A family cookbook keeps the recipes people actually ask for: Grandma's apple cake, your dad's chili, the cookies everyone makes in December. Gathering them is the slow part. Turning them into a book shouldn't be. This guide walks through what goes in a family cookbook and how to collect the recipes, then how to make the book on your iPhone with Recipe Cat, our recipe box for iPhone, and print it or send it to the family.
What goes in a family cookbook
A good family cookbook is less about polish and more about keeping things you'd otherwise lose:
- The recipes people ask for. Start with the dishes that come up at every gathering, then add the rest.
- Who each one is from. In twenty years, "from Aunt Rosa" is half the point.
- The amounts as the cook wrote them. "A big handful" is part of the recipe.
- The notes and the stories. The swap that always works, the oven that ran hot, the year it went wrong.
- A photo of the dish, if you have one.
- Chapters, like Mains, Baking and Holidays, so people can find things.
- A cover and contents, so it reads like a book and not a pile of pages.
Collect the recipes first
Ask each relative for two or three recipes they'd want kept, with the story behind them. Recipes arrive as texts, emails, photos of old cards and things said over the phone. Put each one in Recipe Cat as it comes in, so nothing gets lost on the way.
In Recipe Cat, tap Add recipe (the + at the top), then Type a recipe. Fill in:
- Recipe name, like "Grandma's apple cake".
- From, like Grandma, a friend or a cookbook. It prints under the title.
- Serves and Time, written however you like.
- Chapter, like Desserts. Once you've used a chapter, it's offered as a button the next time, so the book's chapters stay tidy. "desserts" and "Desserts" count as the same chapter.
- Ingredients and Method, one per line, and any Notes.
- Add a photo of the dish from your photos.
Tap Add to save it. Our guide on how to save recipes on iPhone has more on adding, finding and cooking from recipes.
Two Recipe Cat Pro extras help with the collecting. Scan a handwritten card reads a photo of an old card with text recognition on your phone, and keeps the photo of the card with the recipe. Paste a whole recipe takes a recipe someone sent you as text and splits it into its name, ingredients and method. You check the words before you tap Add, either way.
Make the cookbook
With Recipe Cat Pro, on the recipe box, tap Family cookbook (the book button at the top left). Then:
- Name the book. It starts as "Our family cookbook". Type your own, like "The Okafor family kitchen".
- Add a line under the name if you'd like one, like "Recipes from Lagos and Leeds". It's optional.
- Pick the paper: Letter or A4.
- Scroll through the preview. You see the cover and every page before you print. A line above the preview tells you how big the book is, like "24 recipes on 41 pages, by chapter".
- Tap Print to print it, or Share to send the PDF. The PDF has the book's name.
Recipe Cat remembers the name, the line under it and the paper for next time.
What's in the book
The cover has the book's name and your line under it, how many recipes it holds and the year, and your chapter names, as many as fit, written on lines like a recipe card. A small "Made with Recipe Cat" line sits at the foot.
The contents come next: each chapter, then its recipes with the page each one starts on. Chapters are A to Z, and so are the recipes in each one. Recipes without a chapter go at the end, under "More recipes". If nothing has a chapter, the contents are one A to Z list.
Each recipe starts on a new page, laid out just as it prints on its own on the same paper: the title, who it's from, serves and time, the dish photo, the ingredients, the numbered method and the notes. Text is never shrunk to fit. A long recipe goes on over more pages, each with the title and "continued", and the page before says where it goes on, like "Continued on page 13 →". After the cover, every page has the book's name at the foot, with its page number, or where the recipe goes on.
Everything prints as you wrote it. Nothing is converted or scaled.
Adding recipes later
The cookbook is made from your recipe box, so add the late arrivals and fix any typos in the recipes themselves, then tap Family cookbook again for the new version. The book always holds every recipe in the box.
Without Pro: print recipe by recipe
Printing single recipes is free. Open a recipe, tap Print or share and pick 4×6 card, Letter or A4. You see every card or page first, and the dish photo prints on Letter and A4. Tap Print, or Share to send the PDF. Print each one on Letter or A4 and they'll fit in a binder. You won't get a cover or contents this way, but it's a cookbook.
If you'd rather keep the original handwritten cards together as a PDF too, see how to scan documents on iPhone.
What it costs
As many recipes as you like, a photo of each dish, chapters, search, and printing or sharing any recipe on a 4×6 card, Letter or A4 are all free. There's no account and no ads. Recipe Cat Pro is an optional one-time purchase. On the recipe side it adds Family cookbook, Scan a handwritten card and Paste a whole recipe. More on the Recipe Cat page.
Your recipes and photos are kept on your iPhone, in Recipe Cat. They leave only when you print or share them yourself.
Quick answers
How do I make a family cookbook on my phone?
Save each recipe in Recipe Cat with its chapter, then, with Recipe Cat Pro, tap Family cookbook, name it, pick Letter or A4, and tap Print or Share.
Can I send the cookbook to the family?
Yes. Tap Share to send the PDF.
Can I make a cookbook from just some of the recipes?
No. The cookbook holds every recipe in your box.
Can the cookbook print on 4×6 cards?
No. The cookbook is Letter or A4. Single recipes can print on a 4×6 card.
Do I need an account?
No. There's no account and no sign-in.
Try Recipe Cat
Try Recipe Cat: free, no ads, no sign-up → iyio.com/apps/recipe-cat