Last year a long-time friend's daughter was married. As a wedding gift, she asked for recipes. Well, I made up a 3-ring binder with 25 pages of tried and true recipes that I have used for years. That was so successful, that friends and relatives asked for copies. I gladly printed them off. Some of the recipes were from long-gone relatives and others were more contemporary. This was a fun project!

My husband's family has lost many of their family recipes, but no one is interested in searching their boxes in the attic. I'm trying to find recipes that my husband misses. Some good, some near misses and some down-right awful!

My bridesmaids mailed each person a recipe card with the shower invitation and asked each person to bring a favorite recipe (my idea). I got a lot of great family favorites from DH's family this way.

I did the same thing-a gift for my niece when she got married & one for my daughter for Xmas one year. If anyone is having a family reunion? I headed one up several yrs ago & when people sent me their rsvp & $$ for the event-they were asked to include their favorite recipe. I then made up a 'Brown Family Reunion" cookbook & each family got a copy at the Reunion. I treasure it.

I agree, save them. I found my mom's recipe box and it had some recipes from her mom and MIL. I've scanned them and typed a few up. I've put them on jump drives along with a lot of our current favorites and given them to my kids and my niece. It's fun to discover old recipes and successfully make old favorites.

This is great advice! I'm going through this ordeal right now with missing my Mother's recipes. Sure she had some written down but most were things she made so often that it was just in her head. Then she had a stroke so all recipes are GONE for good! No longer can I ask "hey Mom, how'd you make *****?" It's very frustrating! Mom was a wonderful cook and for the life of me I have no idea why I didn't get those recipes YEARS ago so I could fix them myself? UGH!

This is something my DD does for every bridal shower she goes to is to make up a box or book of favorite recipes, and include some kitchen utensils, or coffee cups, towels, dishcloths, nothing expensive, because she can't afford it, but something that has ment a lot to those who have received them.

Our church put out a cookbook in the very early '80s. It was a Polish parish, with many wonderful cooks. The book had many of my late MIL's recipes in it. The book is out of print, and the next one we did doesn't have nearly as many of the old recipes in it as the first one did. So, last year for my neice's birthday, I took my book apart and scanned the whole thing. Think 8.5" x 5.5" and 1.5" thick. It took me hours (Days!). Then I took the flash drive to Staples and had them print and bind four of them. My neice and her sister and brother all got one. When we had purchased the original book, we all bought extra copies, but over the years they were given as gifts or have just been misplaced. Now the whole family has access to the recipes in the original church cookbook and grandma's recipes.

I also have my grandmother's recipes, many written on whatever scrap of paper she had to hand. I am slowly getting them typed into the computer with notes as to what I found them written on and all of Grandma's notes on them, such as "Swell", or "so and so said this is good". Many are clippings. I also have an aunt's recipes and those from my dad's cousin's wife. Eventually, these will all be put into the computer and into book form for my kids. Grandma's will be shared on cd with my cousins. I figure if they want them printed, since I put all the work into transcribing them, they can take care of printing them!

Tami

By all means do this!
In fact, have your children start a recipe book when they are just about to become teenagers. They can make the irreplaceable recipes, record them - and add to them. I did that with my mother's encouragement.
My black notebook ended up being the only remaining copy of some of my grand-mother's pickles, and her dessert recipes. And I've lost touch with the classmate at university who gave me his liver soup recipe. (Better than it sounds.) And imagine a phone call from London England to Canada for the sole purpose of getting a relish recipe of my friend's mother, who got it from the mother-in-law of a daughter of a friend of hers.
This treasure is not to be found now - sigh. And I miss it on a weekly basis.
(I suspect an ex-boyfriend of mine as being the cause its disappearance.)

So funny that I ran into this thread as I am doing the same thing, typing up family recipes and writhing my own recipes that I never realized were anything special or even considered recipes until my two daughters started asking me for the recipe to my chicken soup or carne guisado etc... So now when I am making dinner I write down what I put and how much of it as I just cook on a whim. But my children seem to enjoy my cooking and call early afternoons to find out what we are having for dinner or to request a dish. Seems like I am always cooking, but it gives me joy to see the kids enjoy it. I wish I had my mom's crazy recipes that she also just made on a whim. She was raised on a cattle ranch in Mexico and so there was much cooking done on an open fire. When my husband or brother fired up the pit, she always took advantage of the heat left on the grill. She made pan de campo (a very heavy bread that doesn't rise much but it is so good), grilled whole corn that had been marinating in who know what, you know that recipe that I didn't write down because I thought we would live forever. Well she sadly passed away very suddenly 3 years ago. I do miss my best friend and mother. So yes please let's make it a point to write down those favorite recipes even if our kids are too young. One day they will appreciate that collection of family recipes. Josie

When my DD got married I gave her a book where I had written down all of her favorite recipes that I had made during her years at home.

My GM didn't write down any recipes and I really wish I knew how she made many things. My Dad yearned for many things she had made and no one knew how to make them like she did.

My family doesn't have "secret" recipes. We are always happy to share.