How to Make a Generational Family Cook Book

Give your cookbook a festive cover using craft paper.

Generational family cookbooks bring together a family's most cherished recipes, condensing the information into one easy-to-access reference book, oftentimes accompanied by family photos or stories. Creating and assembling a generational family cookbook is a fun way to bring the family together and create a cherished keepsake. In addition to passing down classic recipes to younger generations, recipes for special family dishes may be added to provide easy access to favorites that may otherwise be available only during family gatherings.

Things You'll Need

• Recipes
• Paper
• Binder

Instructions

1. Gather recipes from family members by asking for recipe cards, favorite cookbooks, magazine or newspaper clippings and cooking websites they refer to. Offer to help older family members prepare meals in return for the ability to take notes, or to borrow a recipe box.

2. Compile your recipes and organize them by generation. Depending on the number of recipes on hand, you may wish to further organize each generational section into categories, such as desserts, breakfasts, appetizers, main meals and baked goods.

3. Design one central format for the recipes to follow. It is likely that not everyone in your family writes down recipes using the exact same formula, but it's imperative that recipes in a cookbook are all formatted the same for ease of use.

4. Follow your pre-determined format when copying your recipes by hand onto high-quality binder paper. To save time, you may wish to enter the recipes into your computer using a word processing program, and print them out at home or a library.

5. Create spacer pages to help separate the sections of your cookbook by generation and category. These pages may be decorated with old family photos, anecdotes written by members of the family or pictures of prepared meals from the section. On the backside of each spacer page, list the recipes present in the section, along with a page number for reference.

6. Assemble your pages in order, including spacers, and place them in a large binder. Decorate the backside and cover as desired.

Tips & Warnings

• Those willing to spend a little extra money may wish to have their cookbooks printed and bound by a professional copy store. This makes printing multiple copies for family members easier. However, using a binder allows for future recipes to be added quickly and easily.

References

• "Holiday Gift Ideas"; Rebecca Germany; 2004
• "Creating an Heirloom"; Wendy Whipple; 2000