Yikes! When you get it committed to paper (or CD or whatever electronic medium) send me a copy so I don't have to reinvent the wheel for my kids! LOL!

But seriously, I bet it is hard and you are inspiring me to drag my boys into the kitchen more often when I am making the "usual" stuff so they can mix and taste along with me.

Good luck and keep us posted!

Alexa

Oh boy, do I relate to this. Believe it or not, I spent 10 years perfecting my grandmother's potato roll recipe, which was the basis of her family famous cinnamon rolls. The actual ''recipe'' portion was so generic and without any of the fine details, that it never came out the same way twice. (Instead of ''Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes'', her recipe said to bake in a slow oven until done.) It didn't help that I was using an antique gas stove without a decent thermostat, so I learned to depend on a vintage oven thermometer. I finally got it right, after years of perfecting those instructions every time I made it. I think that's the reason I make so many notes, and rewrite most of my recipes in a ''Recipes for Dummies'' kind of way, which includes tips on techniques and even which size bowls or pans to use. For example, her dough recipe is very sticky, and I found using a Silpat to knead it kept me from using too much flour, which keeps the final product light. Being able to duplicate something is very important to me now which is why I include everything I can on the recipe. I like to use convection when I can, and most recipes aren't written with times for a convection oven, so I find adding those times in my notes also help my consistency. It also helped when I bought a kitchen scale, so I could measure weights, for when something ''looks right''. Digital weights, measures, and thermostats have helped make the duplication process easier, once I figured it out.

I recently made my MIL's noodles, and for some reason, I always forget how long it takes for them to cook, which all depends on how much flour is used, and how long they dry. I've made her recipe at least 20 times since she taught it to me and I'm still tweaking the darn thing, even if I'm almost there.

This is exactly why my own versions of a recipe are like gold to me! I'm so glad I learned about Google Docs this week, so they're in an place other than my own physical kitchen or on my computer. It's comforting to think they won't be lost this way. I have WAY TOO MUCH time and energy invested.

I know when you finally get there, your family will appreciate all the time you've spent making it easy for them to duplicate the family favorites. Whatever you do, Give Yourself a Break; know that it will take time. There's almost an art to writing a recipe that anyone can follow. Mine look complicated, but once I begin, it's all there and very easy to follow along. The best part is knowing it will turn out the same every time!

I'm going to have to check out Google Docs. I used to keep files on my Yahoo profile, but that turned out to be unreliable, and they are all gone now.

About 10 years ago I decided to teach Kevin how to make vinaigrette the way I like it, and so I had him watch me make it. I added several ingredients into the blender and then would taste a bit of it and give him a taste. Then I would say, "When it tastes like this, it means to need to add more of X." He told me that he did not share my sensitivity to taste and that I would have to write down proportions, which I did, and now he can make it from my recipe. I use several different types of vinegar in my vinaigrette to get the balance of flavors that I want. Occasionally, I blend olive oils as well, depending what I have on hand. Other recipes that I made (including stuffing), I had to measure ingredients and write down what I was using. I bought extra measuring spoons, including the tiny ones that measure dash (which is 1/8 tsp), pinch (1/16 tsp), and smidgeon (1/32 tsp). These are important, in case I want to double a recipe. I've learned that a lot of people have a hard time making recipes "to taste", which surprised me, since that is what I often do. I pretty much always do this with marinades, and I should write some of them down so that I can have Kevin make them from time to time.

As for kneading dough, I found that using a dough scraper or spatula is helpful in handling sticky dough and to prevent adding too much flour. I made a large batch of pizza dough last week-end and used this technique.

Today I print out recipes that I've written so that I can cook without having to think and make notes if I change anything that makes an improvement. I haven't had much time to write many new ones recently, however.

Lars

Lars, that's an interesting observation about the differences between those who measure and those who don't. (I fall into the ''need to measure'' category. It's probably because of my baker beginnings.) My husband makes the best coffee (we make toddy coffee), but mine never came out as well. I thought he was ''winging it'', until I finally realized he was measuring the amounts for different sized cups. He also preheats the cups so the coffee stays hot. Once I wrote down the measurements, my coffee is finally good!

I love my dough scraper too. I need all the help I can get.

Sharon, stuffing is a hard one to convey properly. I've tried to write that one also. It's not easy to taste. smell and adjust the seasonings. We have a hard enough time doing it ourselves. This past Thanksgiving I made my stuffing using fresh sage I had grown and dried, that was much stronger than newest sage I had bought. I used much less than when using what was in my pantry.

Oh yeah, our tastebuds can sure play tricks on ue too! Yup, stuffing is hard to write, best to think of the recipe as a guide.

Nancy

This is a very interesting thread!

I, too, have been trying to record my recipes for my family, including a history of where they originated. (When known).
But even a note as to who gave the recipe to me could be interesting to future generations.

And yes, I have made several dishes several times over, trying to get the measurements just right.

I have been using a recipe program called "Mastercook", and find it right up my alley.
With it, you can scale a recipe up or down.
It will give you the nutritional value of a serving or the entire dish.
I have also done quite a lot of baking for the public, and this gives me a cost per serving or cost per whole, which has been really helpful.

I am not connected to nor do I have any interest in, the company that makes that program, it is just one I like. I'm sure there are more out there that do the same thing.

I do recommend checking out some type of software of this nature if you are planning to record all your favorite recipes.

Rusty

I got the herb proportions down on my own stuffing recipe after several trials, but then last Christmas I had to use old herbs at my parents' house, and this threw the recipe off completely. It was still good, but I should have stated in the recipe that dried herbs should be as fresh as possible. The sage had lost pretty much all of its flavor in one year, but fortunately the bread cubes that I bought had a packet of savory in it, and that was a good substitution for the sage.

Claire, I have baker beginnings also and was a pastry chef in San Francisco in the late 1970s.

Lars

Chase:
I usually wing it making stuffing but it was always good.

Sometimes I add Sausage that was simmered and chopped small.
If I make too much, I freeze it for other things.

I can put in a Recipe if you want.
Lou

I'm in the same boat. DD keeps reminding me that I promised when she got married (2000) that I would handwrite a family cookbook for her. It is challenging. She wants it handwritten because she says I have a very nice handwriting. Okay I do but that's a big task.

I have tried out numerous blank cookbooks for this purpose. I have tested the paper to see if it bleeds through. I have finally decided on the paper and I will bind it with my binidng machine. I have also decided that I will handwrite the introduction and a few of my grandmother's and mother's recipe from Italy. Then the rest of the entries will be a copy and paste task after some tweaking from my collection on Word. So that's when the real work begins.

You all have raised other challenges that I have to work through too. I guess like the Lowe's ad says "Let's build something together".

Cathy

I really identify with your frustration. About ten years ago I decided that I needed to codify our family recipes. My mother learned to cook from her mother. It was "a pinch" of this, "a small glassful" of that, etc. Years earlier both my mom & her sister watched my grandmother make some traditional Greek sweets and jotted down the ingredients & quantities. But other than those few desserts, everything else was basically throwing things together. That's how I cooked and that's how my mom cooked too.

Trying to come up with the actual recipes was a challenge. Not so much the ingredients; I knew what went into the dishes. But the quantities were a whole other story. I spent many hours discussing dishes with my mom and making our family's traditional recipes before I could come up with honest-to-goodness recipes.

I'm glad I did, though. Eventually my mother developed Alzheimer's and couldn't remember anything about her cooking days. But her recipes and my grandma's recipes have been preserved. I put everything in a cookbook and now my daughter and daughter-in-law use them.

When DS was in a baking and pastry class in vocational school, I asked his chef/instructor what he felt the best program for recipes was. His answer was a word processor program like Word. I used to have Mastercook, years ago. I have no idea what happpened to the program or the recipes that I had on it. Luckily, I still have the original written recipes that were on it. It was nice to have the nutritional info from that program, but it's all lost to me, and the word processor is already available on the computer.

Tami...who has her grandmother's recipes written on whatever was available for scrap paper to input!

I am a cook as I go type also. People ask me for recipes for things I make all the time, and it can be very frustrating not to be able to say, "sure!"

So, a year or two ago, I began trying to write recipes down as I cook. At first, it was aggravating, because I'd get to cooking and forget to write things down, and stopping to measure the amount of an ingredient in my hand. Pouring liquid ingredients into a measuring cup before adding them through me off my stride as well.

However, it got easier with practice, and now I can jot down ingredients as I go and fill in the details and instructions later on. I've a growing cache of my recipes and it's so nice to be able to send/give one to a friend when they ask.

Sharon it is hard. My only advise, from one that misses Mom, is grab the kids and cook with them. Let them write it down. Between watching and writing, they will remember more.

Cathy, just do it. Forget the paper or the ink. Grab Sherry and do it.

To those that have lost Mom in one form or another, keep trying. When you get it right, it is worth it and you know she is with you. I do.

So much depends on the time, temp, spices, etc and tasting while cooking. Walk them through it,let them taste, and then let them do it for themselves at home.

The book you make is only the guide, not the end.

only the guide, not the end. Peppi, is will be a disclaimer in my cookbook.

My mother did that for me....and I have not done that for my kids....but there have been many phone calls asking "mom, how do you make those potatoes or that salad"...
My mother cooked much like I do, so most of hr recipes but for Mrs. Avery's rolls and Lemon Dainty and cornstarch pudding are written out. But as a young wife and mother, I would go to that cook book first for things like...now what do I do with this haunch of animal?....and there it was...take of some but not all of the fat, sprinkle on whatever....or make a paste of and smear all over...
Interesting though...my daughter used to make spaghetti sauce just like I did...even with no recipe...but her sauce now tastes very different from mine. It has evolved!
Yeah....it's hard tow rite down what you do....much easier to show them.
Linda c

Chase, Amanda wants me to do the same thing for her, maybe she could write it down while I cook with Makayla. I get calls from Amanda regularly asking what temperature she should use to bake something, did I use light or dark brown sugar in cookies, how many blueberries in a batch of muffins or pancakes.

Grandma taught me to cook by feel and by smell and by taste and by sight. Add a chunk of butter about this big. Add flour until it feels like this. Add eggs until the dough holds together. None of it was written down and it still isn't. Like you, my family stuffing recipe is "throw it all in a bowl, mix it up and stuff it in the bird".

Like you, I need to write it down.

Annie

For a few years now my (grown) kids have been asking me to compile the recipes they most associate with our family. I keep meaning to do it and to present them with a finished family cookbook as a Christmas gift. Didn't make it again this year...

I was thinking of this post while making chicken soup yesterday. I realized that it's never the same soup twice. Much depends on how the bones/carcass that I use for stock were prepared - if it was from a supermarket rotisserie chicken, or my Sunday balsamic roasted chicken, from breasts I roasted for chicken salad, etc.

I like to tweak how I cut the vegetables, too. Sometimes I do coin carrots and diagonal slices of celery. Other times I rough chop them, etc. Depending on my mood I will add some chopped plum tomatoes, or other times do no tomatoes, but add a few drops of vinegar to brighten the broth.

Last night I had a lot of good white meat, so I opted not to add any pasta. I'd baked a crusty boule and chose that for my starch.

So, back to the OP...When my kids ask for my "Chicken Soup Recipe" it is very hard to define. I think for that one I'll resort to writing my technique for making the stock, and list some of the ways to go with it.

But you're so right chase, "This is Way Harder Than I Thought, Too!"

...another issue in caputring the recipes is that so many depend on what's in the pantry or what leftovers are in the refrigerator.

I can relate, also. And...too true, Cathy. It always seems like my best dinners are thrown together with whatever I find and there's no way I could ever quite duplicate them.

If something comes out great, I try to keep track of what I did (Rusty, I use MasterCook, also), but it never seems to taste the same when I try to be exact.

And I've been trying to write down the kid's favorites so I can make her a cookbook. She's dating a man who cooks (and cans!)so all of a sudden she's interested in cooking.

I salute you! I get those calls too, but I have tried to cook by DD's side on a few occasions. However I know that when the holidays come around, she'll be lost. She tried to make a brisket this year since I wasn't feeling up to hosting Chanukah dinner. She said it wasn't great, but a first effort. I'll have to write down the recipe, but like all of you, much of it is added to taste. That's a problem lately since I'm avoiding so many foods.

Our family went thru the same thing - loads of recipes from our grandmother "Nonni" with loads of pinches of this and half a wine glass full of that! What size wineglass??!! We're not big bakers in my family, it's mostly regular cooking so thankfully proportions weren't that precious and we managed to recreate most of them.

I want to put together a family recipe book myself and I totally agree that it's going to be a lot harder that I thought. I don't measure when I cook so each recipe will have to be worked out.

I just finished My Life in France and am now reading Appetite For Life about Julia Child, and her explanations of how it took years to perfect recipes, testing and changing things, then testing again was an eye opener! You think how hard can it be?, until you start doing it yourself!!

Lisa

So not as cool as Mastercook with it's scaling and nutritional info, but I've found that I'm storing all of my recipes at alllrecipes.com. I'm also not affiliated in any way. But I can store all my recipes there and eventually I'll be able to use that data to have them create a printed cookbook for me. I'll make several copies and give to family for Christmas. If you share your recipe and it's approved, they will do the scaling and nutritional info for your recipe there. But private recipes are just stored as you input them. I agree with some who mentioned concerns about losing files I have stored locally when a computer dies, but I will also check out the Mastercook program. It sounds cool.
Susan

Chase:
I can still put in a Recipe for Stuffing if you want ?

Lisa:
You forgot the Italian pinches of Spices.

LOU

I made chili tonight. Instead of eyeballing the spices, I took a teaspoon out of the silverware drawer, not a measuring teaspoon. I eyeball filled the spoon (1/4, 1/2, ect), then sprinkled from the spoon, so I got the same eyeball effect as I usually do. I figured it would be easier to see and sprinkle with the regular spoon than with a measuring spoon. Next time I do it, I know I can put the spices in the reg. spoon, then into the measuring spoon to get the written measurments. It might work for some of you.

Tami

I couldn't even begin to 'quantify' the difficulty factor, chase. Truth is, if you do it right, it's hard as hell!!It's taken me untold numbers of hours (days! weeks! months!)to put together our family cookbook. But you know what? All the agony was sooo worthwhile!

It began as just a fun little project the year my oldest son moved out of the dorm and into his first apartment off-campus. I typed up recipes for about 25 or 30 of his faves. Heavy on the 'chip and dip' stuff for them to eat while watching the game, as well as lots of grilled dishes for when they had friends over to cook out. And, just for fun, I threw in lots of snark.

I was fully prepared to have them absolutely ignore it. Instead, I started getting calls saying stuff like, "Mama, we cooked that marinated roast on the grill tonight. It was totally awesome!" And "Everybody voted to come here for the Super Bowl party, because we're the only guys who have your recipe book." :)

When his younger brothers left home, I made copies for them. Since I enclosed them all in red 3-ring binders, they started referring to it as the Red Bible. (Hope that doesn't offend anyone. They didn't intend to be sacriligeous. Just a little guy humor.)

As they married, their wives started demanding that I share more secrets. :) So I add special 'updates' each Christmas. It's one of their most eagerly-anticipated gifts. (The family cookbook is up to about 400 pages now.)

Two of their friends who are about to get married have told me that the *only* gift they want is a copy of the Red Bible.

Is it hard to compile? You betcha! Is it worth the effort? Omigosh, you have no idea how special it will be to your children.

Chase, I had to laugh when I read your account of getting the stuffing recipe down. My mom cooked our favorite dishes without recipes, but when she finally wrote the stuffing directions for me, she wrote (after all in ingredients and spices are mixed together): "Taste it. THINK! Add spices if you need to." I thought it was so funny that she wrote "think" with capital letters and underlining, as if I were an idiot.

By the way, I've always liked how my La Leche League cookbook lists recipe ingredients with built-in adjustments, such as 1/4 to 1/2 cup mayo or 2 - 4 T. chopped onion, optional. It helps me feel my way through a recipe.

This thread makes my head ache. See ya.

Jim

I wing it. I seem to do pretty well but I'm trying to start writing and recording more as I get into baking bread. Bread making requires more formulas and note taking. Although, I'm finding even bread making requires using the senses of touch, taste, smell.
I think that cooks that have well developed senses are able to "wing it" much better. There are different levels of smell/taste sensitivities. I've read that some people can hardly even tell the differences between different types of wines. I believe it as my father and husband seem to have very little sense of taste and smell, while my mother has more and my brother and I have much higher ability to discern between subtle taste differences.
I am also able to "wing" volumes and measurements which I think came from my short stent as a bartender or is some inate ability that I have. I can mix up a blender of smoothies or a batch of muffins without measuring and come up with just the right amount for the number of servings I need, to the drop. Usually more accurate than if I measure.
When asked what I used I may not remember everything exactly but I can usually start mixing something up and duplicate it nearly perfectly each time as well.
I can imagine how hard it would be if I had to actually come up with measurements for everything I throw in the pot, wow!

okay, chase, I gotta admit my naivety.

I had hoped someone else would post something that would give a clue.

Exactly what are "Nike" recipes?

Rusty

Thanks everyone for your thoughts and sympathies. I have made a bit of progress. Tonight I'm making Lasagna and recording it.

Rusty, I call a recipe a "Nike" recipe when "I just do it" ! LOL