How to Save Old Family Recipes Once and For All 

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There’s something truly special about making dishes whose recipes were passed down from your grandmother to your mother and ultimately you. The way the entire house smells when you make a recipe passed down instantly takes you back to when you had the same experience with your family as a kid. It’s only natural that we would want to pass these recipes down to our own future generations. But, saving those small pieces of paper can be a tough task. Paper withers away over time and even the ink starts fading away. We are here to teach you how to save old family recipes for generations to come.

Preserve Those Handwritten Recipes

Digitizing recipes is of course a way to go, but, preserving those precious handwritten recipes also holds a lot of significance. From the way it was written to the beautiful cursive writing of your grandmother – it brings us closer to them every time we read it. 

So, the first thing we should do is to preserve those handwritten recipes. 

Since paper is so flimsy and prone to tearing, we recommend preserving them in plastic sheets. Archival binders are easy to find. You can tear each recipe page and keep them in archival sheets so that they remain safe from food splatter and tearing. The secure pockets will make sure that the recipes stay in place and in a cookbook form for years to come. 

EDITOR’S NOTE: Not sure where to start when it comes to learning how to make a family cookbook? Read here

How to Save Old Family Recipes by Going Digital

Another great option is as always, to go digital. Sometimes no matter how nicely you try preserving family recipes, one fear is that they just might get lost. So, to save them forever you can scan handwritten recipes, and keep them online. This way, you can access your family heirlooms directly from your laptop or phone so you won’t have to always take out those precious originals. Plus, you can even share them with your family or your friends easily. You can either use a scanner at home to upload these or just use your phone or camera to click photos of them and upload them later. 

If you don’t have a home scanner, you still have plenty of options like: 

  • take a picture of the card with your phone.
  • take the recipes to a FamilySearch library and use their scanners.
  • buy a scanner.
  • or manually type out the recipes in a Word or Google Doc file.

After that, you can make a folder of these recipes directly on your computer. Here, you can classify recipes according to food types and cuisine styles. You can either store them as a backup elsewhere or just upload them online on Google Drive Cloud. This way, you will always have these recipes on cloud storage for you to access later on. Even if you lose your laptop or its memory, you can always access the family recipes on the cloud. 

 

Upload Your Recipes to an Online Family Cookbook

If going digital still seems like a hassle for you, then there’s an even easier, quicker, and more affordable solution for you – upload your family recipes to an online family cookbook software like Morsel.

Not only will you save money and time, but, our team at Morsel helps to save recipes so that they never get lost for years to come. If you are digitally savvy, then, perfect. If not, you can ask someone else in your family to help upload them on your Morsel account or even have the Morsel team themselves help.

We have a secure cloud service which means that your recipes will be stored forever. You’ll never need to rely on your computer hard drive or paper ever again. 

family cookbook software

Another advantage of using online cookbook software is that once you upload your recipes, you can then turn them into beautifully designed family cookbooks for yours to keep or gift them to your loved ones. This is a gift they will cherish for years to come. Get started with our 30-day free trial and begin uploading your family recipes today!

Make/Buy a Recipe Box

If your recipes are written on 3×5 recipe cards, then storing them can be easier. You can make or buy recipe boxes that can store many recipe cards together in a cute fashion. You can even buy them from thrift stores or from online stores like Etsy.

Frame Your Family Recipes

If your recipes are written on vintage recipe cards then it can be a good idea to frame them! Hanging your favourite recipes in the kitchen is a great way to store the cards, plus, you can access these recipes any time. These one-of-a-kind vintage framed cards will not only look artsy, but, it’s a great way to save old family recipes.

Add Recipes to Cutting Boards or Kitchen Towels

If you are still wondering what to do with old recipes, then another great way to immortalise your family recipes is to print them out and turn them into cutting boards or even kitchen towels. Yes, you heard me right!  You can also find artists who specialize in doing these kinds of things such as ​​AllinclusiveLLC and Nesting Project. Plus, it’s great to support small businesses. However, if you want to do it yourself, there are plenty of tutorials online from where you can take inspiration. 

Adding Them to a Family Recipe Journal

And last but not least, another great way to preserve family recipes is to make your own family recipe journal. If you love journaling, then you can just copy the precious recipes to another recipe journal like this one. However, the downside of this kind of recipe journal is that it is again on just plain paper. That means it will be prone to tearing, blotting, and fading away after some time too. 

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There you have it. Now you know plenty of ways on how to save old family recipes in a proper manner. Whether you use an online family cookbook software to save them forever or decide to get a bit more creative with the way you have them around your home we hope you’ll take the time and care these cherished memories deserve.