Join the Lost Recipes Found-ers Circle! For a donation of $25, you can support all of the work we do at Lost Recipes Found, or earmark it for one of the specific tasks below. Contact editor@lostrecipesfound.com to join, or snail-mail me at: Monica Kass Rogers, MKRogers Features & Photography, 8933 Forestview Road, Evanston, IL 60203.
Dear Lost Recipes Found-ers,
The process of launching Lost Recipes Found has been an unparalleled adventure. Like most print journalists that launch something online, I started with a good idea and some skills. Since launch, I’ve learned that there’s SO much more to this than that.
Content-wise, there’s the daily experience of dialoguing with readers, interviewing them to learn more about what they’re really looking for, and, to hear their end of story on these vintage recipe requests. Then there is the search: a never-ending process of finding and digging through archives, learning how best to track people down who may know more about the recipes I seek, developing relationships with them and the many people across the country who work for historical societies or have an interest in local history or food culture.
Execution-wise, there is recipe testing and re-testing & photographing the food so that it looks as good as it tastes. That, plus telling the stories themselves, writing some in a short & sweet format; building others into bigger, more comprehensive pieces that may include Q&As, audio or visual podcasts.
And there’s the potential for so much more.
Two years in, I’m still on the front end of bringing much of this to full bloom. I’ve learned that getting it there involves community. Here’s how you can help:
1) Share your recipes and food memories
You can do that publicly at our Swap Shop, or, you can do that with me behind the scenes. (Hopefully both!) I’ve just begun creating oral-histories for the site, and, for non-profit foodways groups. Please contact me at editor@lostrecipesfound.com if you’d be available for interview on:
- multigenerational family food stories (favorite family dishes that have been passed down for generations)
- memories of closed restaurants and department-store tea rooms
- school cafeteria cook stories (from the times when things were scratch-made)
- advertising-related recipe stories–stories about the characters connected to food-company ingredients (Pillsbury doughboy, Snap Crackle & Pop, Frito Bandito, etc.) and the recipes that go with those
- memories of working in bakeries or department-store tea rooms
- memories of working in the kitchens of long-gone restaurants
- memories of long-gone cooking schools and cooking contests. Stories about the people behind these and their histories; stories of your participation in these
2) Donate old cookbook collections to the LRF library
Dilapidated doesn’t matter–they’re valuable to us! We use old cookbooks to help find recipes people are looking for, and/or, to put them in context with the region or decade in which a recipe was created or served.
3) Post your recipe comments and stories on the website
With the April relaunch of our website, we now have an online forum “Swap Shop” for you to 1) post your lost recipe requests, 2) share recipes you have that fit other people’s requests, and, 3) post recipe stories and memories. Remember: sharing these great old recipes keeps them in the active kitchen, not just on the shelf!
4) Join the Lost Recipes Found-ers Circle!
Write me at editor@lostrecipesfound.com
Looking forward to hearing from you,
Monica Kass Rogers, Editor