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Timeless family cookbooks follow an extensive process to create. While it needs skills to follow and execute the instructions in cooking, creating a cookbook can be done through the following steps.

Cookbooks are a staple in almost every household across different generations. Like other books, these can connect people regardless of age, nationality, and social status. Whether one is skilled in cooking or only attempting to make their first meal, cookbooks are a staple in the kitchen.

While it’s a compilation of recipes and sumptuous dishes, family cookbooks aren’t only written by limited and specific minds. Someone doesn’t have to be a renowned chef to be entitled to write and publish one.

As long as someone is passionate about cooking and even eating, they have the privilege to create and curate their cookbook. Despite whoever makes it, whether it be a high-paying professional chef or someone’s sweet and food-loving grandmother, every cookbook matters and is valued.

Cooking a Valued Cookbook

Compared to other genres, cookbooks are one of the easiest to create.

Unlike other books, cookbook writers don’t need to think of a conflict, character arcs, or a beginning and an end for their books. All they need to do is collate and format recipes they already know how to make. However, in doing so, they need to ensure that the dishes they’ve collated are timeless. This is where the challenge comes in.

Pick an Audience

Before considering what recipes they want to put into their book, they must identify their target audience. Are they writing quick meals catering to busy people? Are they writing easy meal preparation that children will enjoy?

By considering these questions, writers will be able to gather appropriate recipes with ease. They won’t need to worry about adding unnecessary meals that will disrupt the constancy of their book.

Organize a Collection

Once an audience is identified, writers can gather meal recipes appropriate to their market. In collecting recipes, writers can ask for input from their family, friends, and online sources to have an encompassing cookbook – something that isn’t solely based on their opinions.

When building a whole collection, writers should aim to have a dish for every component of a typical American meal. This includes appetizers, soups, salads, main dishes, sides, and desserts. This arrangement should also be followed regarding the cookbook’s format.

Choose a Presentation

Creating a timeless family cookbook doesn’t simply depend on what kind of meals the author has showcased in the book. How the author presents these recipes also leaves an impact.

For instance, in the cookbook, Generations of Good Food, written by author Eleanor Gaccetta, she doesn’t simply make a list of dishes and their ingredients. Instead, she added stories to almost every meal she’s written. This presentation enhanced her cookbook from a simple enumeration to something more valuable and meaningful.

Besides simply listing dishes, writers can add their twist to every page they create. This can be associating meals with stories, like Gaccetta did, or adding challenges and other fun activities.

Take Photos

No cookbook has become successful without photos. As primarily visual beings, the more pictures in the book, the more people will love it.

Writers must also consider that not everyone buying the book is well-versed in cooking. With this, they can sprinkle in more photos of the ingredients or the instructions. Images can also help the instructions be more precise and effortless for the audience to understand.

Regarding photos, writers can choose between executing and taking them or purchasing stock images. Either way, they need to ensure the photos are of excellent quality and are 100% accurate to their content.

Personalize the Book

With hundreds, if not thousands, of family cookbooks on the market, writers need to make theirs stand out.

To do this, they must title their books and recipes thoughtfully and personally. There’s no need to stick to the basics or the regular titles. Writers can be as clever or witty as they want. It’s their book, and nobody has a say on how they title it. Just as long as they’re easy to read and not absurd, people willfully and consciously avoid buying them.

Family cookbooks may not follow the typical book format regarding conflicts, climax, a beginning, and an end. But this doesn’t exempt them from having a thorough and lengthy process. However, if writers enjoy and are the least familiar with cooking, every step becomes easy.