Annotating Cookbooks
Recommended by JV
I know the best cookbooks are well written, and researched and tested, but I love leaving a few notes of my own in the margins. The best way I can think of to share ideas with future chefs in my house.
3 months ago
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@hausofkolor
So sweeeeeeet!
@spacecamp
oh my god no one has ever given me permission to do this, thank you
@jillianvogel
It felt like sacrilege when I first started in my twenties, but I swear I can’t imagine leaving a cookbook unmarked now. Please, try & be free!
@andrewsea
So useful! I do this with as many recipes as possible, even a note like “worked great as is, no changes” is helpful to future me. I learned a painful lesson once loaning out an annotated cookbook to a friend whose kid kinda ruined it and I felt like I’d lost two cookbooks.
@jillianvogel
Two cookbooks! Andrew this is so relatable, I genuinely feel more protective of my cookbooks now that they have notes/reminders/personal touches in them. It’s so real to want to talk to our future selves with these figurative and literal breadcrumbs.
@samanthafields
And after we are gone, whoever cooks after us will have our voices there on the page, a little hello and a little help and a lot of love.
@jillianvogel
Bittersweet but I think about it, I really do…
@cclala
I have my grandmother’s copy of a Junior League cookbook from the 50s with her handwritten notes! It is a treasure!
@jillianvogel
Incredible…Anything you’d be willing to share that she noted???
@annmarie77
I do this for my future self, too! I also have a vintage box of handwritten recipe cards of family recipes that my mother sent with me when I left home and she had written notes that I have added to, and now my daughters are doing the same. It is a treasure box! Also, thank you for the reminder to actually use my cookbooks (rather than always relying on online recipes).
@jillianvogel
That is such an heirloom!! I love the idea of handwriting as a gift in any form, especially to read how someone explains a recipe…My grandma used to say “and then enough flour to make it nice and good.” Lol, I knew what she meant, but I still don’t know exactly how much flour to use.
@annmarie77
I love the idiosyncrasies! Some of my grandmother’s notes are half in Swedish and half English (aka swedlish)…so…
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