
Which one to use
Use Saved for things you may never cook. For a recipe you want to make, keep the words: a note if you save a few recipes a year, a recipe app if you save them every week.
Sources and method
This comparison describes what each method keeps by design: a bookmark and a link point to a post, a screenshot is a picture, a note is text. What ReciDeck reads from a post is described from the app. Instagram changes its menus often, so the names of buttons may differ slightly on your phone.
