Somewhere in your phone is a screenshot of a screenshot of your aunt's crumble recipe, taken at a family dinner in 2019. Next to it: three hundred other notes, half of them shopping lists. This is where family recipes go to be forgotten — and it's fixable in one sitting.
Round everything up first
Don't organize as you go — just collect. Scroll your Notes app, your photo library, the family group chat, and that email thread with your brother. Everything that looks like a recipe goes into one pile. Duplicates are fine; chaos is fine; a pile is the goal.
- Search your photos for food — the cards are usually photographed, not typed.
- Ask the group chat for the dishes people actually request.
- Write down the ones that only exist in someone's head, starting with the oldest cook in the family.
Type them once, in one place
A recipe that lives in six places lives nowhere. Type or paste each one into the recipe keeper — measurements, steps, and the little notes in the margin — and it becomes a page in a real book instead of a file you'll never find again.
When the selected recipes are entered, review the editable online book and keep the source captures you still need. Export a PDF if you want to arrange a paper copy with a printer you choose.
By forever.recipes