A family recipe book kept the way you'd keep a photo.
The last three recipe sites your grandmother trusted have all been sold, rebuilt, or gated. A file doesn't get sold.
Family recipes carry two things: the ingredients, and the marginalia — 'less salt, more lemon, don't tell Dad'. Cloud recipe sites are excellent at the first and hostile to the second. A single file is good at both and, importantly, still opens in fifteen years.
The marginalia matters
Every recipe carries a notes field for the tweaks a household actually uses. That's the part worth handing down.
Handed down means portable
The file is the heirloom. Copy it to the next generation's laptop; they open it, add to it, keep going. No account transfer, no 'the service is shutting down' e-mail.
Prints properly
Because it's HTML, the recipe prints. A splash-proof paper copy taped to the inside of a cupboard is still the best kitchen UX.
What to reach for
Common questions
Can I import from a recipe app?
Most apps export JSON or Markdown; the Recipe Box imports both. The recipes people actually cook are usually about thirty of them — move those.
Will it still open in ten years?
Yes — it's HTML. Browsers have opened HTML for thirty years already.
Photos?
Link out to photos, or paste small images into the notes. The file stays lean on purpose.
Can two people edit?
Put the file in a shared folder. Both households can add to the same book.