I knew in the very beginning what I wanted to do with my recipes, but that doesnt mean you need a clear vision from the start.

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Aging recipe cards have been bent and held and stained and handled for years and as you come across your family recipe collection this holiday season, were glad youre taking a moment to consider a preservation project that is sure to be fun and rewarding.

Make A Recipe Book Gift Series Of Posts

In this series of posts, well cover: Organizing family recipe cards Sorting and selecting your favorite recipes Adding photos, quotes stories Recreating family recipes DIY food photography Digitizing family photos recipe cards How to design build the perfect family cookbook The best cookbook printers we know Advanced DIY cookbook creation Downloadable cookbook templates, graphics custom recipe cards An Heirloom Cookbook like the one below is treasured by families.

As you spend time with your family over the Thanksgiving weekend, and dinner is still fresh on everyones minds, organizing and selecting their favorites from grandmas old recipe cards will be an exciting project to accomplish.

How to Organize Your Recipe Cards The inspiration for this series and the Heirloom Cookbook featured in this post was a wooden recipe card box that sat in my grandmothers kitchen for as long as I can remember.

Make A Recipe Book Gift Full Of Everything

They were chock-full of everything from handwritten cards from my mother and Nanny, even my great-aunt, as well as magazine clippings and typewritten recipe cards.

Pulling out my familys favorites from these recipe boxes and cards was tough, but my approach will help you sort through your own collection.

The Three Pile Method for Organizing Most of the family recipe collections weve seen have been lovingly stored, but also well-used.

If youre lucky, theyre already somewhat sorted by course or category maybe in a binder or recipe box.

Others may just be in a jumble of disorganized cards stuffed into a box.

If theres no organization at all, start anywhere in the cards you want and begin making your yes, no, and maybe piles.

Just grab a batch of them and go.

Trust Your Gut When Sorting Recipe Cards This tip will help you sort quickly.

If you pay attention to how you feel, youll know the best recipes the moment you see them.

Any recipe that doesnt immediately trigger a memory, or obviously does not belong, put in the maybe pile youll sort that again at the end.

Once youve decided on all of the awesome family recipes youd like to include, then you can sort them into categories or courses like breakfast.

Things you might put in the Yes pile: Any recipes you have distinct positive memories of Known family favorites Traditional recipes enjoyed during your major holidays or family events For the No pile, here are some questions we recommend asking yourself when considering whether or not to keep something: Have you ever seen this recipe How likely are you to make it yourself Is it something everyone would enjoy eating, or is it a vintage jello mold Is the card itself in good shape, is it legible My favorite cards were the ones written in my grandmothers (Nanny) or moms handwriting.

Nannys was a very distinctive, vintage-like script cursive and my moms was much more rounded and modern.

Most of the handwritten cards went into the yes pile, but I am guilty of populating the maybe pile with a number of handwritten cards because they were hard to imagine not needing.

I immediately threw away anything clipped from a magazine after reading what it was.

Any recipe that had been in print, I could probably find on Pinterest, and I didnt see anything shed ever made for me.

Being too sentimental is what will make your Maybe pile unmanageable: Sort the maybe pile again after you have three complete piles.

A full sense of whats in your yes and no piles will make it easier to pare down the maybe recipes you dont need.

If youre still having trouble consolidating the maybe pile, sort your yes pile into food categories and see whats lacking.

How To Make A Recipe Book Gift