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That's a really cool idea! I think I'm going to go the route of typing the recipes since they are all from a million different cookbooks at my parent's house and some just original recipes that were never written down. I was thinking a binder would be good - I want it to be a functional book. Maybe I could tuck the pages into plastic sleeves to protect them.

The photocopying of the recipe cards is a fantastic idea. I think I'll use the ones that I do have as some of the illustrations. Seeing the handwritten recipes in years down the road would be quite lovely.

My mom and I had so much fun this weekend looking through these cookbooks for kids that we used to cooked from. She has a Betty Crocker one that she used as a girl in the 60's and I have a Klutz one from the 80's. We were cracking up at the photos and ingredients from the Betty Crocker book (e.g. 'whuffins' - muffins with Wheaties or an 'American Pizza' made with Bisquick, canned tomato, raw onion and bologna).

I have things spiral bound at kinko's for work, and you could do it with either photocopied or re-typed recipes. What affects the pricing is usually just whether or not you want it printed in color (ie photos!!!) or on special or heavier paper. Using nicer paper would probably be a nice touch, especially since it would hold up a lot better re: splashes, even just to go glossy I would think. Talk to the folks at kinko's ahead of time though, doing the work of compiling/laying out/formatting will go down the drain if you have to re-do it at the last minute for print.

I did something like this for my son and his best friends when they graduated. It was primarily food they had eaten at our house over the years. I rewrote the recipes, made sure none of them required exotic ingredients, special equipment, or major technical knowledge. I included anecdotes and advice and suggestions for substitutions for ingredients or equipment.

I just used Word, spiral bound the pages with a colorful laminated cover, organized the recipes by category (breakfast, soup, salad, etc.). The guys have told me they use the cookbook and it is fun to hear which recipes they like the best. I had fun doing this and I even had requests for more copies!!

If you are doing a limited number of copies, I have found through my non kitchen activities that "Rite in the Rain" All-Weather Copier Paper, is great for printing recipes on, it resists water and if it does get wet it dries to full strength without damage, for an almost indestructable cookbook I would suggest their super premium product "DuraCopy" is a "synthetic", heat resistant paper created for use in extreme conditions. It is actually waterproof and can even be used under water. No need for page protectors. It is expensive, but imagine years from now that priceless recipe is still intact after years of use.

my friend, dana, made one as a christmas present for frinds & family last year-really nice. i believe she went the microsoft word/kinko's way. my mom is creating one for our family, but she's writing it longhand for a more personal touch. i personally have a binder that i add to as i come across recipes i dig.

Get thee to your local library and pick up a copy of 'The Way to Write and Publish a Cookbook' by Doris McFerran Townsend. It's an oldie but goodie published in 1985. It has indispensible information on how to properly construct recipes, how to write non-recipe material and other valuable tips.

@morgancain - that's a cool idea - we definitely have my grandmother's honey cake recipe that uses 'glasses' as a measurement, and my aunt's more modern recipe that we actually bake. Plus I still have the recipe card for the old recipe, written in my grandmother's handwriting.

@Jilly - I checked out their site and it looked really cool and customizable. Did you find that you had a lot of creative control? I like their lay-out but don't want to use them unless I can really customize the book the way I want to.

I would check out Blurb.com too - they have a template for recipe books, I believe, and their software is free to download. The print quality is pretty good - I made a friend's wedding photo album through that site.

I've made quite a few family cookbooks over the years. I do use page layout software, but Word should work just fine. I bound all of mine at Kinkos, until I broke down and bought my own spiral binding machine.

Be prepared to make reprints, someone is always asking for one. You might also want to consider printing your color pages on a color laser printer, rather than an inkjet to keep the pages in better shape, if they get splashed upon. The page protector idea is also very good.

I would recommend blurb.com, it is a very good service and provides nice bound books.

I have personally made a cookbook using their service and I am very satisfied, the book looks beautiful.

If it is for family how about a flash drive or cdrom. we have a filing cabinet for recipes until they have been tested and then they get put in a recipe folder.

Add a shopping list for each recipe...It's helpful for folks who don't cook much, because not cooking also means not spending a whole lot of time in the grocery store.
If your going to include a recipe that has been "passed" around lots check with other members of the family who have to see if they have made it there own by changing things a bit...Including mult. version of the same recipe can be useful.
laminate the thing...New cooks like some older ones can be messy.
Include a food safety section and be sure to add kitchen safety (i.e. how to put out a grease fire.
Good luck!

@KB in Toledo - I screwed tiny hooks into the underside of my cabinets and strung a cord between them- instead of taping my recipes I can hang them with office clips (mini-clothespins would probably work, as well.)

Have any of you actually used either Tastebooks or Lulu.com?

Which is more user-friendly? How about expense? Any information would be appreciated!

Thanks!

Several years ago I created a family cookbook in Word so I had full control of design, layout, index, etc., and had it printed by a very good independent printer using heavy-weight paper and a double wire spiral binding -- it was a huge success. The final size was 8 1/2 x 7 inches (half legal size) and 200 pages with black and white illustrations with color front and back covers. The final tally was about $12 per copy (I had 100 copies bound).

Sorry, one more thing about Lulu. I created all the recipes in Word and then imported them (cut and paste) then I could choose different fonts etc. in the Lulu program. This made things nice and easy as well.

Good luck everyone with your projects. I would love to see a post when you are done about how it all turned out.

On the recommendation of more than one friend, I've been thinking about using Tastebook:

http://www.tastebook.com/

One other thing to consider is having family members "proof" their recipes. A well-meaning family member put together our family cookbook, and the thing is so riddled with errors (ingredients, measurements, directions, attributions) that it's almost not usable. She worked so hard on it... but...

I am doing something similar for my daughter who is getting married in October. I have been collecting recipes from all of our family members including a short story about the dish or who prepared it for what occasion or party, giving some history on the dish and the people who enjoyed it!

My plan is to print the recipes on recipe cards that will fit into a specially made recipe card holder that my daughter received as a gift. I have found several really neat recipe card options on Etsy.com. There are several artists that sell custom made stationery on that site that include cool food related graphics. So...that is my idea for the moment!

Thanks to all of the others for their ideas on Lulu.com and Blurb.com and Tastebook! Good luck on the project.

I use a MAC and iPhoto, and am currently working on a cookbook for my kids. I can save PDFs to iPhoto and crop them as I please. I also like the fact that I can copy / scan recipes that I like from Julia Child and others, that are really not mine, but ones the family loves. iPhoto has book formats you can choose from, for a variety of looks and they can come hard-bound, spiral, or soft in different sizes. I like the fact that I can post a photo of my mom or mother-in-law in the kitchen, with a recipe on the opposite page. Last year I made Christmas Cards and a calendar using it, and the quality is excellent. After checking Blurb's pricing, I found iPhoto / Apple was comparable, if not cheaper.

Years ago my kid sister [now 58] put together something like that when I became a single parent. She typed and dot-matrixed printed them, put each page in a plastic sleeve and put them in a 3 ring binder. The plastic sleeves protect the pages in the kitchen and also from age a bit. I've added to it quite a bit over the years [the 3 rings] and when Sis' daughter grew up I sent her a copy.

I put all of the recipes on a CD and put it in the back of the binder when I made my cookbook for my daughters. That way if a recipe gets damaged or comes up missing they can reprint it. And my oldest daughter made copies for her best friend whe she went out on her own.

Although I haven't made a recipe book yet, I have successfully used Word for similar projects. My one tip for those who decide to use Word is this: make sure you allocate adequate space in "Margins" for the vertical "gutter" that runs down the binding side of your pages, and select "Mirror Margins" if you plan to print on both sides of the paper. Otherwise, you could have your recipe butting right up against whatever your binding material is (spiral, comb, 3-ring, etc).

I used tastebook.com as a gift for my bridesmaids, my mom and my MIL. I was able to upload my own photos and put stories in so I could "dedicate" a recipe to each of them. It was a HUGE hit and they all loved it.

I did have some issues with it though. I suggest putting all your recipes into word and then copy and pasting it - more than once I'd get done typing a recipe into tastebook and then it wouldn't save. I also couldn't figure out a way to change any recipes I downloaded from epicurious, so I ended up having to retype those. It also seems to encourage plagarism - I adapt a lot of recipes, so when I tried to put in "Adapted from Emeril Lagasse's. . ." (I wanted to give credit!) it would flag it for violating the terms of use, but if I took that line out I was fine.

I do love the finished product though!