Write Them Down Before They're Lost

Every family has recipes that only exist in someone's hands.

A pinch of this, a handful of that, "until it looks right." Nobody wrote them down, because the person who made them was always there. And then one day you realise you can't remember whether it was one egg or two, and there is nobody left to ask.

1. Recipes Are Memories You Can Eat

A recipe is never only a recipe. It's a kitchen on a winter afternoon, a voice telling you not to open the oven yet, the smell that meant someone was home. Writing it down is a way of keeping all of that. Not perfectly. But enough.

2. One Place for All the Pieces

Recipes tend to live everywhere: on the backs of envelopes, in old notebooks, in messages from a cousin, on a card with a butter stain in the corner. A binder gives them one home. Pages you can add, move and protect. A book that grows with your family instead of being finished.

3. Honest Notes

Plastic sleeves protect cards from kitchen splashes, but very old paper can stick to some plastics, so keep the most precious originals in a separate envelope and use copies in the kitchen. Ring binders can open a little in a busy drawer.

4. How to Choose

Look for a binder that lies flat when open, with sleeves for cards of different sizes and tabs for sections.

The best recipes are the ones someone once made for you.

Is there a recipe you wish you had written down in time? You can tell me.

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