Turning Old Recipes Into a Modern Photo Book

A family recipe book provides the perfect place to catalog favorite recipes and insert new ones. Here are some ideas to start your design process off right.

Handwritten recipe cards are often passed down through generations. The love and heritage in those recipe cards are worthy of saving, printing and recreating. So with that in mind, here are a few tips on how to turn old family recipes int modern photo books.

First, head to Printique and browse their wide selection of photo book templates. Let the website’s inventory of high-quality options inspire the look of your recipe book. Whichever format, size, and style you pick, you can trust that the printing will look both professional and personal.

Communal Cookbook

After deciding on the recipe book’s exterior, it’s time to pick the content. Do you have a number of family recipes from mom and grandma that have been passed down for generations?  Compile all of these mouth-watering recipes, plus a few of your own — a communal cookbook bears the tastiest fruit!

Write It Out

Recipe cards predate the recipe book, so incorporate some for an old-school texture and personal touch. Contact your family to see if they have any saved recipe cards — even if they don’t, it’ll be a good excuse to catch up!

If they do have some of these artifacts to share with you, encourage them to make digital copies. That way, even as the physical copy crinkles and wears, the new version stays safe. And if they only have a digital copy or a memory of a recipe, have them write it out — handwriting gives the book a more intimate feel.

You can enlist family members to jot down their memories of a recipe along with its ingredients. Maybe they’re able to recall the first time they ate the dish, some notable experience they had while making it, or what they associate with it. And if it’s an heirloom recipe, they can tell you about how it originated. Including blurbs like this in your cookbook imbues each recipe with endless memories.

Picture Perfect

After compiling the written portion of the book, it’s time to collect the actual photographs! Scour old family photo books in search of food-related pictures. Can’t find any for a particular recipe? Invite your family over to make the dish and bust out the camera!

Throughout the cooking experience, take snapshots of the ingredients, the preparation, and the final product. You can also use this opportunity to ensure that the recipe is just right — and to jot down any tweaks if it’s not.

Get Organized

Now that all the materials are gathered, it’s time to organize the recipe book. Fortunately, the overall theme — food and family — has already been determined.
There are many ways to organize the book — by date, by cuisine, or by family member to name a few. Once you decide on a structure, return to the Printique website and get cooking.

Looking for other photo project ideas? Check out 5 Work from Home Photo Projects.