My mother did....wrote it by hand in a blank book. I treasure it!!

I wrote my DD's favourite recipes in a blank notebook as a little gift when she moved out of home. From time to time I add to it when I am visiting. I think a hand written book is a little more personal and gives the reader a closer connection with the writer.

I did. I just used Word, where I was writing up recipes anyway. I added typographic design, clipart, and photos when I had good ones, then put them in page protectors in a cooking binder from the bookstore. This format made it easy to use and add to.

Kind of. I typed up some of my own recipes that I make for family parties and stuff that some of my nieces have expressed interest in learning how to make. My olive bread,chip dip,etc.I just used word and put them in page protectors in a pink binder. When they want them I will hand it over.

My mother is not a happy cook and therefore not a good cook and neither were my grandmothers so we don't really have a whole lot of old recipes to pass down.

This is a good idea! I wish we had done this in our family especially with my Mom's recipes. Many years ago, my niece had plans of doing this but for some reason she didn't ever do it. She got recipes from everyone but then I think she got distracted with having babies and then somehow everything got misplaced. When I asked her if she had such and such recipe, she said she would have to look for it...wasn't sure if she still had it. Then, she never got back. I just got tired of asking for it!

Have thre not started mine yet, but I recently picked up a family cookbook themed binder at the bookstore. It came with the typical cookbook dividers. It will be easy to add to as time goes on. My MIL put together her family recipes in a Word document about 10 years ago so I will start off with those.

Our family did it some years ago before online publishing was easily available so I don't have a site to recommend. We had a local printer put it together with clip art, family photos, a family tree and a short history of the family. It's my go-to resource for family favorites.

I've done it a couple times- both times done the same way. Hand typed into word, then printed off and hand bound into books. One was full of a variety of family recipes, and the other was a spice blends and favorite cookies book.

I made a 67 page family cookbook back in 2003. I used Microsoft Word. It came out great. I did both pdf and printed, spiral bound versions. I am currently working on Volume 2. The toughest part is getting family members to send in recipes and pictures.

Many years ago I made hand written copies of favorite family recipes on loose leaf sheets and put them in binders for my four daughters. They still use and treasure them. I did these over a period of months during lunch hours.

I should say, try to get someone who cooks to read every recipe for content. In an organization cookbook, which was read tor typos and spelling, only, an essential, total fail without it, ingredient was omitted. I called the woman whose recipe it was, but I worry about someone else just having a gloppy mess. It's actually a favorite recipe in my family—with all its parts!

Get some acid free paper for printing and acid free cover sheets and then a 3 ring binder. The sheet protectors will be good to avoid spills! On the flip side, those spills do add so much character. Not sure. I treasure Mom and Grandma's hand written recipe notes. I do store them in plastic sheets for the more valuable ones . . . I have copied some of the standards over so I have the antique one and then the "working" copy . . .

I started one for my daughters, using CreateMyCookbook. (dot.com) It was very easy to paste recipes from word or even websites into and I got to the point of doing an index and sections, but am having trouble pasting pictures as per their instructions. They all come out as thumbnails. Anyway, once I figure that out, there are several choices as to types of binding, sizes, number of colour photos etc. and really quite reasonable.

Thank you all for your advice! I was thinking of using a site like nekotish suggested but I have changed my mind. A three ring binder seems like a better idea so she can add to it through the years.

Time to get typing!

Nekotish, my recipe app/site only has thumbnails. It may be that yours does too—full sized pictures suck bandwidth.

I have my parents' box of recipes, mostly typed or hand written onto large index cards, some are newspaper or magazine clippings taped to those cards. I want to better organize these some day. Meanwhile, I continue to write in my online food blog... I use Wordpress as my software. I'm going slowly to make some of the parental dishes and add them to the blog, with photos. (I prefer photos larger than thumbnails, but you should reduce them in pixel size from whatever your camera or phone takes them as.)

I tried to get my sisters/SIL together once a month where we each share an old recipe and teach each other how to make it. They quickly shot that down. Said too many food restrictions and allergies. I call BS, but oh well. Funny -- they sure love the old family favorites when I have them over for dinner LOL!

I do have my own collection of handwritten recipes and cut-outs that I treasure. If there's ever a fire, it's one of the first things I'm grabbing (my Bible, the dog, and the cookbook LOL!). I need to organize it better, though -- good snowy day winter project.

Plllog, I don't think that's the case as I was able to put a full size photo on the cover.

ETA—I'm not going to rewrite this because it's been up all day, so I'll just apologise for the wording. I‘ve been really out of it and now it sounds like I was being pointed or something, when it was just supposed to show my journey through the website, and that I wasn't 100% sure that I'd gotten it right. I'm sorry if it comes off some other way.

Okay, @Nekotish, I looked at the website. Createmycookbook.com seems very thorough and well designed, including the support. They're product is to make it so you don't have to be a graphic designer to make a nice cookbook. I didn't open an account or anything like that, so this isn't guaranteed, and maybe you already know this stuff, but here goes:

They recommend that your photos be 300dpi JPEGs (.jpg). There is a button for fitting your picture into the space provided without distortion. There's a photo editor on there site which will crop, mirror, rotate, etc., and do basic effects. Unlike in your phone, the original cannot be saved with the changes—there's no “revert”, so if you want more than one version (e.g., full size and closeup, you need to upload it twice, and if you change your mind, you have to delete the bad version and upload the original again.

ANSWER (I think): It's as I thought. I'm pretty sure you can't resize the photo on the page. That would defeat the whole purpose of them giving you plug and play graphic design. You need to start with a layout page that has the picture size you want, and add your recipe and picture to that layout. It sounds like they have a whole bunch of layouts to choose from. I don't know if there's a change layout button which will just slot what you already have onscreen into another page, but if not you can use the layout importer, or use “batch actions” if you want a bunch in the same layout, and then plug in your photos.

yes, I have pages on hand-me-downs that I stuff in the good cookbook, and scribble in/duplicate the best ones in several other recipe books ... glad they have blank pages ... everything else we like is in two recipe card boxes ... soon to be a third.

Here's a page from the 2003 Family Cookbook

I've kind of been toying with the idea of creating a set of cooking videos teaching kids how to make some of the old family favorites. My grandkids are so darn picky, it's hard to find anything they like though. The old family recipe for bean soup-no. Anything with sauerkraut which the grandparents used to make-no. Dark and spicy molasses cookies-no. Noodle kugel-what's that weird looking stuff-no. Sigh. And on it goes.

Maybe if they saw you making it, they'd like it better.

Always hope. Maybe. Two nephews were junk DrPepper and crap processed food lovers for a while. Some meat for FIL

"pay attention if you want a life partner that are intelligent and a good mother for your children"....lol,...they both married yoga plant based beauties. So happy they listened.

(they are now so embarrassed what they ate before girl friends). We have a pinky oath to no longer bring it up. So embarrassing for them. (jello crap, canned fruit)

Both sides of our family recipes, going back 50-75 years, are not at all healthy...no interest in going there. Looking forward only.

l pinkmountain and sleevendog,

I am in the same boat. My children are not fans of Tourtieres, Cretons, Pea Soup or many other French Canadian family recipes. They detest the Beef Marrow Bone Soup recipe I posted above. So far the 4 year old grandson will eat anything I eat so maybe there is hope. LOL

My daughter cooks but her skill sets are lacking, she cannot cook without a recipe. She is a good baker which I have little patience for except yeast breads, rolls, etc. She has little interest in family recipes however will eat some of them if I cook.