Lifestyle Preserving Family Recipes 8/9/2023 | By Terri L. Jones Those weathered, food-splashed recipes passed around among friends and family hold more meaning than just ingredients and directions. Seniors Guide writer Terri L. Jones offers ideas for preserving family recipes in creative, heartwarming ways. This weekend, the three tomatoes that I had bought at the farmer’s market last week had reached that glorious shade of red that begged to be sliced and devoured. I had also reached the breaking point with that maddening pie shell that kept my freezer drawer from closing without a lot of curse words. I had but one choice: make a tomato pie! But when I pulled out the recipe, I knew I was in for more than just a few hours of relaxing cooking. That dirty, dogeared, 13-year-old email from my best friend of 30-plus years, who now lives in another state, transported me back to when we were both single freelance writers living just streets away from one another. Reading her notes, tips and humorous asides (“Why am I giving you cheese advice?!” to a self-affirmed cheese-aholic), it was as if time had stood still. Assembling my ingredients, I texted my friend a photo to show her that her recipe was still well-loved. But that recipe meant so much more than that to me. It meant that we still had these large and small, obvious and subtle connections that transcended the years and the miles. For about an hour afterward, we texted about recipes and life while I sliced tomatoes, grated cheese and chopped herbs to create that simple pie that exemplified our complex and enduring bond. Feed your soul and your belly When I was young, old recipes didn’t mean much to me. They were just tools for making good food. But now that many of the people who gave me these recipes are gone – either through time, distance or death – these slips of paper with the personal notes and dried bits of food in the corners have the power to turn back time, recall holidays and other events, and bring friends and family right into the kitchen with me. My mom’s crabcake recipe is a great example. Before she typed the recipe, Mom wrote me a note imploring me to “please read through this first, little girl” (as I tend to gloss over recipes and miss important info) and signed it “Love and kisses, Mom”! Each time I read through the recipe from my mother, who passed away last year, her words feel like the warmest hug from her. Another recipe that I hold dear is my Granny’s applesauce cake “receipt” (as she called it), written on the back of an envelope and splattered with the ghosts of cakes past. Because Granny didn’t do a lot of baking (she always bought pies for holidays), this dessert, which she made for Christmas dinner, is extra-special to our family. When I recently made this cake for the first time, I’m certain that my lovingly domineering grandmother was watching my every step. (Hopefully she forgave me for using regular raisins instead of the golden ones and cutting back on the sugar!) Related: The benefits of old photos 5 tips for preserving family recipes Just as precious as your great-granddad’s pocket watch or your aunt’s Delft china, these dirty and fading, torn and tattered pages deserve to be preserved for future generations to enjoy. One easy way to protect them is to laminate them or simply slip them into plastic sleeves and store them in a binder or recipe box. The plastic coating will not only keep them from yellowing but also protect them from your spills and splatters. You could also do something a little more special with your great-grandma’s roast recipe by framing it with a photo of Great-Grandma herself and hanging it in your kitchen. But the best means of preserving family recipes for all time is to bypass the paper altogether and turn those recipes into functional items that can be passed down for generations. Here are some clever ideas I liked best: 1. A handy tribute. Keep Mom’s special mac and cheese recipe or the hummus recipe from your dear friend from the Middle East close at hand by printing it on a linen dish towel. You can even scan the original recipe, so you have it in the person’s handwriting. Every time you dry a dish or your hands, you’ll be reminded of that person and the delicious dish they shared with you! 2. A slice of time. Engraving that special recipe on a cutting board will bring back those summer days when Grandpa made his minced barbecue for you and your cousins or when you and your girlfriends traveled to Napa for Kim’s 40th birthday and enjoyed that delicious beet salad with your wine. Some sites will even engrave from a scan of the original recipe. And what a great gift when your cousins or friends beg you for the recipe! 3. Serve it up. Did your grandmother make the best turkey stuffing in the world? Does your mother-in-law make extraordinary almond crescent cookies? Here’s a great idea for a holiday gift: Print that recipe on a platter in her handwriting and share it with your family this year! 4. Close to your heart. That time-honored recipe becomes even more special when it encircles your body like an embrace – on a recipe apron . It makes a fun way to pass down Grandma’s recipes to young cooks in the family. 5. Seeing is believing. Because the younger generations tend to prefer digital to paper, your binder full of old, irreplaceable recipes may eventually end up in the recycling bin! Why not make a video of your special recipes instead? If the person who originated the recipe is still living and able, make a play-by-play video of them making the dish – all the way up to the tasting part – or enlist a stand-in cook. Then share the video electronically with all your family’s cooks. Or if you’re really ambitious, start your own cooking vlog (video log) and share your prized recipes with the world! Read More Terri L. Jones Terri L. Jones has been writing educational and informative topics for the senior industry for over ten years, and is a frequent and longtime contributor to Seniors Guide.