What Makes a Recipe Worth Saving?

A recipe doesn’t have to be fancy to be part of your story.

Sometimes the simplest dishes hold the most meaning.

When I first started writing down recipes, I kept wondering if they were “good enough.” Some felt too simple. Others had gaps I had to fill in from memory. A few weren’t even mine, just versions passed between friends and cousins. But I realized: that wasn’t the point. The recipes I kept returning to weren’t perfect—they were familiar, comforting, and full of meaning. That’s what made them worth saving.

What We Reach For Again and Again

There’s this idea that only the most elaborate, regional, or nostalgic dishes are worth documenting. But sometimes the most powerful recipes are the ones that seem ordinary. The weekday food. The quiet favorites. The thing your grandmother made when there was nothing else in the fridge.

I didn’t grow up eating plated masterpieces—I grew up eating toast fried in bacon fat, pantry stews, and leftover cake turned into something new. These aren’t fancy, but they carry weight. Cultural weight. Emotional weight. They’re evidence of adaptation, survival, care.

Imperfect Is Still Important

The first version of my great aunt’s sour cherry cake recipe was basically unusable. The batter was dense, and the cherries sank. I made it four more times before I understood how to get the batter as buttery as hers. That’s what writing these things down is—trial, error, and remembering how it’s supposed to feel.

So if all you have is an ingredient list with no steps—or a dish you vaguely remember—start there. Write down what you know. Test what you can. Ask someone else what they remember. Save it anyway.

What You Keep Says Something

The act of writing it down is personal. It marks what mattered enough to hold onto.

Save the food you crave when you're homesick. The one that reminds you of someone. The thing you make when you don’t know what else to cook. That’s the recipe worth saving—even if it’s simple.

This Is for You, Too

You don’t have to be a chef, or a writer, or even much of a home cook to preserve your family’s food. If you’ve eaten it, loved it, or watched it being made, then you already have something worth sharing.

Write it down. Share it with a cousin. Tape it to the fridge. Submit it to our zine.

This is how we keep it alive.