When Recipes Disappear
On Early Food Sites, Lost Links, and Why I Started Writing Things Down
There was a time when finding a recipe online still made my heart skip a beat. There were no endless archives then, just foodies publishing what they liked to eat and cook. Back then, I assumed those recipes would always be around. In those moments, the internet felt limitless and in some ways, it still feels the same way today.
When Links Start Breaking
Somewhere in the early 2000s, I noticed something unsettling. Recipes I had made before were suddenly gone. Vanished.
Links break. Sites change hands or change names. Recipes I remember cooking were suddenly nowhere to be found. At the time, I didn’t think of it as “lost content”. It just felt inconvenient, like I would eventually come across most of them again.
But the pattern kept repeating.
I tried more than once to recover a few of those lost recipes using the Wayback Machine. It is an incredible archive, but it can only help if you remember enough to search for what you are missing. In my case, some details are simply too far gone.
Such is life.
The Sites I Keep Returning To
Allrecipes, Epicurious, Recipezaar.
These were places I returned to often. I may even have a printout or two from Recipezaar still tucked into a cookbook somewhere. For years, MyRecipes felt like Southern Living’s digital kitchen, until those recipes got scattered from here to kingdom come. Thank goodness I have quite a collection of physical copies to keep me occupied. The real copycat recipe site is not even the top result anymore. And I don’t appreciate that either. I am feeling recipe-devastated over here, okay!?!
I wish I had started writing things down sooner.
What stayed behind weren’t always the recipes that mattered most to me. The ones I returned to again and again were the ones that fed people without much fuss. I am still mad at myself for letting that sugar-free praline recipe slip away. And I will FOREVER dream about a mango cheesecake I never got to bake.
The internet is not really permanent. It just feels that way sometimes.
Writing Down What Earned Its Place
Around 2009, I started keeping a small recipe organizer, the La Cuisine Recipe Keeper. I did not write everything down. Only the recipes that earned it. The ones I mashed up, fused, and adjusted. The ones I trusted. The ones that worked like magic when time was short and dinner still needed to happen.
That little book is a mess now. Tattered pages. Notes scribbled in margins. Recipes tucked into pockets where they do not belong. A few favorites are still missing entirely. But what remains is a record of what proved itself on more than one occasion. I’ll share more of these soon.
I’ve even got a few “luxury” recipes in there too. These were the ones that were too costly or indulgent to make very often. Being afraid it might disappear before I got around to making it again, I saved this incredible lemon Doberge cake recipe. I don’t think it’s Beulah Ledner’s recipe, but it is wildly indulgent and I have not been able to relocate it online since at least 2015.
That’s exactly why I wrote down this BBQ Spice Mix recipe. I don’t remember exactly where I found the original recipe. (I’m guessing Recipezaar.) What I do remember is realizing, after making it enough times, that I had better write it down before it disappeared like so many others. It’s definitely one of those recipes with staying power. I’ve made a few personal tweaks over the years and use it on so many things. Writing it down was not about preservation for its own sake. It’s more about documenting a formula worth passing on.
If something doesn’t hold up in a home kitchen, it doesn’t belong here, no matter how popular it might be. I just want to keep track of what actually works. I test and share only the recipes I know work. Most days I’m cooking around 4,700 feet above sea level. but, I learned to cook much closer to sea level, some say just below it. That early cooking still informs how I season, how I taste, and how I know when something is right. What I’m sharing here has proven itself across kitchens and elevations alike.
Still Writing Things Down
For the most part, I cook with what I have, when I have it. I rarely cook the same thing twice unless it absolutely earns its place for a repeat performance. And I still write things down. Even moreso now that my children are older and asking how to make certain dishes.
A Note From Me
Some of the content I’m sharing now may turn into recipes. Some might just stay as notes. Some are destined to be no more than incidental entries or observations. I am letting that part unfold naturally. Honestly, writing them down feels like a small act of self-care. For myself, for my kids, and for anyone who might stumble across this page someday.
For now, I’m just cooking and creating, the same way I always have. But this time, I’ll be writing down what proves worth repeating and sharing.
