How to Make an Heirloom Cookbook

An heirloom cookbook contains not only recipes that are family favorites, but also photos of various family members making the dish. Heirloom cookbooks will enable your children to cook family favorites for their own children, while connecting them to loved ones who came before. My sister is making lovely heirloom cookbooks for each of her children. Here's how you can do the same.

First, gather recipes from family members. Not just any recipes; decide what the specialty is that this person is particularly known for, and ask them for this recipe. Our mother is famous for her lasagne, for instance. Once you have ascertained the recipe that would be most appropriate, ask your relative to write it out for you. Keep in mind that many people cook almost by instinct; perhaps they learned to cook this dish at their mother's side when they were young, so they do it now without a recipe. They might have a hard time writing it down exactly. You might end up with "three shakes of this" or "a pinch of that." You could acknowledge that cooking is more art than science and just go with it; but perhaps, if you live close enough, it would be better to go over one day, observe them making the dish, and write down times and measurements as they cook.

This might be a good idea anyway, because besides the recipe itself, the thing that will make this an heirloom is pictures of each person as they make the dish in question. How you do these pictures is purely a matter of taste. You can take a picture of the cook holding the dish after it is made, or serving it; you might want some taken during the process; or you could even take detailed pictures of the entire process and have a pictograph to go with the recipe. I suggest you change it up, doing different things for different people and recipes. And of course, if someone lives too far away to travel to personally, you'll have to take what they are able to send you. For those who have passed on, you might have to put the word out amongst the extended family that you are looking for pictures of them cooking or with certain foods. We discovered a wonderful old black and white picture of our then young Grandmother holding her Pineapple Upside Down Cake, our Grandfather's favorite. Of course, if you can't find one of your relative with the actual dish, try to find some a picture of the person anyway, to include with their recipe.

You might have some family members who cook extensively while others have only one dish they like to make. It's fine to have more pages of one person than another. When you put the book together, you can decide whether to have sections for each person, or put the recipes in a certain order regardless of whose they are. Don't forget to include some pictures of your children or grandchildren, whomever you are making the book for. If possible, these should be pictures of them cooking. My niece and I intend to make Peanut Butter Fudge together, both so I can teach her and so we can contribute a picture to my sister's heirloom cookbook.

As you get each recipe, type it in to the computer and save it in a special file. If you have some handwritten ones you want preserved, scan them in as well, but type them in too, so they will be clear and complete. Begin scanning in the pictures you want, as well. Once you have everything that you want to use, begin arranging your heirloom cookbook the way you want it. Do you want all desserts together, or do you want a section on Grandma separate from the one for another relative, for instance? Decide what pictures go where, and make sure each recipe is complete. If you have handwritten recipes, you can use them alongside the typed ones. Design some sort of cover, and a back sheet too. You might want to make a content page as well.

Choose the type of paper you want to print out the typed recipes, pictures and handwritten recipes on. You could use heavy stock, so it is very sturdy; you could use finer paper and encase each sheet in a plastic sleeve. If you choose heavy stock, punch 3 holes in the left side of each printed sheet and after arranging everything in order, tie the book together with ribbons, pipe cleaners or even colorful plastic zip ties. If you choose a finer paper and plastic sleeves, put the whole thing in a 3-ring binder. If you use the kind that has a plastic sleeve built in on the front, you can put a nice cover as well as a label along the side, so you'll be able to find it quickly on the shelf. Also, recipes behind plastic sleeves stay clean, since the sleeve can be wiped down easily.

Once you have a book for each child, you can begin teaching them to make all of the recipes in the book. When they leave home, they will have a very practical, yet sentimental keepsake, that they can build on to make heirloom cookbooks for their own children.

Sources:
Personal Experience
Leslie Jackson (My Sister)