Family cookbooks

The recipes your family actually cooks, in one printed book

Send one link. Each person adds a recipe and the story behind it — who made it, when it showed up on the table — and every recipe comes back as a finished cookbook page. Then print a copy for every household.

Start a family cookbook See a sample cookbook
Free to set up · no payment until you print

“Who made this, and can I get the recipe?”

Every family has the recipes that show up at every gathering, and almost none of them are written down anywhere useful. They live on a stained index card in one kitchen, in a text thread from three Thanksgivings ago, or only in the head of the person who always makes it.

A family cookbook fixes that, and the hard part was never the printing — it was collecting. Somebody volunteers, emails everyone, and spends the next two months chasing replies and retyping what comes back. Moving the work to the contributor solves it. Each person opens a link, types their recipe (or just photographs the card), tells the story behind it, and sees exactly how their page will look before they hit submit. You never retype a thing.

Families use this for a reunion cookbook, a wedding-shower collection for a new kitchen, a church or ward cookbook, a way to gather a grandmother’s recipes while she can still tell you the stories, and a keepsake after someone is gone.

A pumpkin pie decorated with pastry leaves, held out on a plate
Every page is a recipe: the ingredients, the steps, the photo, and who it came from.
How it works

How a family cookbook comes together

The organizer sets it up. Everyone else adds their own recipe.

STEP 1

Create the cookbook

Name it, add a cover photo, set your categories (Breakfast, Mains, Desserts, or your own), and a deadline so recipes do not drift.

STEP 2

Send one link

Family group chat, email, the reunion page. There is no account to create, so far more people actually do it.

STEP 3

Recipes arrive as pages

Each person adds ingredients, steps, a photo and the story, picks where the photo sits, and previews the page. Review anything before it goes in.

STEP 4

Sort, print, share

Drag the categories into order, add section pages, and print — one hardcover or one for every household. Everyone gets the free PDF.

Built for recipes, not just photos

A recipe is not a paragraph. The page knows the difference.

A proper recipe page

Ingredients in a list with amounts, numbered steps, the story in italics, and “From the kitchen of” at the bottom. It reads like a cookbook because it is one.

Photograph the card

Grandma’s handwritten card, a clipping, a page from a church cookbook — snap it with a phone and the ingredients and steps fill in, ready to check.

Three photo layouts

Photo across the top, down the side, or in the corner like a recipe card. The contributor picks; the organizer can change it.

Long recipes just work

No word limit. A long recipe continues onto a second page, numbered on, and the two pages stay together no matter how the book is reordered.

The story is the point

“Mom made these every Christmas Eve” is what turns a recipe into a family cookbook. Every page has room for it.

A copy for everyone

A 10-inch square matte hardcover, up to 250 pages. Order one for every household, and split the cost with gifted pages.

Ask for the recipe behind the recipe

“Send me your recipes” gets a handful. A specific ask gets the whole family.

“The recipe everyone asks you for.”
“What was always on the table at the holidays.”
“The dish you learned from your mother or grandmother.”
“The one you make when you want to feel at home.”
“The recipe that came with a story.”
“The one nobody has ever managed to write down.”
Pricing

Free to collect, print when it’s ready

Set up the cookbook and gather recipes at no cost. Pay only when you print.

$0

To start and collect

Create the cookbook, send the link, and collect as many recipes as the family has. Free PDF whenever you want one.

$34.95

Printed hardcover, 20 pages

A 10-inch square matte hardcover with matte interior pages, plus shipping. Extra pages are $1.25 each.

$1.25

Per gifted page

Relatives can chip in toward printing — each $1.25 covers one page of the finished cookbook.

Questions

Family cookbook questions

Do people need to type out their recipes?

They can type them, or photograph a recipe card — handwritten or printed — and the ingredients and steps fill in for them to check. Either way they see a preview of the finished page before they submit.

What if a recipe is really long?

There is no length limit. A long recipe continues onto a second page, numbered on from where the first page stopped, and the two pages always stay together in the book.

Does every recipe need a photo?

No. A recipe with a photo prints with the dish across the top, down the side, or in the corner — the contributor picks. A recipe without one fills the page with the recipe itself, like a classic cookbook.

How is the book organized?

Contributors choose a category when they add a recipe — Breakfast, Mains, Desserts and so on — and the organizer can change any of them and drag the categories into order. Recipes can also be sorted by name or by contributor.

Can everyone get their own copy?

Yes. Once the book is finished, any number of copies can be ordered, and everyone can download the free PDF.

What does it cost?

Nothing to set up and collect recipes. A 20-page printed hardcover is $34.95, then $1.25 per additional page, plus shipping.

Related pages

Other books families make together.

A lattice-top apple pie dusted with powdered sugar beside a scoop of flour
Half Granny Smith, half Honeycrisp — and the story of the tree in the backyard, on the same page.

Write it all down, together

Send one link, let everyone add the recipe they are known for, and print the cookbook the family made.

Start a family cookbook