Jeff McRitchie

How to Make Your Own Cookbook

Christmas is coming and people are starting look for original gifts for their family. One idea is to put together a personalized cookbook.  Here is a step by step guide to making your own cookbook.

Christmas is coming and people are starting look for original gifts for their family. One idea is to put together a personalized cookbook. Compiling family favorites and putting them in book form is a unique gift that family members will use and cherish for years to come. Here is a step by step guide to making your own cookbook.

1. The first thing to do is gather all your recipes together. Go find those slips of paper with ingredients quickly jotted. Find your cookbook favorites. Get out your recipe card index. Having these all in one place will help you to see what you have and what recipes you want to include.

2. Next, get any recipes from friends or family that you want. Find out how your grandma makes that mouth watering pot roast. Or call your sister for her chocolate cake recipe. A family cookbook is best when everyone can contribute something. And since it's getting close to the holidays, they won't suspect anything when you want a Christmas recipe.

3. Cull your selections. You could make a book with every recipe you have. But why keep "tuna surprise" when you never make it? Now is the time to get rid of any recipes you don't like or don't plan to make. For a family cookbook, you might want to keep recipes beloved by your aunt but not you for the sake of keeping the peace.

4. Now type them all up. I know this sounds boring but having every recipe in the same format will help you streamline everything. If you add them all into the same document, we suggest adding page breaks after each one and later adding page numbers. Take a moment to type the titles into a separate page as you go; this will help you alphabetize and create an index page for quick referencing.

5. Time to organize. Divide your recipe selections in to various categories. These can be whatever you want; it's your book.

6. Choose a dividing system. Copier and customizable tabs are easy to print on, depending what type of machine you have access to. Preprinted index tabs will allow you to make a table of contents page and number the rest. Insertable tabs have the benefit of being easily changed. And if none of these options suit your needs, you can always order custom index tabs tailored exactly to your specifications.

7. Arrange your recipes within each category. This could mean alphabetizing all your soups. Or maybe you'd prefer to have them grouped by ingredient.

8. Once you have everything arranged, you can create your table of contents as well as an index. A table of contents lets people know which section to find the recipe they're looking for. An index is usually an alphabetized listing of all recipes.

9. Final edits. Read through and make sure everything looks how you want it. Is it easy to find things? Any last minute additions?

10. Choose a binding method. The easiest way is to put recipes into page protectors and combine everything into a three ring binder. But for only a little more, you can buy a personal plastic comb binding machine. This will give your recipe book a more professional look. You can even have the combs personalized to say your family name. Other binding methods can include coil binding, thermal binding, and wire binding.

11. Choose a binding cover. There are many different selections based on which binding method you choose. A clear page on the front will display your title page. Other methods can give you a leatherette or regency cover for a classy look.

12. Finally, it's time to bind! This is the final step, actually completing the binding process. Congratulations, you made it!

As you can see, making your own cookbook isn't difficult. You'll have fun putting together all the recipes. And it makes for a nice family gift that can be passed down to future generations.

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