Saving a loved one's recipe box

If you're holding a recipe box that belonged to someone you love, there's no rush. The cards have waited this long, and they'll wait while you're ready. When you are, these steps help keep them safe and make them easy to share.

First, protect the originals

• Keep the box somewhere dry and out of the sun. Leave the cards in their order for now, since the order can tell a story too.
• Don't tape, laminate or write on the cards. Small stains and notes are part of what makes them theirs.
• If a card is fragile, slip it into a plain paper envelope or an acid-free sleeve.

Take pictures before anything else

1. Photograph each card front and back in daylight, straight on, filling the frame. A phone is fine.
2. Put all the photos in one album named after them, for example “Grandma Ruth's recipes”.
3. Back the album up in two places: your cloud storage and a computer or USB drive.

Capture the stories while people remember

• Ask relatives: Which dish do you remember most? When did they make it? Did they ever change it?
• Write the answers down, or record a short voice memo, and keep them with the photos.
• Note whose handwriting is on each card. Sometimes it's a neighbor or a sister, not the cook.

Type the recipes you'll actually cook

Start with three to five favorites. Type them exactly as written, then add your own notes underneath (“we use 1 cup sugar now”), so the original stays intact. Many recipe apps can turn a photo of a card into text, and a simple document works just as well.

Share copies with family

• Share the photo album, or make a simple PDF “family cookbook” with each card photo, the typed recipe and a line of story.
• Decide together who keeps the original box. Everyone can have the copies.
• If you research family history, you can attach the recipes to that person on FamilySearch or Ancestry. See our guide: How to add family recipes to your family tree.

We're sorry for your loss. We hope this helps their recipes stay part of your table.

This guide is from the maker of Chef Notebook, a recipe app. Everything here works with any app or none.