How to make a family cookbook

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Families tend to have recipes that circulate, and become family-wide hits. Make a family cookbook to preserve them, to mark them down forever, or as a wonderful and appreciated holiday gift!

Disclaimer: This post has been sponsored by Blurb. All thoughts and opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links.

I think that the main thing stopping most people from creating a personalized cookbook with favorite recipes is the huge job of it. Today, it’s easy to self-publish small batch books (as small as one!) and photo books are increasingly popular. 

Personal cookbooks are another great way to preserve memories. Families gather around tables, and share many moments over those special dishes. Emails and card files are full of scrawled, jotted recipes that look something like “Mommy’s spinach soup, Sarah’s onion quiche”. They hold personal associations, that can be preserved both for memories and practical use.

Blurb offers very easy publishing tools for those who want to self-publish cookbooks. They have easy templates to start with, and then the process is simple. You can then publish one, or publish a few. They make an amazing holiday gift, and can help scratch many people off your gift list.

Here are some tips I wanted to share from my experience with creating a Blurb cookbook.

10 tips to make a family cookbook special:

1. Make it look professional. Use cohesive fonts on various pages. Use a title font that is legible, and a serif font for the text.
2. Blurb offers various layouts that are pre-made. You just need to fill in the details and duplicate pages. Start with one of their layouts for a professional finish.
3. Start by doing your homework. Gather, type, and organize the recipes into categories. Take photos of them if you’d like (it makes it more interesting.)
4. Add a personal introduction. Every detail counts. 
5. If you do not want to start photographing all these dishes, or if you don’t have time, don’t worry! A family cookbook is almost like an album. Are you sharing Grandma’s sweet potato pie that was served every Thanksgiving? Put in a photo of Grandma or a family Thanksgiving dinner instead. You also don’t need a photo on every page – as long as the layout is clean and clear.
6. Name recipes after the family member who contributed it. “David’s barbecue sauce” is much more nostalgic than “Sweet mesquite barbecue sauce with ginger” – and family members are more likely to remember the recipe by the originator than by whichever name you invent now.
7. Keep it real! You can add quotes from favorite family members, funny things that kids said. Remember it’s about the memories that come along with the recipes!
8. Add a little humor and fun. 
9. I highly recommend publishing in hard cover. This is an album, and you want it to last!
10. Order a PDF copy too, so that you always have a backup handy!

My Blurb cookbook was easy to create with software I downloaded for free from their website. Had I had more time, I would have designed a cover from scratch, but instead I used their template and basic editing tools to do mine. The same goes for the other pages.

The final result is a high quality book with recipes that I put together (some of them featured on this blog), or that I gathered from family members. I now have all those favorites gathered in one place. 

The book is a sturdy, hard cover copy, in a nice, large size. The pages are thick and durable, and will withstand quite a bit of use in the kitchen.

35% off all orders with code COOKBOOK35 at Blurb – LIMITED TIME OFFER!

What are your tips to make a family cookbook perfect? Share in the comments below!

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