The keeper's handbook

25 questions to ask the family cook — while you still can

Bring these to Sunday dinner. Press record before you ask the first one — the answers are the heirloom, and they only come out in their own voice.

About the dish

1. Walk me through it like I've never seen a kitchen — what's the very first thing you do?
2. What do you measure, and what do you just know?
3. How do you tell it's done? What does it look like, smell like, sound like?
4. What's the mistake everyone makes with this dish?
5. What ingredient will you not compromise on — and which brand, if you're honest?
6. What do you do when it goes wrong halfway through?
7. What would you never tell people is in it?

About where it came from

8. Who taught you this? What did their kitchen look like?
9. How old were you the first time you made it alone?
10. Is this how they made it — or did you change something? Why?
11. Did this recipe travel? Which towns, which countries, whose suitcase?
12. Was there ever a time the family couldn't afford to make it?
13. Who in the family before you was famous for it?

About the table

14. When does this dish get made — and when must it never be skipped?
15. Who asks for it most? Whose plate gets filled first?
16. What's the biggest crowd you ever cooked it for?
17. What goes next to it on the table, always?
18. Is there a version for regular days and a version for occasions?

About them

19. What dish of yours do you hope somebody keeps making?
20. Who in the next generation cooks most like you?
21. What did cooking mean to you when the kids were small? What does it mean now?
22. What recipe do you wish you had asked about, from someone who's gone?
23. What smell takes you straight back to your mother's kitchen?
24. If you could make one more meal for someone who's passed, who and what?
25. What do you want the family to remember when they make this after you?

Don't let the answers evaporate

The cruelest outcome is asking beautifully and losing the recording in a camera roll. Give the answers a home: Legacy Table turns the spoken recipe into a written one automatically, keeps the recording attached to the dish, and puts both where the whole family can find them — this Sunday and in forty years. Start with question 1 and the dish everyone begs for; our guide to recording family recipes covers the rest.