The stories behind the scribbles

When I spy a used cookbook I am interested in buying, the first thing I do is skim the pages to see if anyone has written any notes inside. Early in my cookbook collecting, if I saw writing in the margins I would put book back on the shelf. I was only interested in pristine volumes, as years of working in a library had created an aversion to marked-up books. But these days I’ve come to not only accept notations, but to embrace them. As Peggy Grodinsky writes, “Scribbles in cookbooks can tell us a lot about the recipes – and about ourselves.”

Grodinsky’s cookbooks are dotted with handwritten annotations. In addition to writing instructions or alterations for the next time she makes a dish, she adds context that includes feelings and events. For example, in a recent notation to a recipe for Not-just-for-Thanksgiving cranberry shortbread cake in Baking from My Home to Yours, she writes “No need re constant stirring. I am listening to Gov. Mills ‘major’ pandemic press conference on computer, so only stirring periodically. 5/7/2020.”

People jot notes in cookbooks for a variety of reasons, and Grodinsky breaks these down into several categories. There are straightforward items such as corrections, additions, and deletions, but also more esoteric ones like recording when you made the recipe and with whom you shared the dish, or cross-referencing the recipe with another in a different cookbook. One woman interviewed for the story said the notes in her cookbook are “a road map to other relationships. I never make custard sauce without thinking about my grandmother. The notes are tracks in the dust.”

I now make notes in my own cookbooks, shaking off the admonitions drilled into my head by head librarians. As I page through older volumes I have acquired secondhand, I wish I had picked up the well-loved editions I previously discounted. Seeing praise beside a recipe encourages me to make it, and I can avoid pitfalls by listening to a previous owner’s advice. I hope that when my cookbooks eventually go to a new home, the purchasers will use my notes to inform their cooking.