Tuesday, December 3, 2019

To Clip or Not to Clip?




HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: It happens every holiday season: I start madly clipping recipes. And saving them in a drawer. I don't truly think I'll make any of them, but I might. I always..MIGHT.  And what if I decide--oh, I really needed that stuffed crown roast of lamb or the perfect grilled shrimp quesadillas and I'd thrown away the newspaper?

Now I know how anachronistic that sounds. "Newspaper" "clipping" "saving in a drawer." 

Then I found this:



 It's a recipe saving notebook I had in 1977. Seriously, 1977.  To prove it, here's an ad that was on the back of one of the recipes.

I clipped the recipes, and then taped them into this stenographer's notebook. (I even numbered the pages, which you have to admit is silly, since there's no index, so why would the number of the page matter?) Anyway, some of the recipes are timeless. Like this one, for Julia Child's Quiche Lorraine. There's probably not a better one that's been devised since then. 





 I recognize my handwriting from the 70's, a careful sort of printing that I will admit to you was cribbed from how my British pals wrote. It was not successful.  But you'll always need a good Bearnaise.


And Poulet Dijonnaise--that still sounds pretty good! See how yellow the tape is? It was so long ago.






This one, though,  Sno Pie, sounds pretty disgusting.



Oooh, chicken bourguignon. Reading the recipe, it doesn't sound like chicken bourguignon, it's sounds like Cordon Bleu. But, whatever. Apparently it sounded good in 1977.  Actually, if you read the ingredients, it still sounds pretty delicious.



There's some nostalgia involved. Here's Marge Clayton's Clam Dip--Marge was the wife of a writer named Bernard Clayton, who wrote a a classic book on baking. I just looked him up, and it looks like the book is now in its 30th printing. I remember the clam dip being pretty great.

But who is Helen Ward, and why do I have her black bottom pie recipe? So weirdly unsettling that I have not one memory of who that is.




Roast duck with green peppercorns. Lemon souffle. The Ne Plus Ultra mousse from Craig Claiborne. I  bet many of us have made that!




And here's a mystery recipe with no title and iffy instructions. I wrote in on a scrap pf paper, so whatever it was, I must have loved it. Reading the ingredients, I see, you probably can't go wrong.
So Reds, I will probably never make any of these things. There are two notebooks, and maybe a total of 150 recipes, spanning my (apparently) domestically focused years of 1977-1979. But still, I cannot throw these way.  I wish I had my Grandmother's handwritten recipe cards--my sister snagged them. But I'm not sure anyone but me would care about these. 
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Now I just look up recipes on line, easy peasy, and I have been know to ask Alexa for help. (Alexa, how many ounces in half a cup. WHat's 8 times 20 minutes?)  I still clip recipes, though, because you never know. Do  you? 

And if you need the perfect recipe for cheese fondue, let me know. It was the 70's right? Yes, I have that.


104 comments:

  1. Why yes, I clip recipes [and print out ones I’ve found online if I want to try them]. I enjoy cooking and some “found” recipes have turned out to be pretty spectacular. [And now I want to try that roast duck with green peppercorns.]

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    1. I wonder if I ever made it :-). It does sound delish!

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    2. Maybe that is the thing for Christmas dinner!!

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    3. Happy to send you the recipe—I know right where it is!

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  2. When I pick up a culinary cozy, the first thing I do is flip to the back and look at the recipes. Then I read the book and watch for them to appear in the story. Then, I read over the recipes when I reach the end and think to myself "these sound so good. I should make one."

    Then I laugh and reach for the next book in my TBR pile.

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    1. Oh, that’s a fun way to do it! I always wait to the end… But I love your method!

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    2. You're smart Mark! So you are enjoying all the recipes whether you make them or not!

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  3. I'm a recipe collector too. I have a spiral-bound notebook full of recipes from the late 90s that I still refer back to a lot. I have a tin recipe box (wedding gift!) from the 80 with some cards and some clippings stuffed inside. Still use those too. But yes, the Internet is my current source for new recipes, although when I find one that's really fabulous, I still print it out because I may never be able to find it online again!

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    1. Oh, that is so true! I agree— they seem to just disappear…

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    2. That's been my trouble with online recipes as well, Annette. I find a great, whatever, rice pilaf and then forget to bookmark it and it's gone forever. It's the digital equivalent of the vast storage warehouse at the end of RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK.

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  4. This is so funny. And yes, I too am seduced by those gorgeous holiday covers on cooking magazines.And the NY Times online cooking subscription, too. Maybe I really need one more cranberry sauce...My family likes canned - why do I bother? But I do. (I think I have an imaginary alternate life where I am a sophisticated hostess) And I do have a file that includes recipes from Mademoiselle magazine and my single girl days.

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    1. Awwww— That is so cute! And I clipped a cranberry sauce recipe this year, too. I don’t know I know my cranberry sauce recipe by heart, and it is foolproof. but you never know!

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  5. Yes, I also clip and collect. Like Annette, I print out a recipe I find online so I can refer to it and not get sticky oily fingers on my downstairs laptop. And then I save the printout, but by save I mean stuff it in the baking pan cupboard and never look at it again! I also still use my metal recipe box, but mostly only for the Christmas cookie recipe cards (five kinds that I make every year and am already behind on...).

    But Hank, why won't you make any of those recipes again?

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    1. Good Question! Well yes, I might! Some of them are sounding pretty fabulous. But they still feel very heavy on the butter and cream ...

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    2. One of the things I found while helping clean out my mothers' things was a "hostess" cookbook from the early seventies - recipes for various types of entertaining, divided into fast and easy, complicated and stunning, etc. One thing most of the dishes had in common were an appallingly high calorie count (I estimate, they didn't actually print calories) from butter, cream, fat, sugar... You'd think people in the seventies were still pumping water and hoeing fields by hand by the calories they were supposed to sock away when sitting down at a friend's table.

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    3. Hank here: Absolutely! SO MUCH BUTTER!

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  6. I don't clip recipes. About the only thing I clip these days is coupons for things I actually buy.

    A long time ago when I was still coaching, the USA Today would print a basketball play in the sports section once a week. If it looked like something I could get my team to learn I would cut that out of the paper and figure out how to teach it to them.

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    1. Wow , I never knew that about USA today! that is a very niche market thing to do ...

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    2. Love that Jay! Do you still have those clippings?

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    3. Hank, it was pretty cool to have the plays from NBA teams diagrammed in the paper so that anyone could use them.

      Lucy, I don't know if I still have any of them. After the coaching days ended I got rid of a lot of stuff. I'd have to look into my coaching bag for the notebook I carried all that stuff in to see if it survived the purge.

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  7. Somewhere around here, I have my late mother-in-law's metal box of recipes. Clipped and handwritten. But her handwriting was not good. My husband fondly remembers her tomato soup cake (not as disgusting as it sounds - it's just a spice cake). I've made it twice, once successfully and once not. I may try again.

    I used to clip recipes. The successful ones were then transferred to my recipe book (full of recipes people gave me at one of my bridal showers). I also use an app on my iPad called Yummly. I can search recipes, favorite them, sort them into categories...pretty handy and it takes up less drawer space. :)

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    1. See? You are delete the “modern “way. that recipe book must be a treasure…

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  8. I used to clip more in the past, and then I realized that I (a) never visited those clippings and (b) found that they represented not the cook I was, but someone I thought I *should* be, and I realized I never would be, and that was okay. So it isn't the clippings I let go of, but rather the idea that I was going to be the kind of person that regularly reviewed her clippings, found inspiration, planned for that meal, and brought it to the table. I tended to do that more with things like "I want to try to bake a few different kinds of cookies this Christmas" and so the ones that I tried and liked have stuck around. I've managed to prune the collection of clipped recipes to just be the tried and true ones.

    As for this book... Instead of focusing on why you might be hesitant or even loathe to throw them away, ask the question instead, "Why is it important to me that I keep them?" It may sound like the same question as "Should I get rid of it?", but I promise, it is subtly different, and enough to make you look at the item in a different way. If you come up with a compelling answer besides "I just don't want to", that can help give you insight as to what it is about this collection that makes it so sticky for you.

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    1. Sticky! Such a perfect word for this. I have folders of recipes I use all the time - but I go through them periodically to weed. But more often than not I cook by feel ... combining experience with what’s in the fridge with what I feel like eating - sadly that means when something comes out really good I can’t duplicate it... like last nights couscous with broccoli onions and feta cheese...

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    2. Such an interesting way to look at this Kathy! Now I wonder what answer Hank would be looking for that would justify keeping the notebooks...

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    3. Oh gosh —brilliant! I love those recipes!!i love the person I was at the time, and it’s so sweet to look at them . Plus what if I want to make sno-pie?

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    4. Sno-pie, the official dessert of the Jungle Reds!

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    5. I feel like that Sno-Pie recipe is a essentially a creamy pina colada poured in a graham crust... Hank circa 1979 was living her best life! LOL!

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    6. HANK here: can't go wrong with that! WITH chocolate. Probably why I clipped it.

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  9. I have a small spiral-bound notebook of recipes. Some I copied because they sounded good. Some were things I attempted from my own imagination that turned out okay or might need tweaking if I tried them again. These days I just copy recipes into tidy Word files that I stash in my computer in folders titled Human Recipes and Dog Recipes. Yes, I cook for my dogs. I never actually make any of them, except once I made a spectacular orange cranberry pound cake from a New York Times recipe that caught my eye.

    Perhaps we should all challenge ourselves to actually make every recipe we have saved at least once, and share the results?

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    1. Make every recipe would be too much for me but I could challenge myself to make at least two next year. It would be twice more than I actually make.

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    2. Yes making one a month? I love that idea!

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    3. Gigi, I remember that pound cake! It was fab!! Maybe you could make it again this Christmas????

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    4. Danielle, I'm laughing at "two next year...would be twice more than I actually make."

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  10. Black bottom pie was epic! Mom made it every year for my brother's birthday. I have an ancient 3 ring binder full of recipes clipped from newspapers. More recently, I've relied on Washington Post recipes and am anticipating their annual Christmas cookie feature.

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  11. I still clip recipes and save them, too. But I actually try many of them. (I like variety and adventure.) And I do sometimes go through and purge those that looked like a good idea at some time but I have still never tried. Especially those I can see I am unlikely to EVER try.

    The internet is now my best source of recipes, too. Like many others who commented, I print them out when I use them. It's not just the fear of never being able to find it again -- it's that I don't like it when I'm cooking and suddenly the device goes into sleep mode, and I need to use my messy fingers to try to put in a password again.

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    1. Oh you are so right— How is that supposed to work, anyway? How does the iPad not get all eggy and floury?

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  12. I am a great one to clip recipes out of the paper and then maybe even make them! Problem with those though is the print is so small I have trouble reading them. So now what I do is I copy it, increasing the size. If the recipe works and I know I want to make it again I print out a nicely sized one and then I keep it in an old 3 ring binder. And I always make notes on the recipe, what works, what doesn't, suggestions for variations. I have also made pages for terrific things my mother used to make and even sometimes adding a note about a specific occasion she made it or how it became someone's favorite.

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    1. Oh such a good idea to make notes and corrections—makes it so personal! Often I note how long things take: “stir until thickened” can be 2 minutes or 20!

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  13. I have both an accordion file and a three ring notebook of recipes, and there are a dozen or so I use regularly, more that I trot out for a special occasion, like when Julie brings home a couple of fresh rainbow trout and some spinach and spring onions.

    There there are the reliable cookbooks, BHG, Joy of Cooking, Julia Child, NYT, Mary Berry -- she personally prefers the frozen puff pastry to making her own -- and the Mennonite one, mostly because it has a recipe for hot dog soup. No kidding. I won't be making it, but it does give me hope that there are worse cooks in the world than I.

    But the treasures are two recipe boxes: my mother's (Esther) and Julie's mother's (Dorothy). I use these to make the traditional things of our childhoods. In a couple of weeks I will make Dorothy's date nute bread. She always made a huge batch at Christmas and shared them with her childrens and friends. When she could no longer do it, 13-14 years ago, I picked up the job. That first year I told the siblings that this was from their mother. Tears abounded. I have continued to make nine loaves every year since then. Julie helps, and they all get wrapped in christmas Saran wrap and put in pretty bread bags. We either take them around or bring them to a family party, if there is one. One brother, the eldest, gets two. He shares one with his family and takes the other to his office to gorge on all alone.

    All the recipes are written in our mothers' hands, and all are stained and sticky and have notes on them, some have origins in the label such as Aunt Nellie's Jam Cake. (First you make the jam)

    My last go to recipe source, other than the internet is Tim and Victor's Totally Joyous Recipes -- https://tjrecipes.com/ -- and if you haven't been there, you should go.

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  14. Recently, I've been thinking about why shows like House Hunters, Lottery Dream Home, and other HGTV shows are so popular, and how they and their message are affecting our inability to sell our old house. It's the same thing as a clipped recipe collection: an aspirational lifestyle. Totally fictional, but wherein we entertain lavishly, with exquisite food and drink, in lovely, clutter-free and starkly monochromatic homes.

    I know that's why I've collected recipes since 1970, including crazy ones from Graham Kerr's Galloping Gourmet, like Hangop, a Dutch dessert that requires draining fresh yogurt for 24 hours in a linen dishtowel hung from above. Somewhere. I never had anywhere suitable to do such a thing. However, the idea caught my imagination so much that I've saved that silly notecard for nearly 50 years. I used to sit in front of the TV when I was pregnant with my oldest daughter and diligently write down all his recipes. And never made a single one, naturally.

    However, about ten years ago, after being nagged by my three daughters, I finally put together a "family cookbook" for them. I typed out recipes for all those dishes I'd made, some from clipped recipes, some handed down from my own mother, and put them into Word files. For Christmas that year they each got a CD with the recipes, a fat 3-ring binder, 50 plastic sleeves, and cardstock on which to print their favorites. One daughter, the youngest, has never printed any of them out--she props her tablet on the counter while she cooks, but the oldest has her binder in her kitchen, as I do in mine. Periodically, I'll add a recipe I like, but mostly not in the binder, just in the Word file. Just another kind of clipping file, you know.

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    1. That is so wonderful! Awww. Such a sweet story—the recipes really are a family bond. And so much love as the first ingredient!

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    2. Karen, if you really want to try that recipe, line a colander with cheesecloth and drain the yogurt that way. That's what I do when I make yogurt.

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    3. Thanks, Debs! I guess it's not really necessary to hang the stuff up. I might actually try it.

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    4. Draining yogurt so you end with Greek style is easy - I use cheesecloth or a coffee filter in a colander. Time does the work.

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    5. Though this is reminding me of a recipe for Chinese duck that had you fill it with smokey tea and then hang it up... I did not make it.

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  15. Hi Ann, that is a beautiful way to honor your mom and love your sibs.I was just looking at a catalogue here called Uncommon Goods and on page 20 someone is offering to hand etch a recipe as written on to a cherrywood board. Uncommon goods.com should reach them. Just want to mention, it ain't cheap. But lovely if one has a beloved recipe.
    Celia

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    1. That would be an amazing, unique gift for the right person, with the right recipe.

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    2. I will go have a look at that. Sounds like it's made for that date bread recipe

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  16. Love this post so much, Hank. I still have my mom's metal recipe box, although I have to admit I haven't looked in it in ages. Some cards handwritten, many typed. So funny, I recognize my mom's typing. Year's ago my sister in law made a recipe book with favorite recipes from my mom and my grandmother and I still have my copy of that, too.

    As for my own clippings, they are stuffed into a three ring binder, that years ago was neatly organized with plastic sheets arranged by category. Now I just stuff the things I've printed from the Internet into the front. And, yes, I print recipes, too, not only because they disappear, but because I don't want foodie fingers on my laptop keyboard and I hate when tablet or phone screen goes to sleep when I'm in the middle of something.

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    1. Yes, recognizing typing--isn't that a funny thing? I recognize my Dad's completely. ANd it is such a legacy!

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  17. Oh Hank, WOW; what a subject for a snowy morning. Where do I begin? Well back in the '60's, when I was young , single and still in the mother country, I cut out the recipe from the Sunday Times mag every week and I cooked some of them. I asked for cookery books for my 21st birthday. I still have the two - Robert Carrier and The Constance Spry Cookery Book. I made the duck terraine from Carrier for my Landlords birthday; he was a QC. My CS has been my guiding hand throughout all my cooking and I still use it regularly. But of course I clip though not anymore. Having subscribed to Gourmet for many years back in the day. I bought my first copy in September 1969 just after I arrived in the USA, and kept them faithfully, plus their indices until one day I said, "Enough". I sat in our basement going through them to pull out the special recipes. Halfway into the task I realized there was a lot of mold, so out they went. No more joy there. Now, I copy recipes off my iPad,. Pasting them into either Notes or my Recipe file. No, I don 't trust the on line recipe apps. Where are all my NYT recipes? Gone when I didn't subscribe to Recipes, even though I had subscribed to the NYT. I am still peeved with Sam Shifton. My recommendation is a scanner for recipes that are on paper. I cook from my phone or iPad, I don't need paper. And yes, I love saving recipes

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    1. SUCH a great recipe history! ANd yes, getting rid of the old Gourmets--and Bon Appetit--such a rite of passage! But "back then" keeping them was the only way.

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  18. I have a book just like this, Hank, given to me by my mother in the early seventies. And I do sometimes check the recipes... Usually reading first blanch the asparagus, then... And saying too complicated. I'm amazed that I made things in aspic.
    I also have my MILs wartime recipe book with recipes for mock cream, mock lamb, eggless caked etc

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    1. Oh, Rhys, that is priceless--can you use those recipes, somehow, in a book? If you haven't already?

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  19. Oh yes! But “clipping” now is generally pictures on my phone. For instance, that clam dup; it’s on my phone now. :-)

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    1. Oh, well, saving links is quite another category, isn't it? I have hundreds.

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    2. Ruth, the same clam dip? (Did you know Marge, too? :-) )

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    3. In a special category on my browser link file.

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  20. Oh my! I love your steno pad. I use one for my grocery and to do lists. I also have my favprote cookie cookbook from 1967. It is falling apart. Maybe I need to replace it. I already did that with my Betty Crocker Cookbook from the same year. I have stacks of recipe pages from newspapers and magazines in my china cabinet. Now I have printed sheets stacked on the cookie cookbook that I have downloaded from the Internet for recipes I use occasionally to often. I bought a three-ring notebook, but never got around to filing them. I also have a whole computer file filled with recipes in case they are needed. I can look them up on the tablet I bought for the kitchen. So yes, my name is Pat and I'm a recipe junkie!

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    1. I love that it's falling apart! That's part of the charm, right? And yes, the empty three-ring notebook. We mean well, right? But now have to find the hole-punch...

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  21. Keep clipping. I have a little recipe box from 9th grade home economics class in 1971 that I seldom look at but am proud to have kept all of these many years. I think I keep it because it connects me to that sweet little girl I once was - with my whole life ahead of me.

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  22. Yes, I clip and print recipes, have been doing it for years. I also copied recipe from other's cookbooks. The ones I really like and used are held in my freezer with magnets and taped to cabinets when I'm actually making the recipe. I learned from my Mom to look for saved recipes by handwriting and art. My sister and I had transferred many of her recipes into a new book, she freaked out because she couldn't find grandma's writing which is Spanish Rice or the child art for her lasagna. We still had the originals and stopped assembling a new book for her. And to be absolutely honest when my sister and I were going through her recipes and hundreds of books and pamphlets we negotiated for this recipe from Grace, that one from Lee, this one from mom, that one from grandma because those recipes are more than just recipes, they are part of our lives and memories.

    Old cookbooks are another story. Mom collected them, I collect them. One of my most prized possessions is an old flip top book cookbook with recipes and meal planning. It's very old, cover is fabulous but it's the back page that is irreplaceable. The cookbook was gifted to our grandmother during her bridal shower in 1928 and all the guests signed the back, including my great-grandmothers. Priceless.

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    1. Oh, that is WONDERFUL! SO full of meaning and history.

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  23. I saved some in college from books from the college library - I typed them out onto 5x7 cards and saved them in one of those gray metal card boxes - it is still in my garage! Once in a long while I'll pull a recipe out and make it. We have 1 family recipe from over 100 years ago that we still use and a 3x5 recipe card got handed to me by my sister - Great Aunt Hatties Sour Cream Cookies - I just made them for Thanksgiving this year, usually make them for Christmas.

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    1. Yes, the metal boxes--they are so useful! And with the little tabbed organizers.

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  24. Hank,

    they still serve cheese fondue in Switzerland. If you visited Switzerland now in 2019, they will still serve fondue. I was there a few years ago and they still serve fondue. Yum!

    Yes, I still clip recipes once in a while. I look up recipes in a cookbook that was written by the mothers of children, including me, at a school that was written when I was three years old! I have a collection of cookbooks by my former nanny who is now a chef.

    And I look up recipes at YouTube - Ellie Alexander is doing 31 days of cookies this month! And I take screenshots of recipes on my smartphone.

    Great topic today!

    Diana

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    1. Oh, I ADORE cheese fondue! It just vanished from the trends here--but it Switzerland, it's not a trend, its a staple~! (Did yo have to kiss everyone at the table if you dropped your bread into the pot?)

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    2. Hank, that is too funny! I never heard of that custom about kissing if you dropped your bread in the pot.

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  25. Oh, Hank, what a perfect post! I still clip madly, and now in modern times there are blogs I love with frequent/daily recipes to fill up your computer as well as your notebooks. I do try to clean them out but sometimes it's a trip down memory lane, remembering when I would cook something or how much the family enjoyed it. I have the original notebook from when I was maybe 14, complete with scribbles from my younger brother, and the "Hamburger Recipes to Stretch Your Budget" cookbook my grandmother gave me when I got married. And this habit comes directly from my mom. I am the lucky sister to have her spiral notebooks full of taped recipes, often repeated on index cards, as well as many of her old cookbooks. I have resolved yet again this year to make the Apple Slices and the Eclairs that my mom always made. We'll see if it happens this year. Happy Holidays xx sally

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    1. Make them! I think that's how the recipes stay alive. xx

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  26. I have an enormous accordion file folder containing recipe clippings from newspapers and magazines, most of which I've never tried. And then there's the online file -- also huge and filled with unused recipes. Someday, I will sort through and toss most of them! The things I use the most are the handwritten ones I've collected over the years.

    When my mother passed away, her substantial collection (I know where I got the collecting gene from) went to my brother. It was the only thing he wanted.

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    1. Isn't that lovely? Aww.
      An it'll be fun to go through the recipes! You can see if you were in main dish mode or dessert mode.

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  27. "Hi, I'm Lynn and I'm a recipe-clipper-copier from way back", just like you, Hank! That's one of my addictions, too!;) I have, as dh mentioned recently to a new friend, more recipes
    than I'll ever cook in a lifetime or two! I even did a family-friends cookbook several decades ago, updated some recipes but basically keep a lot of faves. I've got boxes and notebooks galore. Several of my friends now rave about a site called Copy Me That, and I may try it. If anyone's interested here's the link: https://www.copymethat.com/

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  28. I have a free standing hanging file that holds 8" of files. Files sorted by "Meat" "Pastry" "Vegetables" etc.
    Next to this is a 9" pile of clippings and printouts.
    Then there's my Word files. I can't even guess how many recipes I have there.
    And, of course, going to search on the computer for other approaches.
    But can I find the one I've saved when I want it? Only some times.

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    1. YOu are SO organized! Wow. How many of them do you make?

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  29. I do still clip recipes, but not a lot these days. I have so many tried and true ones in my little recipe drawer that I don't really need many new ones. I have quite a few index cards with recipes written down by me and others for me. I treasure the slips of stationary or other paper that my mother wrote down recipes on for me. I now keep them in plastic baggies, hoping to preserve them longer. I also have a Shaker cookbook that was given to me when I got married (43 years ago) and I have made notes in it and stuck recipes in it. And, on FB, I post recipes to my page in hopes that I'll remember to fix them, which doesn't happen much. There's a spinach dip and cheese Christmas tree shaped bread that I've posted and reposted for several years now, hoping to fix it one of these years.

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    1. Spinach dip! Christmas Tree shaped bread! We NEEEEED that!

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  30. Guilty. I still clip recipes, sometimes from the newspaper, mainly from Southern Living. I also print out recipes from online or write them if the printer won't cooperate. And every few years I do a purge. It's mainly a case of what was I thinking of-I'm never going to make this. Yes, the picture looked great but be reasonable! I have my recipe card box and my mom's. Comparing my handwriting 50 years ago to now is hysterical. So small, nice, and neat! And then I have a ton of booklets with recipes from all sorts off places: Domino Sugar, Louisiana Power and Light, different churches. Way too many!

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    1. I know--what was I thinking! My turkey tetrazzini-which I adore--takes EVERY pan in the kitchen. Like Julia Child's lasagna:--take the bechamel souse...wait WHAT bechamel sauce??

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    2. Hank, I have a wonderful microwave tetrazzini recipe. Even the bechamel is made in it, and all in one pan. Let me know if you want to try it. It's wonderful, just like the original I had 45 years ago, including the sherry.

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  31. I actually have my grandmother's recipe box. One of my greatest treasures and she was a domestic goddess from the 30's through the 60's, so it's pretty rad. I'm a big cleaner but I couldn't throw your notebooks out either!

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    1. Oh, how dear and lovely. I bet it has wonderful things!

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  32. I clip recipes, and have a binder full of the ones that were reasonably successful! With marginalia, I might add. And sometimes I come across one of my mom's recipes, with her bold, loopy handwriting alongside it, offering her yea or nay. I love those moments, don't you?

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  33. I have my mother's cookbooks and metal recipe box but also have a stack of my own clippings and many recipes saved on my computer. I have Joanne Fluke's cookbook and save any cozy mysteries that have good recipes in them. Of course, I haven't actually made all of these recipes but I do make a few at least once a year. I sometimes look things up on the internet if I want to use a specific ingredient.

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    1. Hank here: yes that is so much fun. You can say"I have chicken and asparagus. GO. And there's stuff you wouldn't have thought of. And then you just make stir fry instead. xoox

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  34. Now I save a most of my recipes on Pintrest so I can organize them. We just print the one we are using that night and recycle it when we're done. But I still have a lot of pre-Pintrest print-outs and pages from magazines that I don't have the heart to toss. And handwritten recipes are still a treasure!

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  35. Oh, I am such a recipe clipper and hoarder! I have some in binders, yes plural(each in page protectors no less), and some full page printed ones in magazine holders in my kitchen cabinet. The recipes I use often are also in page protectors - except somehow not before the papers got some stains on them from frequent use. lol

    I now save them on Pinterest like many others. But there have been a few occasions when the weather was bad or our internet was flaky and I couldn't get to them. So I'm kind of returning to the good old paper version for things I want to make sure I can always access. Glad to know I'm in such good company. ~Cheryl

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  36. Ah, the memories! I am lucky to have some of my mom's and Grandma's handwritten. I also have several containers if clipped and handwritten recipes. I am gradually going through them and taking pictures with my tablet and saving them in an album😄

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