What to Put in a Family Recipe Book: Ideas for a Cookbook Worth Passing Down

A good family recipe book holds more than recipes. Put in the dishes your family really cooks, from the Christmas trifle to the Tuesday-night pasta, and next to each one write who it came from, when it gets made and the little notes that never make it into a proper cookbook. If you can, write it by hand. The handwriting is half the point.

Most families have their best recipes scattered about: a splattered card in a drawer, a photo on someone's phone, and a few that only exist in Granny's head and come with instructions like "a bit of flour, until it looks right". Here is what to put in a family recipe book, how to get the recipes out of people, and how to turn it into something worth passing down.

Start with the dishes people ask for

Before you think about chapters, make a list. Which dishes does everyone ask for when they come home? Which ones turn up at every birthday? Which would you miss most if nobody could remember how to make them?

A quick way to find out is to ask the question at your next family meal: "If you could only eat one thing from home ever again, what would it be?" You'll get your first ten recipes in about four minutes, and probably a small argument about the gravy.

Family recipe book ideas: what to put in it

There are no rules, but these are the kinds of recipes that make a family cookbook feel like your family's and not a supermarket magazine.

The celebration dishes
The birthday cake everyone has had since they were five, the Christmas pudding, the Easter lamb, the Sinterklaas speculaas or the Weihnachtsplätzchen. These are the recipes people panic about when the person who always made them isn't there to ask.

The everyday classics
The shepherd's pie, the Friday fish, the soup that appears whenever someone has a cold. They don't feel special until you've left home and can't get them right.

The emergency recipes
What you make when the fridge is nearly empty, when friends turn up unannounced or when someone has just had a baby and needs feeding. Every family has one. Ours involves a tin of chickpeas and a lot of optimism.

Recipes from other people
The neighbour's lemon drizzle, your mother-in-law's red cabbage, the curry your brother learnt in his student flat and has been "perfecting" ever since. Always write down whose it is. In thirty years that name will be part of the story.

The seasonal ones
Plum crumble in September, elderflower cordial in June, the jam you make when the blackberries are out. These are the recipes that tie a family to the time of year.

The disasters
Not every page needs to be a triumph. The soufflé that collapsed in front of the in-laws, or the year the turkey was still frozen at eleven o'clock, are often the stories people laugh about most. Write the recipe and what went wrong.

Kitchen wisdom
How to tell when the jam has set. Why the oven door must not be opened. The fact that Granny's "cup" was one particular chipped teacup. Small things like this are usually the first to be forgotten.

What to write next to each recipe

The ingredients and method matter, but the notes around them are what make a recipe book an heirloom. For each dish, try to add:

• who it came from, and who taught it to whom
• when it gets made: Sundays, birthdays, the first cold day of the year
• the year you wrote it down
• any changes over the years ("less sugar since 2019, nobody noticed")
• one tip for whoever cooks it next

Here's how that might look on the page:

"Granny Pat's Yorkshire puddings. Written down in 2026 while she watched me and corrected nearly everything. Made every Sunday since about 1970. The oil has to be smoking hot, and don't open the oven door, not even a little bit. She is always right about this."

Four lines, and in fifty years someone will be able to hear her saying it.

How to get the recipes out of people's heads

The best family recipes are rarely written down, because the people who make them have never needed to. A few things that help:

• Cook it with them. Stand next to them with a notebook and weigh the "handful" before it goes in the bowl.
• Record a voice note. People explain things more naturally when they're talking, and you'll have their voice as well.
• Copy the old cards. Write them out properly in the book and keep the originals tucked in the back, splashes and all.
• Ask now. Not next Christmas. Now.

We've written more about this in how to save your family's recipes before they're lost.

How to organise a family recipe book

You can sort recipes the usual way, by starters, mains and puddings, but a family book often works better by person or by occasion: "Mum's", "Grandad's", "Christmas", "Birthdays", "Summer". Leave a few blank pages in each section so new recipes can join later. A family cookbook is never really finished, which is rather the nice thing about it.

Handwritten or printed?

Printed photo cookbooks look tidy, but they're finished the day they arrive. A handwritten recipe book keeps growing, and it carries something no font can: the way your mum crosses her sevens, the note in the margin, the gravy stain on page twelve.

That's why we made the Book of Special Recipes, a square, thread-sewn hardback with 72 pages for the dishes that taste like home and the stories behind them. The Heritage Green cover uses the floral pattern Janneke inherited from her great-great-uncle, which is also very good at hiding kitchen stains. It's arriving this autumn, and you can see it next to our other memory books.

Giving a family recipe book as a gift

A recipe book makes a lovely Christmas present, especially if you don't hand it over empty. Write in two or three family favourites first, then ask everyone to add one over the holidays. It could even become your new family Christmas tradition.

It also works the other way round. Give a blank book to a grandparent and ask them to fill it, a few recipes at a time, for the grandchildren. It's one of our favourite gifts for grandparents who already have everything. For a wedding, collect a recipe from each side of the family, so the couple start married life with both mums' roast potatoes.

FAQ

What should be in a family recipe book?
The dishes your family really cooks and asks for: celebration recipes, everyday classics, seasonal favourites and recipes from friends. Next to each one, write who it came from, when it gets made and a tip for the next cook.

How do you start a family recipe book?
Make a list of the ten dishes everyone would miss most, then collect them one at a time. Cook them with the person who makes them and write down what they really do, not what they think they do.

How do you organise a family recipe book?
By course works, but many families prefer to sort by person or occasion, such as "Granny's", "Christmas" or "Birthdays". Leave blank pages in each section so new recipes can be added over the years.

What do you write in a recipe book you're giving as a gift?
Add two or three family recipes yourself with a short note about why they matter, and a message on the first page about who the book is for. Leave the rest for the person receiving it.

Is a handwritten recipe book better than a printed one?
A printed book looks neat, but a handwritten one can keep growing and carries the handwriting and notes of the people who wrote it, which is often what families treasure most later on.