Every family has one: the recipe nobody wrote down properly. It lives in a grandmother's hands, in a pinch of this and a splash of that, and in "you'll know when it's ready." The way to keep it is to cook it with her, measure what she does, and write it down in her words, with her handwriting and her warnings kept alongside. Here is how, in four steps.
1. Start with the dishes you'd miss most
Don't try to capture everything at once. Ask a simple question: if this recipe vanished tomorrow, would we grieve it? Ten dishes you'd truly miss make a lovelier book than forty you felt obligated to include.
The notes are the recipe. "Room-temperature tomatoes, never from the fridge" is the whole secret.
2. Cook it together, and write as you go
The best record is made at the stove. Cook the dish alongside her and write down what actually happens, not the tidy version. When she says "a little more until it smells right," that is the instruction. Keep it, and write the measured amount next to it.
- Measure the "pinches" and "splashes" with real spoons as you go.
- Photograph the index card, the handwriting, the stained page.
- Record the stories: who taught it, when it's made, what it's for.
The family recipe interview questions are a printable list to take along, from "who taught you this?" to "how do you know it's done?"
3. Keep the voice, not just the steps
A recipe stripped to bullet points loses the person. The margin notes, the victories, the warnings, the little jokes, are what make a family cookbook feel like her. Write them down word for word and give them room on the page. Photograph her recipe cards too, front and back: her handwriting belongs next to the typed recipe.
4. Keep it where the family can reach it
A recipe in one notebook can still be lost. Put her recipes in a family binder: one sheet per recipe, her note in the margin, the photo of her card beside it, sorted behind tabs. Share the link so cousins can cook from it on a phone, and download the A5 PDF to print a paper copy for her and for anyone who wants one.
The recipe keeper does exactly that, starting with 10 recipes free. Write her name on the cover label and the binder is a gift too.
If her recipes are already on cards, read how to make a cookbook from handwritten recipes for a method that keeps her wording and her handwriting.
By forever.recipes