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One of the best additions to a cookbook is not the mouth-watering images, but rather the margin notes. They are not only a great way to remember thoughts and alterations on a dish, but also a way to give it all a sense of history. One can record the thoughts and feelings that a dish evokes, and years later revisit it, or share the thoughts and pages with others -- making it a communal experience well after the fact.But I have a confession to make. I can rarely bring myself to do it -- no matter matter how many times I regret it after the fact. It all comes from a sense of symmetry and visuals -- if I could make it look great and suitable for the page, I'd do it every time. If I could make it look like the picture to the right, from Becks and Posh (click there to see it full-sized), I would. That woman writes notes so sleek that it looks like they were printed on the page.*
So, here I sit, still trying to convince myself. Do you, Slashfoodies, write in the margins? Share your experiences, and if you can, definitely share images of your notes!
*Edited, thanks to Anu.
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10-22-2008 @1:45PM Patrick Radoszewski said... I don't write in cookbooks but rather if I like a recipe and I think I'm going to cook it again, I copy recipes into a leather-bound journal where I can keep notes and modifications for future preparations. I keep dates in there as well for a little historical perspective.
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10-22-2008 @1:58PM Samme said... I certainly do write in the margins. I do not keep my cookbooks in pristine condition. I love them and use them. Batter-drips and sauce-stains are part of the territory, as well as margin notes in my chicken-scratch handwriting. It's My cookbook, I will treat it how I like.
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10-22-2008 @2:14PM Pamela Roza said... Absolutely! I write notes, make suggestions for ingredient substitution, and add stars for good recipes and frowny faces for bad ones. I LOVE stained, wrinkled pages because they let me know where the really REALLY good, often made, tried-and-true recipes are! To me, a pristine cookbook is the sign of one that is seldom used and, therefore, not very good.
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10-22-2008 @2:11PM Sarah said... I do it all the time! I often make changes so I don't want to forget what I did. I also will write on the page if the recipe was good - and if it sucked...yeah, I write that in huge caps on top of the page ;-)
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10-22-2008 @2:17PM Monika said... The funny thing is -- I don't mind if it's not pristine. Stains and wear are perfectly fine, but I HATE sloppy text. I know -- it doesn't make much sense.
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10-22-2008 @2:56PM michelle in colorado said... Well I write in mine, not that neatly though and I have spilled stuff on them and well they look well used.
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10-22-2008 @3:48PM Anu said... I agree with you about margin notes but just wanted to mention that Sam Breach -- whose cookbook with margin notes you show above -- is a woman not a man. I think Sam's just short for something.
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10-22-2008 @4:33PM Cat said... Yes, incase my daughters inherit them one day. I have my Mother's notes in her books, and up until a terrible fire, she had her Mom's... they were the last bit of her, through her handwriting, we had.
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10-22-2008 @5:18PM Brighella said... We do write notes in the cookbooks, put good recipes printed from the internet into the Joy of cooking (in the appropriate section) because the Joy is usually the first resource consulted if we say hmm...it would be cool to try X. We discuss keeping a kitchen log for those experimental nights or serendipitous discoveries, but haven't quite gotten around to it yet.
My dad wrote in his cookbooks too, helping us to bypass an yummy sounding something, a few years after he died. "Weird" was all it said, but that was enough. Thanks Dad
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10-22-2008 @5:58PM Marisa McClellan said... I often write notes in cookbooks, and I do it as much for any future users of the book as for myself. I tend to buy a lot of used cookbooks, and there's nothing I love more than discovering a volume that has been loved and annotated with another person's experiments and discoveries.
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10-22-2008 @8:36PM Barry said... Oh yeah, I even jot down grades (A through F) based on ease and overall goodness.
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10-23-2008 @10:38AM stacey said... I don't write in the books themselves. I have a card file with index cards. each card has a recipe name, the book & page it is on and a list of major ingredients. I look through that when I am meal planning, so I don't keep having to drag out all the books. I write notes on the cards themselves.
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10-23-2008 @2:15PM T Jans said... Not only do I write in the margins about the recipe. I also add the date, who came to dinner, the event (if appropriate) a rating of the recipe and what I would do differently next time. I also mark the index so I can find the recipe easily. I have done this for over 20 years and I'm sure my kids will look at it as a journal of memories of all kinds.
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