How to digitize cookbook and family recipes
Turn cookbook pages, handwritten recipe cards, and family notes into recipes you can find, edit, and cook with Brie—while keeping their original sources.
Save the recipes you use, with the source details that make them yours to return to. A cookbook title, an author, a page number, or “Grandma’s handwritten card” can be as useful as the ingredients when you want to find a favorite again.
The aim is a usable recipe library: a place where a paper favorite can become Wednesday’s dinner. Brie lets you capture cookbook pages or add photos and text, then use those recipes for editing, meal planning, groceries, and cooking.
In this guide
Start with three recipes you actually want to cook
Pick a weeknight favorite, a recipe you keep forgetting to make, and a family dish you want to preserve. Capture and review those before working through a shelf of books. You will quickly learn what needs a closer photo, which notes belong with the recipe, and how you want to name it.
Keep the original card or book. The digital version gives you another useful way to find and use the recipe; the original remains your reference when a line is unclear or a family note needs interpretation.
How to import a cookbook recipe into Brie
- In Recipes, use the add menu to open Add a recipe and choose the cookbook option.
- Choose the cookbook. Select one you have already added, or capture its cover with the title and author visible.
- Add the recipe pages. Capture every ingredient and direction in reading order. Include continuations on the next page; a little overlap helps preserve context.
- Add a dish photo if you have one. This is optional and separate from the pages containing the recipe.
- Finish the import, follow its progress in Recipes, and compare the completed recipe with the book.
The current guided photo flow supports up to ten recipe-page photos for one recipe. Add separate dishes as separate recipes, even if the book presents them next to each other.
Take page photos that preserve the details
Hold the phone parallel
Keep the page flat and readable. A steep angle makes small numbers and text near the spine harder to recognize.
Avoid glare and shadows
Use even light. Move the book or phone if a reflection covers an ingredient amount.
Include the entire recipe
Capture ingredient lists, component headings, directions, yield, and notes. Do not cut off the bottom line.
Keep pages in order
Add the first page before its continuation. Preserve headings such as ‘For the sauce’ so quantities keep their context.
Read the photo before importing it. If you cannot distinguish “¼” from “¾” in the picture, take another one. Clear source material makes reviewing easier too.
How to save handwritten recipe cards and family notes
Use the text-and-photo options in Add a recipe for a handwritten card. Photograph both sides when the directions continue on the back. Include the recipe’s name and the person or family source you want to remember.
Family recipes often assume the reader already knows the method: “until done,” “one small can,” or “like Mom makes it.” Preserve those words while you check what they mean. Add a note explaining a confirmed detail; do not silently replace an uncertain instruction with a guess.
A note such as “Katrina makes this for Thanksgiving” is useful context. Keep it alongside the source rather than mixing it into an ingredient line. The collection becomes easier to search and more meaningful to cook from.
Compare the digital recipe with the original
Check fractions, units, and ingredient groups. Small printed fractions, handwritten numbers, and amounts split between a filling and topping are easy places for a transcription to drift.
Check the direction flow. Make sure a continued paragraph, oven temperature, resting instruction, or separate sauce has not disappeared. A shortened recipe is only useful when it still tells you what to do in the right order.
Keep the source recognizable. Retain the cookbook title and author, add a page reference where useful, and preserve a family creator’s name. You should be able to go back to the original when you need context.
If you are also moving online favorites, use the website importing guide. If you are choosing a tool before digitizing a larger collection, compare the capture options in our recipe app guide.
Give a paper favorite a place in your week
Once the original is checked, you can edit it or ask Brie for an adaptation: make it vegetarian, increase protein without simply enlarging the portion, or adjust it to the servings you need. Review both ingredients and directions before saving the change.
For a creamy pasta, a proposed higher-protein version might blend cottage cheese into part of the sauce. Keep the cookbook version as your reference, check the updated preparation, and use estimated nutrition to compare the saved versions rather than assume a fixed improvement.
Then put the chosen version on the calendar. Its ingredients can become part of the grocery list, and another household member can cook from the same plan. Explore Brie’s importing and editing workflow and meal planning with your saved recipes.