YouAsk Kim
Hands slicing tomatoes on a worn wooden board beside lemons, herbs and a bowl of white beans

Kitchen · 30 min

Write down one family recipe

The dish someone always made, never written down. Ask them, cook it with them if you can, and keep it on paper.

30 minutesFrom the library, free to readFour steps
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Every family has a dish that tastes of a person or a place: a soup, a cake, a holiday dish, something made by feel and never measured. Often nobody writes it down until it is too late to ask. Writing one down is a way of keeping it.

The steps

Four small steps,in your own time.

  1. Choose one dish that means something in your family, and the person who knows how to make it best.

  2. Ask them to tell you how they make it. Write it down in their words, including the handfuls and the 'until it looks right'.

  3. If you can, cook it with them, or cook it yourself and tell them how it turned out. Add notes about what you learned.

  4. Write a line at the top about who made it and when it was eaten. Keep a copy, and share one with someone else in the family.

The reason

Why it helps

Food carries memory and identity in a way few other things do. Talking through a recipe gives people, especially older relatives, a chance to share something they know well and are proud of. The finished page becomes something the whole family can keep and cook from.

A gentle variation

If the person who made it is no longer here, write down what you remember, and ask others what they remember too. If they find it hard to recall steps, cook it together and let their hands lead.

Neighbours setting a long table in a green garden

WE · TRIBE

Try itwith someone.

This works best with the person who made it. If you care for an older relative, a recipe conversation can be an easy, happy thing to share, even on harder days. Children can draw the dish and help write the steps.

Make it a plan in HIVELIVE, with WE

Try it today

This week, ask someone in your family how they make one dish that matters to you, and write it down in their words.

Add it to your day

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