Preservation
The Recipe Box
The recipe box lives in one house. The people who care about what is inside it live in five others. There is exactly one day a year when that stops being a problem.
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Tastefully Studio
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3 min
Here is a problem almost every family has and almost no family has named. The recipe box lives in one house. The people who care about what is inside it live in five others.
Three hundred and sixty-four days a year, that is just how it is. The cards sit in the drawer in your mother's kitchen, or your grandmother's, and the distance between you and them is a four-hour drive or a flight. You think about them occasionally. You do nothing, because there is nothing convenient to do.
Then there is Thanksgiving. The one day the whole family is standing in the kitchen where the box actually lives.
This is the whole suggestion. At some point in the afternoon, after the meal or while it rests, take the recipe box to a table near a window and photograph every card that matters. Not scanning, not sorting, not a project. Your phone, decent light, one card at a time.
A box of fifty cards takes about twenty minutes. You will not regret a single one of those minutes, and there is a version of the future in which you would give a great deal to have them back.
Four things make the difference between photos that are usable later and photos that are not. Natural light from a window, never the overhead light and never the flash. Shoot from directly above, so the card is flat in the frame. Fill the frame with the card. And photograph both sides, because the back of a recipe card is where the corrections and the second thoughts live.
There is a longer guide in how to photograph old recipe cards with your phone, but those four rules cover most of it. A photograph taken this way is good enough to restore and print at sizes up to 16x20, which means the twenty minutes at the table is the only time you will ever need with the originals.
Asking to take the box home is a negotiation. The box belongs to the kitchen it lives in, and the person whose kitchen that is usually knows it. Photographs sidestep all of that. The cards never leave the drawer. Nothing is borrowed, nothing is risked in the mail, nobody has to have a conversation about what happens to things eventually. You leave with everything and take nothing.
You do not have to know what you want to do with the photographs. Some will become a digital archive for the family, which is covered in how to digitize the family recipe box. One or two might become framed prints, this year or in five years. Some will just exist, safely, in more than one place for the first time in their lives.
The mistake is not failing to frame a card this year. The mistake is leaving the only copy of your grandmother's handwriting in a single drawer in a single house for another year. Thanksgiving is the day that fixing this costs you nothing. If you are wondering what the cards could become, what to do with old recipe cards is the longer answer.
Photographed a card already? Upload it and see the restoration before you decide anything →
How do I get the best result from my photo?
Try to capture the card in flat, even lighting. Flatten out any curled edges where you can, and place the card against a slightly contrasting background. A clean, well-lit photo gives us the best starting point for your restoration.
Can I upload more than one card, or both sides of a card?
Unfortunately, we can't currently print the front and back of a recipe onto a single art print. If your recipe is written on both sides, we recommend ordering two prints, one for each side. They often look great hung as a pair.
What happens to my photo after I upload it?
Your image is processed and stored securely so we can fulfill your order. We don't use your photos for marketing, sell them to anyone, or claim any rights to them. They're your family's cards and they stay yours. If you'd like your image deleted after your order is complete, just email us at hello@tastefully.studio.
How does it work?
Take a photo of the recipe card or upload one from your camera roll. Within seconds you'll see a restored version where the background is cleaned up and the handwriting is sharp, but every detail of the original is preserved. Choose your size and frame, and we print, frame, and ship it to your door.
Filed under
family recipes
vintage recipe cards
kitchen keepsakes
handwritten recipes
recipe preservation
Frame your own
Scan it. Send it to us. In seven days, it comes back framed, restored, and ready to hang.
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