I grew up with my mother shuffling through a thick stack of little recipes that she had collected over the years. I may have been a little perplexed as to why she had to have so many recipes, because for many nights us kids watched as she threw dinner together on the fly. Many of the recipes that she used are now being used by us in our family, and I understand why getting dinner on the table every night for a family of five was borderline chaotic.

When both of my grandmothers passed away, I couldn’t think of anyone else who would rather carry on this little tradition than me and my family. It only seemed fitting that between them both they had amassed an unbelievable number of recipes that they had collected through the years. We sifted through all of them all and for the most part, with the exception a few, they are listed here or neatly tucked away just waiting to be revisited. This is how we organize our family recipes and preserve the ones that matter most.

The History

Many of the recipes go all the way back to the 1930’s. Many were so faded that they are no longer legible. It was a sign of the times that this was what they ate, what they celebrated with, and the many foods that they shared with others in the community.

Why do we categorize by occasion or season?

We have just about completed our Thanksgiving and Christmas collection that holds all of the recipes that we use that time of year. It gets used for a few months out of the year until the next season. Recipes like Easy Homemade Eggnog and Easy Fizzy Christmas Punch, and my dad dressing recipe are all tucked away in their own little binder.

What do we keep and what do we toss?

Honestly, there has been little that we have thrown away. Mainly because of being torn, or simply not legible. However, we you do have one you can quite read, it’s a great way to invent a new recipe just by making an educated guess.

How we digitize the cards and clippings?

This is a process that we are slowly working our way through. Some of them we have re-written, with the old one adhered to the back, and others we have stored on computer files. You can also store them on memory cards, jump drives, or there are some good companies that can digitize and even bind them into a book for you. I highly recommend that you keep several copies just in case something gets lost in the digital world. Plus, you get to see what your grandmother’s handwriting looked like years, and years ago.

There were many small, tiny cutouts from old magazines, clippings from old food boxes, and index cards that presumably had been copied from someone else in the community. Many of the note cards had the little label that states, From the Kitchen of _______________. They were all a product of their time.

Back in that time they didn’t have Pinterest, or the internet, or text messages that you could easily grab a recipe from. You made it. Then you made it again, and again, and again, until you got right or moved onto something else. That was the benefits of being in a small community of people. You wrote your favorite recipes down on little notecards and passed them around the community. You held onto that recipe for dear life, because if it got away from you, it was hell to get back.

We organized all of the little recipe boxes, clippings, and the other handwritten cards into easy to locate pages. This is how we organize our recipes into binders that included:

Main Dishes, Desserts, Breads, Dips, Salads, Appetizers.

We organized them down as far we possibly could so that we’re able to find most anything that we needed. The important thing to remember is to organize them how your family would like to find them. Part of this process was somewhat bitter-sweet. There were many other recipes from other family members that are no longer here. Having a little something from them that is handwritten is what I would call “preserving family history.” Many of the cards had been rolled into a typewriter, and included products that are no longer made. There is something special about that time when you were able to open a little window of time to see how they lived. It’s special to be able to organize the recipes so that we can continue to pass them down to the next generations.

Take the time…

I encourage anyone that enjoys spending time in the kitchen to take a few minutes to write these things down. Make small little note cards for all of the recipes that you feed you family, or your children. Handwriting things down and knowing that you have a solid hard copy of a family favorite can be so reassuring. I think we can all agree that some things posted on the internet can east disappear at any time.

Happy Clipping!

There are many other options out there to help you organize your family recipes. Etsy has some great options that will help you organize your recipes. You can even create your own recipe cards and then transfer your recipes to them. Amazon has good options for 3 ring binders, and even protective sleeves to put the cards in. This is just a great way to preserve some of you family history. There is nothing more frustrating than finding a recipe online and never being able to find it again. Write it down and preserve it. You won’t regret it!