“I remember when my mom made this for me every Friday after school.”

That’s what I keep coming back to.

You don’t need to be a writer to tell the story behind a family recipe. A handful of details and a bit of memory is more than enough. This isn’t about having a polished essay on it—it’s about capturing what made something matter to you or someone you love. This post is here to help you find your way into those stories, especially if you’re not sure how to start.

The First Thing That Comes to Mind

Sometimes the clearest detail is the smallest one:

“It always smelled like fried onions on Thursdays.”
“He always added just a pinch of cocoa powder.”
“We always ate it standing up, right from the pan.”

Start there. You don’t need to remember the whole scene—just the part that stayed. The tiny details that stuck in your brain often unlock the rest of the story or what the recipe meant to you.

Memory Can Be a List

If writing a full story feels overwhelming, break it into fragments. Try a list:

What time of year it was
Where you were when you ate it
Who made it
What the kitchen sounded like
What you ate it with (a spoon? torn bread? your hands?)
How old you were
What you’d forgotten—until now

Even one or two of these can open a door to more details.

The Dish Doesn’t Need a Plot

You don’t need a beginning, middle, and end. You don’t need to explain anything. You don’t need a moral.

The point is: it happened. You remember it. You cared enough to save it. That’s the story.

The Story Doesn’t Have to Be Elaborate

Don’t worry about how it sounds. If you say:

“We used to eat this every New Year's morning.”
or
“It’s what we always had after our mom worked a night shift,”

that’s enough.

Some of the best food stories start with something seemingly small. Capture what made it important to you.

Let the Emotion Be the Anchor

Was it comforting? Indulgent? Does it taste like home? Is it tied to a place, a person, a moment you didn’t realize you were holding onto?

Write that. Even if you don’t have all the facts or ingredients, the emotion gives it shape.

There’s No Right Format for Remembering

It can be saved in your notes app, written in a food journal, noted in the margins of a recipe card. You don’t need to fit your story into a template. What matters is that you put it somewhere.

Wherever it lands, try linking the story to the recipe: write it on the same page, or tuck the memory into the steps. Save them together so they stay together.

If you want to share it with others, we’d love that too. You don’t need to be a writer or a cook—all you have to do is try your best to catch the shape of the memory while it’s still warm. Find our submission guide [here].

How to Tell the Story Behind a Recipe