Heritage Cookbook x Hively

Below, we’re very pleased to re-share an article from Hively, a trusted retirement navigator that empowers the 12,000 Americans retiring daily to make the most of their next chapter. The interview features Pam, a longtime Heritage Cookbook creator and Hively member who shared her cookbook-making journey with her retirement group!

Recipes to Memories, Writing a Family Cookbook with Pam

Meet Pam. A life-long Californian, Pam enjoys all things food related, traveling, reading, college football, and going to the theatre & jazz concerts. At the end of February, 2024, Pam retired from a 40+ year career in banking that she stumbled upon completely by accident.

For passionate home cook Pam, compiling a family cookbook was more than just assembling recipes – it was about preserving precious memories, traditions, and a legacy for future generations. Inspired by her son’s request to recreate his favorite childhood dishes, Pam’s project evolved into a rich anthology of family history and culinary delight.

Pam sees cooking as a magical act of bringing loved ones together. “You take bits and bobs of things, throw them into a pot, and voilà, you have something delicious that will warm your soul,” she shares. Her family cookbook beautifully blends recipes with cherished stories and photos, connecting the past, present, and future. One heartwarming tradition involves Pam’s granddaughter choosing a recipe from the book, like the family’s beloved key lime pie, to cook together.

In organizing her cookbook, Pam prioritized it being user-friendly for her family. She categorized recipes by type and included a clear index to help everyone easily find their favorites. Pam also made sure to capture the unique origins and traditions behind each dish, noting who inspired the recipe and any adaptations made over the years.

In creating her family cookbook, Pam chose Heritage Cookbook, a platform that offers customizable templates for crafting personalized cookbooks to create her family cookbook.Pam explored several options, but Heritage Cookbook stood out for its user-friendly templates that could handle both recipes and photos, while also allowing for plenty of customization. “I tried a few different platforms,” Pam shared, “but Heritage Cookbook was the one that gave me the creative freedom I needed.” Heritage Cookbook offered templates that accommodated her rich storytelling, making it easy to include family memories and anecdotes alongside the recipes.

The Hively team and community had the chance to ask Pam questions about her cookbook journey:

Q: How did you decide what order to put the recipes in?

I arranged them in standard cookbook categories – appetizers, main courses, desserts, and so on. I also included an index to make it easy to navigate, especially since some recipes connect to different branches of the family.

Q: What’s the oldest recipe in the cookbook?

One recipe dates back to my childhood— our family didn’t do traditional bread stuffing for Thanksgiving, but instead a rice dressing- Not sure where the recipe originated, but it is a family favorite that contains dried shiitake mushrooms and Chinese sausage (lop cheung). My niece eats it with turkey gravy to the exclusion of the rest of the meal. My cousins actually recently discovered the recipe in the cookbook and immediately made it!

There’s also a Swedish heirloom cookie recipe that my aunt only made at Christmas. That was the first recipe I ever collected, and it felt essential to include.

Q: Did you have family members taste-test the recipes?

Yes! I asked family members to review recipes and provide feedback. Some remembered adding a specific ingredient or adjusting the seasoning, which I noted. While I kept a consistent format, I left room for little variations, so my cousins helped make sure each recipe felt just right. For recipes like the key lime pie, I’d mention that the original version had a meringue topping, while my version includes coconut.

Q: What’s one of the biggest challenges you faced compiling recipes and stories?

Definitely prioritizing what to include. With a large family, I had to narrow down the list to recipes my son grew up with and truly loved. I also found the typing and proofreading tedious but essential to avoid errors.

Q: Did you include personal stories or memories along with the recipes?

Yes, each recipe often has a little note about who originally made it, how it’s been adapted, and even some funny family anecdotes. For example, for key lime pie, I note that it yields “eight servings – unless my son’s eating it, in which case it’s four.”

Q: How did you decide on the dedication for each book?

My first cookbook is dedicated to my son and granddaughter, as they’re the ones who inspired it. I also included a section of thanks to all the family members who contributed recipes or taste-tested for me. The second book, which is more about my personal journey with food, is dedicated to my husband. I even included a memoriam page to honor friends and family who have passed, and I added my dogs, who “taste-tested” everything too!

Q: How do you feel about the idea of leaving this cookbook as a legacy?

That’s really why I did it. Food is central to who I am, and I wanted my family to have something that connects them to me and to our traditions. It’s also a way to keep our food heritage alive and celebrate the stories and memories that go with each dish. Knowing that this book will be in my family for generations is so fulfilling.

Family laughing while making pasta together

The Ultimate Guide to Making a Family Cookbook

Have you always wanted to put together a family cookbook, but feel unsure where to begin? You’re not alone! And we have good news: It’s not only possible, but incredibly rewarding to create a legacy family book. Here is the ultimate guide to researching, writing, and publishing a family cookbook you’ll be proud to pass on to future generations.

In this guide, we’ll look at:

I. Questions to consider when getting started
II. Researching your family story
III. Gathering and preserving family recipes
IV. Preparing photos for your book
V. Assembling your content
VI. Design and binding options

I. QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER WHEN GETTING STARTED

After you’ve decided to assemble a family cookbook, there are a few useful things to ask yourself:

1. What kind of a book do I want to make?
Determining the scope of your project will help you plan out its creation, so think about the vision you have for your cookbook. Do you want to reach out to family members and ask them for their current favorite recipes? Do you want to document your family’s history through older recipes, stories, and photographs? Or do you want a cookbook that lies somewhere in between?

In the beginning, you can also think about how you’d like to organize your book. You may want it to include all types of recipes (organized into chapters like ‘Appetizers,’ ‘Mains,’ ‘Desserts,’ etc) or perhaps you’re interested in focusing on one particular theme; ‘holiday baking,’ ‘favorite family comfort food,’ or ‘recipes for entertaining’ are three good examples.

2. What is my budget?
A 100-page softcover book with no color photos will cost significantly less than a 200-page hardcover book with color photos on every page. Therefore, the amount of money you’d like to spend on printing should influence the choices you make throughout the project, including the number of color photos you include, the total page count, and the type of binding you select.

3. When do I want to have my book ready to print?
You may have years to work on this project, or just a few weeks! As with your budget, a publishing deadline can help you decide the size and scope of your book.

II. RESEARCHING YOUR FAMILY STORY

If you’re planning a cookbook that captures both your family’s favorite foods and its heritage, it’s time to get researching! Most of the time, the best place to start is with family members, so reach out to the people in your life who have stories and histories to share. If/when you’re ready to dive deeper, here are some other great resources:

Ancestry.com
-The National Archive’s resources for those starting out with genealogical research
Family Tree Magazine
Familysearch.org

If you’re looking to do some research into the dishes themselves, check out foodtimeline.org, a wildly comprehensive site dedicated to documenting food history from just about every century, continent, and corner of the internet.

III. GATHERING AND PRESERVING FAMILY RECIPES

Once you’ve established some basic wants/needs for your cookbook, it’s only natural to begin with the recipes! In this section, we’ll discuss how to preserve old family recipes, how to ask for/organize recipes from family and friends, and how to edit/proofread recipes before putting them into your book.

How to preserve old family recipes

Many of you have inherited heirlooms and documents from your parents and/or grandparents, which may (or may not!) be tucked away somewhere in the attic; these often include a box of grandma’s handwritten recipe cards, dusty old paperback cookbooks, and binders stuffed haphazardly with magazine cutouts. These are culinary goldmines you don’t want to lose. To preserve them, you can:

-Scan or photograph your recipe cards/pages. Phone cameras are so good these days that no fancy camera is necessary. If possible, photograph the recipe cards in filtered natural light — next to a window on a cloudy day, for example — as this will greatly improve the quality of the photo. Once you’ve uploaded the photos to your computer, be sure to rename each photo with the name of the recipe + the type of dish (for example: BAKING – Mom’s Molasses Cookies.jpg, MAINS – Thanksgiving Stuffing.jpg, etc). This will make them a lot easier to organize later on. If you’d prefer not to have to transcribe each of these recipes, there’s an option within Heritage Cookbook for uploading recipe cards/pages, complete with titles at the top and specific space for recipe attribution.

-Type out your recipes in a Word document or Google doc, then later copy and paste them into the Heritage Cookbook program. Again, be sure to name the files in a way that will make them easy to find later on; you might also consider creating separate folders for each cookbook chapter (’Breakfast,’ ‘Appetizers,’ ‘Mains,’ etc).

Collaborating on a book

Understandably, cookbooks are often family affairs. If you’re the main organizer of a book with many contributors, it’s a good idea to plan ahead for how contributors should submit their recipes. Here are some tried and true strategies:

-Use our Contributors feature! Main account holders can invite people to contribute recipes directly to the book without allowing them access to the book as a whole. (In other words, Great Uncle Henry can’t accidentally delete all of your work.) Here’s our Help Guide article on inviting contributors, which includes a message you can send to contributors ahead of time; the more info they have about the process as a whole, the fewer questions you’ll have to field.

-Don’t forget to include a deadline! Giving people a shorter deadline is usually most effective, as it keeps the task front of mind for them.

-If you’re working as a team to put together a book and edit it, it’s a good idea to establish a formatting sheet so everyone types out their recipes the same way. For example, how are you abbreviating common measurements? Is it tablespoon, tbsp, or T? And will the recipe instructions be listed as bullet points, numbered steps, or short paragraphs?

-Google forms are an easy way for people to submit their recipe info and allow organizers more control over the format in which people submit. Here’s a template we’ve put together for requesting recipes — feel free to copy it verbatim. You may also want to consider creating a dedicated email address (ie, johnsonfamilycookbook@gmail.com) for the task.

IV. PREPARING PHOTOS FOR YOUR BOOK

Whether they’re of food, family, friends, or other cherished memories, a key highlight of many cookbooks are the photos. This section will cover basic food photography tips, how to preserve older photos, image formatting, and how you can add recipe cards to your book.

Taking food photos

If you’re planning to take some of your own food photos, here are a few things to consider:

-Lighting: Unless you have a professional setup with a flash, the quickest way to capture beautiful food photos is with filtered natural light. ‘Filtered’ means that direct sunlight has been diffused before it reaches the camera’s subject, either naturally (by clouds) or artificially (by drawing gauzy curtains across a window, for example). As with your recipe cards, moving a dish to a windowsill (or table close to a window) is often all you need to capture a nicely-lit image.

-Orientation: Do you want full-page photos opposite your recipe pages? If so, photograph your food in the ‘portrait’-style orientation, meaning the right and left sides of the photo are longer than the top and bottom. Alternatively, if you’d like smaller photos that can fit on the page with the recipe itself, shoot ‘landscape’-style, meaning the top and bottom of your photo will be the two longest sides of the rectangle. To vary things up, shoot some photos overhead (an aerial view of the dish), and others from the side.

As with organizing your recipes, it’s useful to keep photos in folders on your computer. For food photos, name the files both by recipe and chapter so you can find them easily (ie, Mains–Mom’s Jambalaya.jpg). Also name all non-food photos as specifically as possible (ie, Family–Emily at Maine Cabin.jpg).

Not keen on shooting your own food photos? Good news! Heritage Cookbook’s photo library — which is free for all users — contains hundreds of professionally-photographed images of popular recipes.

Digitizing your photos

If you’re fortunate enough to have a treasure trove of old family photos, you may first need to digitize them before they can be uploaded to your book. You can digitize printed photos with your smartphone, scan them on a printer/scanner at home, or have them professionally digitized.

How to ensure your photos are the correct format and size

Once your photos are organized, you’ll want to ensure each file is suitable for uploading. In order for your photos to print properly in your finished book, they need to be:

-In either a .png or .jpg format
-A minimum of 300 DPI (dots per inch)
-Ideally between 2.2MB (megabytes) and 7.2MB in size

How to add recipe cards to your book

If you have photos of handwritten recipe cards or recipe pages you’d like to include in your book, we have dedicated pages for that.

V. ASSEMBLING YOUR CONTENT

Additional writing

Once you’ve gathered all of your info, it’s time to start putting the actual book together. In addition to adding recipes and photos, you may also want to write:

-An introduction and/or dedication

-Headnotes, which are short introductions to each recipe that provide background on the dish. If you’ve asked contributors to include a note about the recipes they’ve provided, a headnote is the perfect place to include it.

-Family stories, history, anecdotes, and/or advice to include throughout the book

-Useful information about ingredients or cooking methods (For example, “Where to find harissa,” “How to toast hazelnuts,” “How to clean cast iron,” etc.).

VI. DESIGN AND BINDING OPTIONS

Once the contents of your book are sorted, it’s time to decide what it’s going to look like! Heritage Cookbook offers six different binding options as well as dozens of professionally-designed templates (with fully- and semi-customizable options available).

When it comes to choosing a style of binding, you’ll want to consider:

-Order volume: We have built-in discounts based on volume, so as the number of books you order goes up, the price per book goes down. Use the handy calculator on our website to get quotes for your book ordered at various volumes and with different bindings; this will give you an understanding of how far your budget goes.

-Functionality: Is it important to you that your finished cookbook lies flat when open? If so, you’ll want to choose a book with either a plastic or coil binding (which are available in both softcover and hardcover options).

Our six binding options are:

Coil bound softcover: These books measure 6”x9” and are printed on coated 100lb silk surface paper. They have a white plastic coil binding and lie flat on a counter when open. The covers are glossy.

Wiro bound softcover: These books measure 6”x9” and are printed on coated 100lb silk surface paper. They have a silver metal coil binding and lie flat on a counter when open. The covers are glossy.

Softcover with spine: These books measure 7”x10” and are printed on coated 100lb silk surface paper. They have soft glossy front and back covers and a spine. *Matte covers are also available upon request.

Hardcover with spine: These books measure 7”x10” and are printed on coated 100lb silk surface paper. They have hard glossy front and back covers and a spine. *Matte covers are also available upon request.

Hardcover wiro books: These books measure 7”x10” and are printed on coated 100lb silk surface paper. They have hard glossy front and back covers and a silver metal coil binding. When open, they lie flat on a counter.

Fundraiser books: These books measure 5 ½”x 8 1/2” and are printed on coated 70lb silk surface paper. They have a white plastic coil binding and lie flat on a counter. Fundraiser-style books are available in quantities of 100 or more.

See more about our book sizes and binding options here.

Happy kids jumping off a sidewalk in the sun

The Ultimate Guide to Fundraising with Cookbooks

Selling cookbooks is a great way to raise funds for an important cause, charity, or community organization. But they don’t just serve as a way to make money—the process of collaborating on a cookbook is fun, meaningful, and educational for everyone involved.

Not just any old cookbook will sell, however! Your aim is to create a book that looks wonderful on the outside and contains plenty of recipes and stories that appeal to buyers. As cookbook fundraising experts, our goal is to help you achieve your financial goals as seamlessly as possible, and that’s why we’ve put together these eight steps towards cookbook fundraising success:

I. What’s your goal and what’s your budget?
II. Create a timeline
III. Establish a clear vision
IV. Collect the content
V. Proofread, proofread, proofread
VI. Design/customize your book
VII. Printing options
VIII. Selling

I. WHAT IS YOUR GOAL AND WHAT IS YOUR BUDGET?

Before starting on the actual cookbook, you’ll first want to establish your goals for the fundraiser and determine the budget you have available to make them happen.

Confirming these numbers will:

1. Help you decide how big your cookbook should be.
We recommend books that are a minimum of 100 pages (since anything smaller than 100 pages appears insubstantial). In addition to the number of pages, you’ll want to consider how many color pages vs black and white pages you’re planning to include in the book, keeping in mind that color pages cost significantly more to print. Being cognisant of these factors means you’ll avoid creating a book that’s not prohibitively large and/or expensive to print.

2. Help you decide how many books you need to sell in order to reach your goal (and at which price they should be sold).
We’ve put together this handy calculator to help you determine the cost of your cookbook based on page numbers; color pages vs black and white pages; type of binding; and number of books ordered. It’s important to remember that the price per book goes down as the order volume goes up, so if you feel confident you’ll sell at least x number of books, it’s best to order them all at once.

3. Help you decide whether you want to buy all of the books upfront and sell the physical copies, or sell by pre-sale and distribute the books once they’ve arrived. Here’s an explanation of both:

Purchase first, sell books second:

The first, and more traditional, method of fundraising through cookbooks is to invest enough money upfront to purchase the books at cost, then sell them directly to customers. If you’re confident as to the number of books you’ll sell and like the idea of having physical copies of the books to show to prospective buyers, this is a good option for you.

Presales:

If you’re planning to sell through pre-sales, we can provide your group with personalized cards for collecting orders; each will have your book cover on the front and relevant ordering info on the back (including QR codes, Venmo info, etc). The major benefits to the presale model are:

-You’ll know exactly how many books you’d like to order
-You can start selling your book even before it’s finished
-Your upfront investment is typically no more than $70-$100.

II. CREATE A TIMELINE

Next, you’ll want to establish a project timeline for creating, ordering, and selling your cookbooks. It’s best to leave at least three weeks between placing your order and receiving your books, so we recommend first deciding what your ‘books-in-hand’ date is, then working backwards from there.

If you’re aiming to sell cookbooks in June, for example, you’d ideally begin your project in December/January and place your order at the beginning of May. If there are multiple people contributing to the book, remember that at least a few of them will be tardy with their submissions, so buffer your timeline a bit to account for this.

III. ESTABLISH A CLEAR VISION FOR YOUR BOOK

A cookbook with an authentic vision and story behind it will be much easier to promote than a collection of recipes with no particular theme. Consider these questions when planning your book:

1. Who are you selling these cookbooks to?
Who will be your main customer base? Are you planning to sell to the community at large, or is this a book aimed at a more specific group to whom you’ll want to cater the recipes? Think about your audience when deciding the overall theme of your book; examples could include nostalgic family favorites, kid-friendly recipes, and easy weeknight meals.

2. When are you selling?
Another major consideration is the time of year you’ll be selling your cookbooks. While evergreen themes (kid-friendly favorites, for example) work year round, others are much more seasonal. ‘101 Comforting Soups’ may seem like a great idea while you’re planning it in January, but will it be appealing to people when you’re selling them in June?

3. What is the story behind this cookbook? Why are you selling it?
These questions might seem really obvious. “We’re selling these cookbooks in order to raise money for our cause!” Sharing the story behind your cause, however, is just as important as the recipes you’re offering. Provide a history of your group/organization, and share why the cause you’re fundraising for is important. Are you raising money to build a new roof on your community center? If so, why is the community center such an important place? Are you helping supplement the cost of a school trip? If so, what will this trip mean to the students attending? Articulate your cookbook’s story/purpose ahead of time, and be sure to include it at the beginning of the book; attaching real, human experiences to the recipes will help potential customers identify with your cause.

IV. COLLECT THE CONTENT

If you’re the main organizer of a book with multiple contributors, it’s a good idea to plan ahead for how contributors will submit their recipes. Here are some tried and true strategies:

1. Use our Contributors feature!
Main account holders can invite people to contribute recipes directly to the book without allowing them access to the book as a whole. (In other words, they can’t accidentally delete all of your work). Here’s our Help Guide article on inviting contributors, which includes a message you can send to contributors ahead of time regarding the invitation; the more info they have about the process, the fewer questions you’ll have to field.

2. Use Google forms.
Google forms are not only an easy way for people to submit their recipe info, they also give organizers more control over the format in which people submit. Here’s a template we’ve put together — feel free to copy it verbatim.

You may also want to consider creating a dedicated email address (ie, jhbschoolfundraiser@gmail.com) for the task.

Other tips for collecting content:

-Be specific about what kinds of recipes you need from people. If you’re trying to put together a book that includes appetizers, soups/salads, main courses, desserts, and baking but 90% of the recipes submitted are for cookies, the imbalance will be obvious.

-Don’t forget to include a deadline! Giving people shorter deadlines (one week, as opposed to one month, for example) is usually most effective, as it keeps the task front of mind for the people you’ve reached out to.

-If you’re working as a team to put together your cookbook and edit it, it’s a good idea to establish a formatting sheet so everyone works the same way. For example: How are you abbreviating common measurements? Is it ‘tablespoon,’ ‘Tbsp,’ or ‘T’? Do you want baking measurements to be submitted as grams, or as cups/spoons? Do you want the method of each recipe to be broken into numbered steps, or written out in short paragraphs?

-Are you asking contributors for photographs? If so, include an easy place for them to upload their photos (Dropbox, for example) and information on ideal photo specifications. For starters, specify if you’d like them to submit half-page ‘landscape’-oriented photos, or full page ‘portrait’-oriented photos. Please ask for images to be submitted in these formats:
-Either .jpg or .png
-High resolution for printing (meaning a minimum Dots Per Inch/DPI of 300)
-A minimum size of 2.2MB (megabytes)
-Named with the submitter’s name and recipe title (ie, Smith-Chocolate Chip Cookies.jpg)

-If you’re working with local businesses who are buying ads in your cookbook, please provide them with these ad specs:
-For a full-page ad, their image should be: 8.5” x 14”, minimum 300 DPI
-For a half-page ad, their image should be: 14” x 10”, minimum 300 DPI

V. PROOFREAD, PROOFREAD, PROOFREAD

Whether there are 200 people working on your cookbook or two, proofreading and editing are tedious but crucial parts of the process. During the proofing process, you’ll want to ensure:

-There are no typos
-Each recipe is complete and formatted in the same way
-All recipes are properly attributed

If possible, more than one person should be tasked with proofreading the cookbook multiple times each.

*TIP: When proofreading, read the book aloud as you edit, articulating each word individually. While it’s easy for eyes to skip over mistakes while reading, hearing them said out loud is much harder to ignore!

VI. DESIGN

Here’s the thing: People do judge books by their cover! So now’s the time to make your cookbook look as professional as possible. With fundraising status, you’ve got more than 100 designer templates to choose from. This includes the ‘pick your own design’ template, which allows you to create your own front cover, back cover, and all section title pages for a fully-branded book.

At this time, you’ll also want to make final decisions on design choices like font, page layout styles, divider lines, and more.

VII. PRINTING AND BINDING

Once you’re ready to place your order, there are four major considerations:

1. The type of binding you want
We have six different bindings to choose from, though most groups opt for our special fundraising binding: These 5.5”x8.5” books with white plastic coil are both smaller than our other books and have paper that’s slightly less thick, keeping both printing and shipping costs down. Some groups opt for the 6”x9” white plastic coil binding (our most popular overall), which is still incredibly cost effective when ordered in large numbers.

2. Color vs. black and white pages
Because color pages cost more to print than b&w pages, be mindful of how many color pages you include in your book. If you’re working within a very limited budget, consider printing the interior of your book entirely in black and white.

3. How many books you’ll order
If you’re planning to order the fundraising binding, you’ll need to purchase a minimum of 100 books. (Please note: There are no minimums for the five other binding styles.) As mentioned above, the price per book goes down as the order volume goes up, so it’s advisable to order/ship as many books at once as possible.

4. Where you’ll store them
Another factor to consider is where your books will go once they’ve arrived and before they’re distributed. Hundreds of books can take up a lot of room, so plan for the shipment to be sent to a location that’s safe, dry, and spacious enough to accommodate them.

VIII. SELLING

We’ve arrived at the most important part of your fundraiser: The actual book sales! If you have a website, you may want to set up an online store in order to reach potential customers outside of your geographic region. You can also reach out to your friends / families / partner organizations; advertise on social media and through email newsletters; and/or connect with local media outlets who might feature your fundraiser.

Additional Resources:

For information on how to use the Heritage Cookbook program, please visit our:
Youtube channel
FAQ
Help Guide

For help editing recipes, we highly recommend this article by Dianne Jacobs of Will Write for Food.

Finally, for tips on images for your book, head on over to the Serious Eats Guide to Food Photography.

6 tips for hosting a cookie exchange

1. Keep the guest list small

I recently hosted a cookie exchange and after the year and a half of lockdowns, was really craving some company. So I invited all the neighborhood moms I knew. And they all said yes. We had 16 women attend, which mean if we all wanted to exchange 4 cookies, we had to make 64 cookies each! And I needed room to plate 1024 cookies in my tiny house!

2. Stick to cookies you know how to make

This is not a competition, and certainly no time to try to replicate the beautiful professionally decorated cookies you see in magazines. (I used to work on photo shoots for magazines, I know what’s involved with making those stunners!). If you have a lot of cookies to make, and like me, you’re short on time, you won’t have time to scrap an entire batch of cookies if they don’t work the first time. Trust me from experience here. A delicious no fail recipe is all you need.

3.You don’t need to serve a whole lot of other food

Something about the site of dozens (in my case over a 1000!) cookies just cuts everyone’s appetite. Keep the nibbles simple- some delicious crackers, nuts if guests don’t have allergies, maybe a cheese and charcuterie platter is all you need.

4.Give your guests something to bring their cookies home in

This is a fun opportunity to dress up a plain box with some tissue paper, maybe some scrapbooking stickers. Give everyone their box so that they can bring all those delicious cookies home to their families, or freeze them until they need them over the holidays!

5.Label the cookies

With so many food intolerances these days, it’s a good idea to provide a label, or little easel (you can buy cheap ones at Michaels) with the name of the cookies, maybe the name of the person that made it, and any allergens. In my case, my husband and son are allergic to nuts, so I kept the nuts cookies in a different room and asked everyone to help themselves to the non nut cookies first to avoid contamination.

6.Consider making a cookbook of cookie recipes

Take photos of the cookies and guests throughout the evening, then ask your guests if they are comfortable sharing their recipe. You can then make a holiday cookie recipe cookbook to give to your friends as a surprise holiday gift after the event! A little cookbook with color photos will cost less than $10 to make, and commemorate a very special evening!

Can you trademark a cookbook recipe

Trademarks, Copyrights, Patents: Can You Protect a Cookbook Recipe?

Let’s say you’ve created a scrumptious recipe that is uniquely yours. You haven’t seen it on the Food Network and it’s not something you read on a restaurant menu – it’s your own invention. You might feel the need to protect it. Securing legal protection for a recipe isn’t an easy-as-1-2-3 process- there are some formalities to consider. With that said, we’ll take a look at the different forms of legal protection and whether a recipe qualifies for them or not.

As a quick side note, we want to remind you that we are not legal experts ourselves and the information we’re sharing is based on the research of intellectual property laws.

4 Levels of Legal Protection for Cookbook Publishers to Know

A cold hard truth in the culinary world is that no one truly owns a recipe. At some point, if a recipe becomes famous, other cooks and chefs will emulate it or at least draw inspiration from it. That’s how beginner chefs learn their craft and how more experienced ones expand their culinary repertoire.

With that said, there are certain instances where a chef or cook should protect their creation when they have the legal right to do so. Whatever the occasion, the recipe’s legal status will have to somehow qualify for one of four types of intellectual property termscopyright, patent, trademark and trade secrets.

Copyright

The purpose of copyright law is to protect the creators and authors of original works, whether that work is a musical composition, literary work or some other form of creation.

Recipes themselves are not protected by copyright. Yes, they might contain your own unique blend of ingredients or feature an innovative cooking method, but you don’t own the names of food ingredients or cooking techniques. For example, ingredients such as “1 tbsp of butter” or “bake at 375 degrees Fahrenheit” are facts and instructions. They’re considered utilitarian information that is freely available to the public, and you can’t own them.

But there is some good news. After you publish a cookbook, copyright law can protect you if your food preparations incorporate highly creative concepts. In other words, if you are naming them, artfully designing them or creating them in collaboration with another brand or an event, you might be able to obtain a copyright for your work.

One example of this is Caitilin Freeman’s Mondrian cake and her cookbook, Modern Art Desserts. The cakes were created for the Blue Bottle Coffee at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and featured intricate design patterns reminiscent of artistic masterpieces. She was most certainly able to obtain a copyright for her cookbook.

Patent

The purpose of a patent is to protect an invention that solves technical problems. In the culinary world, a patent may provide more value than copyright if you’ve created a new tool, method or formula as that would fall under the category of “invention”.

However, there are some ground rules that chefs need to know before seeking a patent. The invention must be the first of its kind, unknown to the rest of the world. Also, the form this invention takes needs consideration as well. A new mechanical tool will most likely have no issue getting a patent. A new substance may be eligible for a chemical patent. A new recipe, on its own, would likely not get considered.

Of course, if your recipe has some sort of zany new chemical composition, then it may qualify for a chemical patent. The greater likelihood though is that it may qualify for a trade secret (more on this below). Again, simply arranging a new way to combine ingredients is viewed as public knowledge, and therefore, not up for patent consideration.

Trademark

Trademark law protects brand names, logos, taglines/slogans and catchphrases. Every famous food tagline you can think of such as McDonald’s “I’m Lovin’ It” and Burger King’s “Have It Your Way”, are trademarked expressions. It can also protect a food brand’s packaging and the appearance/shape of its food from being stolen. For example, the Coca Cola bottle is trademarked for its iconic shape.

Ultimately, a trademark is geared towards protecting brand assets behind a food product, as opposed to its recipe. This may seem like a disadvantage for the average cook or chef, but for those who own restaurants, this is great news. Not only will trademark law protect your restaurant name, logo and slogan (if you have one), it can protect the creative names of meals on your menu.

Keep in mind too, that if you want to create a recipe book, for commercial purposes, the name of that book can be submitted for a trademark.

Trade Secrets

You’ve probably noticed a recurring theme here – the law doesn’t protect recipes themselves. They offer protection for the works they appear in, such as a cookbook, or the food products they’re used in. However, there’s another form of legal protection that chefs and cooks may want to consider – trade secrets.

A trade secret is essentially a form of information that is only known by its owner or creator, which usually gives them a competitive advantage. Many recipes for food and drinks are trade secrets – Coca Cola’s ingredient base, KFC batter and more. Essentially, their unique combination of ingredients will not be shared with the public.

When a recipe qualifies as a trade secret, the creator can rest assured that its ingredients will never be revealed. There is one caveat here: a recipe that’s considered a trade secret can’t appear in a cookbook because its ingredients must remain hidden to retain its status.

Should Cookbook Publishers Protect Their Recipes?

There’s no right or wrong answer to this question. It simply depends on what a chef or a cook is looking to protect and for what purpose. Let’s summarize what we’ve discussed above.

Copyright law protects actual works of authorship such as a cookbook but not recipes themselves. A patent protects inventions that solve technical problems (ie. a new type of kitchen utensil), while trademarks protect a brand’s identity (ie. Kelloggs, The Keg’s logo, KFC recipes). Trade secrets, however, can protect a recipe as long as the ingredients of that recipe are never revealed.

If you are looking to create a recipe book, especially for commercial use, then you might want to consider copyright. A trade secret can protect your recipe from being stolen, but that would mean you couldn’t put it in your cookbook because its ingredients would then be public knowledge.

With all that said, your final decision should also come from the insights of a lawyer. They will help you determine what the best course of action is along with alternatives if a certain form of intellectual property doesn’t work for you.

Are you looking to create a recipe book but have no idea where to start? Take a look at our resources page to help you find recipes and other inspirations for your culinary creations!

Flaky Biscuits

biscuits hor

Ingredient list

2 c. sifted flour
3 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1/4 c. shortening
3/4 c. milk
Instructions

Heat oven 450 degrees. Sift dry ingredients together. Cut in shortening finely. Stir in milk. Round up on a lightly floured board. Knead lightly. Roll or pat out about 1/2″ thick. Cut out. Place on un-greased baking sheet, bake 10-12 minutes until golden brown. FOR SOUTHERN: Substitute buttermilk for regular milk but use only 2 tsp. baking powder and add 1/4 tsp soda. Also add 2 more T. of shortening to recipe. Roll out to 1/4″ thick and proceed.
FOR CORNMEAL BISCUITS: Substitute 1/2 c. cornmeal for 1/2 c. flour and roll out 1/2″ thick. Cut out in diamond shapes with knife.
FOR POCKETBOOK BISCUITS: Roll out 1/4″ thick. Cut out rounds spread with butter, fold in half, press edges together and bake.

Quick and easy tomato soup

It’s mid February and winter shows no sign of letting up. My go to food is definitely soups and stews during these chilly months, and I feel proud that I can basically make a soup out of pretty much anything! (I know, it’s the small things in life.) So when my husband asked what was for lunch today (he’s working at home these days but apparently hasn’t learned how to turn the stove on yet, lol!), I immediately thought of making soup.
I opened the fridge to find some sad looking winter tomatoes that had been lying in the bottom of the crisper drawer for far too long, along with a limp carrot. No problem I thought. Out comes the Instant Pot (I’m still obsessed) and 30 minutes later, delicious hearty tomato soup.

Quick and easy tomato soup @heritagecookbook.com

Ingredients
6 or 7 medium tomatoes
2 tbsp good quality olive oil
1 medium carrot
1 onion
1 clove garlic
5-6 cups chicken broth

Preparation Instructions
Put a small pot of water to boil.
Peel and cut the onion and carrot.
Score the tomatoes on the top with an x. While you are waiting for the water to boil, set your Instant Pot (or saucepan) to saute and heat up the oil.
Add the onion and carrot, and saute about 6 minutes, until translucent.
While they cook, drop the tomatoes into the water, two or three at a time, and leave in the water about 10 seconds. Scoop them out and repeat with the remaining tomatoes. When cool (almost instantly), peel the tomatoes. Cut them in half, and use your fingers to scoop out the seeds. I’m told tomato seeds and skins are very hard on the digestive system, which is why I bothered with this extra step.
When the onion is cooked, add the tomatoes, and squeeze one clove of garlic over top. Saute 3-4 minutes
Add the broth, close your Instant Pot and pressure cook on high for 10 minutes.
If making this in a saucepan, you may need to cook it for 45 minutes to obtain the same richness of taste.
Release the pressure, and use an immersion blender to puree. Season to taste
Serve with crostini (I use Ace crackers), a drop of olive oil, lots of fresh ground pepper and sea salt.

Valentines Day Molton Chocolate Cake For Your Recipe Book

There isn’t much more to say really. Molton. Chocolate. Cake. I had you there, didn’t I? I could also add ooey, gooey, sticky, rich and chocolatey, but I’m not sure I even need to go that far!

Decadent chocolate cake
There. There’s also that beautiful visual. And the fact that it has a mere 5 ingredients. It’s really just a big brownie.
I just know your loved ones, be they your partner, kids, parents, friends or anyone else, will love you for making this on Valentines day!

Ingredients

6 oz good quality baking chocolate (dark, not milk)
2/3 cup sugar
2/3 cup butter
3 eggs
1/2 cup all purpose flour

Preparation Instructions

Preheat oven to 320. Grease and flour an 8 or 9″ pan.
Melt the chocolate over a double boiler. Add butter and stir until melted. Beat egg yolks with sugar until soft ribbon forms. Add to chocolate mix and stir. Add flour and mix.
Beat egg whites until smooth. Gently fold egg whites into chocolate mixture.
Bake 40 minutes, or until just set.

We Want To Hear From You

2019
2019 is going to be a big year! I’m working hard with my IT team to launch a new and improved version of HeritageCookbook, with more features, more images, more flexibility and more products. I have lots and lots of ideas (did I mention I’m a creative-type?! ideas are never lacking), but what I want, are your ideas.
Drop me a line at virginie@heritagecookbook.com, or post a comment on this thread, or even on our facebook page https://www.facebook.com/HeritageCookbookcom-131351536988113/ with the title “My big ideas” and let me know your thoughts on any of these:
1. What types of book bindings would you like to see
2. Do you use our image library?
3. Would it be helpful to have recipes you could add to your books?
4. Do you want more templates to choose from?
5. Do you want more layout options?
6. Is there anything else?
Looking forward to hearing from you!!!
Virginie

Moroccan Chicken Stew

moroccan-stew_1

moroccan-stew_3
Prep Time: 10 min.
Total Time: 50 min.

Ingredients

1 tbsp olive oil
8 chicken pieces, bone-in, skin-on (thighs, drumsticks, half chicken breast)
2 onion, peeled and roughly chopped
1 tsp salt
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp coriander
2 tsp paprika
½ tsp allspice
1 (796mL) can chopped tomatoes
2 ½ cups chicken stock
4 cups diced butternut squash
1 cup pitted green olives
1 cup golden raisins
1 (540 mL) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
½ cup roughly chopped cilantro, plus extra to serve
Lemon wedges, to serve
Yogurt, to serve

Directions

1. In a large saucepan or Dutch oven heat 1 tbsp olive oil over medium heat. Season chicken pieces. Then, brown chicken pieces on all sides, about 3 min., per side. Set aside on a plate lined with paper towel. Drain all but 1 tbsp fat from pan.

2. Add onion and cook until softened, about 3 to 4 min. Add salt and spices, cook 1 min. Add diced tomatoes and chicken stock. Stir in butternut squash, green olives and raisins. Add chicken pieces back into pot and make sure they are covered by liquid. Bring stock to a boil. Reduce heat to simmer and cook, covered, for 30-40 mins., until chicken pieces are cooked through.

3. Stir in chickpeas and cilantro. Serve with couscous, brown rice or crusty bread. Top with extra cilantro, a squeeze of lemon and a dollop of yogurt to serve.

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