Family recipes?

Lizling

I was just at my mum's the other day and she had the family cookbook (bundle of various notebooks and newspaper clippings held together with elastic bands and bits of string) out to look up a recipe. I know there are recipes in there dating back to pre-WW1 at least, going right through to recipes I've added myself this year, with war-time rationing recipes and everything else in between. I could spend ages flicking through but I don't want to damage it too much more!

I mentioned this to a couple of friends, and I was quite surprised to find out that they both had family recipe collections too. All those wonderful historical recipes out there, still being used

Do many of you have things like that? Do you still use them?

sillyvixen

i have my grans fruitcake recipe - she got it from her mother her mother (my great grandmother, and my grans mother in law) never passed on the recipe to her, despite being asked!! i offered to write it out but she refused, saying that clearly her mum did not want her to have the recipe!! families eh!! so i am still the custodian of the family fruitcake recipe... it's a burden as family events would not be the same without the cake but no one wants the recipe!!

trolleyrun

Unfortunately, my Gran took most of her "recipes" to the grave with her. She didn't actually use recipes, as she knew by memory how much of each ingredient to put in. I did manage to convince her to give me her meatballs recipe though, but mine don't taste the same. My Gran made some amazing food - nothing fancy (apart from the caramel pudding for special occasions), but good, honest and warming farmer food. I do miss her terribly, even though she's been gone for quite a few years.

monnagran

Yes. I have my Gran's, Mum's, and eventually Dad's collection. When Mum had dementia Dad, who could just about boil a kettle, took over the cooking, cleaning, shopping etc. I found in the 'book', when he died, a letter I had written him giving some simple recipes to help him. One of them was a way of cooking mince and I'd
finished it by saying, "Then you bung it all in the oven for 45 minutes and Bob's Yer Uncle."
Till the day he died that dish was called "Bob's Yer Uncle."

x

hoglet121

Yes my mum has a book which always seems on the brink of falling apart with all kinds of things stuck in, notes from So-and-so, and pages torn from magazines. I firmly intend to make full use of it once I inherit it. It was always a source of fascination to be when I was growing up, but I don't remember being allowed to inspect it too closely, she must have been terrified I was going to permanently damage it.

trailingspouse

My Mum has an ancient Be-ro recipe book that she's annotated over the years. It comes out every year for the Christmas pud and the Christmas cake. But other than that it's all in her head!

I'm the same - when my son moved out and asked me for the recipes for certain family favourites I had to admit I pretty much made it all up as I went along.

sooty&sweep

I've not inherited any books as such although I do use favourite recipes from my mum & mother in law.
I am creating one of my own to pass on to my children. There are recipes I make that they love and I want them to be there when I'm gone (how morbid is that !) But for me food is a massive part of family life with lots of memories attached.
Jen

Nocturnes

In Australia I met an 80+ year old lady who proudly showed me her family recipe book. It consisted of a pile of about 200 pages of crumbling handwritten paper plus mag/newspaper cuttings, and had been added to by four generations of her family, starting with her great grandmother who had emigrated to Australia in the mid 1800s. She said she wanted to pass it to her daughter, but it was disintegrating to dust. In a mad moment I offered to transcribe it for her. I spent 4 days and nights deciphering the handwriting and typed it up on the computer. I also scanned each page. At the end we had a text version and a scanned version, and she let me keep a copy of each. Many of the recipes are so interesting, especially knowing the limited ingredients people had in the early days there. I've tried some recipes from the collection that I've not seen anywhere else or found on the internet.

A personal recipe book is a fabulous family heirloom that anyone can start at any time.

I loved looking at every old page of those recipes, even though it was not from my family. Hmmm, think I will dig it out now

Starrystarrynight

My Nanna had an old Bero recipe book, too!
Sadly, it seems to have disappeared. I'll buy another eventually. They were quite dear on Amazon, so might look for a second hand one.
My mam wasn't into cooking much, but she did pass on a recipe for a lovely soup that her mother used to make.

daisiegg

Nothing in my family - I wish there was! Going back a generation or two my ancestors (farm hands historically) would not have even been able to write let alone record recipes.

However I have started my own - I stick things into it and also write out my own recipes for things. I hope one day an offspring or grandchild will be interested in having it and continuing it!