Preserving family recipes

Does anyone really know what their ancestors were eating two hundred years ago? Of course the history books tell us what famous people consumed, like Queen Elizabeth's infamous pastry tarts. But most of us have few ideas about what our great-grandparents ate or how their food was prepared. Perhaps they were too busy to write down this information or maybe they didn't have paper to preserve it.

Nowadays we have the means and perhaps the time to save family recipes and food favorites. It's just a matter of getting organized and choosing a format:

1. Put out a call for all the old family recipes that any of your relatives might still have. If they don't want to hand over the originals, ask for a copy that can be mailed, faxed, or electronically submitted. Suggest places where they might look for these, such as old cookbooks that have been handed down a generation or two, tucked into family Bibles, buried in boxes of records or documents, or clustered with yellowing family photographs.

2. As you receive the recipes, add missing information or details. For example, if one is named "Aunt Martha's Lemon Pie," add her surname in parentheses or on the back of the recipe. Find photographs or family anecdotes recorded in diaries or letters that can link food items to other facts about long-gone relatives.

3. Organize the recipes in a meaningful way. For example, you may want to separate maternal from paternal relatives. Then you could arrange recipes by food groups, such as main dishes, side dishes, desserts, beverages, and so on. Add a line of description about the cook or a quote from a letter or other document, which helps to personalize the recipe.

4. Arrange your information in a preservable format. For example, you may want to prepare one page per person, or several pages, depending on how much material you have. A photograph, favorite or well-known recipe, and a quote can fill a page in an attractive way that can be assembled in scrapbook or photo album format. You can then alphabetize names or choose another organizational style that will you, and anyone who views the information, to distinguish relatives from each other in some fashion.

5. Publish the information or excerpts from it. Pass around your scrapbook at the next family reunion. Get bound copies of your collection made as gifts for family members. Some cookbook companies will publish attractive home style volumes for medium-sized groups, which might be the size of your extended family. You can also print excerpts like one page at a time in a family newsletter or post the material to a family Website. Contact the local library's folk history section to see if they might like a copy for that shelf.

Your family's longstanding recipes may not seem important, but they hold a special place in history as well as in many relatives' hearts. Start collecting and preserving them today so that you can enjoy them tomorrow and always. Your children and grandchildren will thank you, and they may start asking for your favorite recipes.