This May Come as a Surprise... But, I have another question! LOL

1. 67

   Heather Trippposted 12 years ago

   I am thinking about pulling out some of my grandma's old recipes, cause she could cook unlike any other person I know... A skill I certainly did not inherit... And I'd like some advice before I put up these hubs...
   
   What do you think is better? One recipe per hub or a say 5 recipes using the same main ingredient? Which do you think viewers would prefer?
   
   And grandma didn't exactly take pics of her food, and since there is no way I am cooking all this food just to take a picture of it... what kind of pictures should I use? I know, personally, I like to see what the final result is supposed to look like (Although I don't know why cause for some reason my end result is never nearly as pretty as the picture, which I find frustrating...), but since I won't have that.... What should I substitute?
   
   Thanks guys!

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      jponiatoposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Heather, I think you should reconsider trying some of these recipes, at least to get started.  Play up the personal connection to your grandma - and take pictures of the outcomes.  Not saying you should work through all of them, but it would be a great way to introduce the relationship with your grandma and her cooking.

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      1. 67

         Heather Trippposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         I do often use her recipes, and I think I will start taking pics of the end results as I make them... If anything, I can always come back and add them to the hub..
         
         But for me to cook all of them.. Oh my god, it would cost me a fortune at the grocery store.. LOL... She liked to cook. And since I am apparently the only female in the family that did not inherit the cooking DNA, my family thought it would be rather hilarious to pass on all of her six million recipes to me.
         
         As I make them for my own family, I will add pics onto my hubs of them.

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   2. 86

      jansharesposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      I agree with everyone, Heather. You should take a picture, but definitely try the recipe out first. For my first recipe hub, I was lucky enough to find a pic that looked exactly how mine looks. It didn't occur to me to make the dish that takes 4 hours when I was just trying to get my second hub done. But now I take my own pics.  I understand now that it definitely makes a recipe hub more authentic.

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   Dame Scribeposted 12 years ago

   I would suggest with maybe finding a pic of whatever main 'ingredient' or spice is used for your chosen recipe then update or add to it when you do complete that particular recipe. There are a lot of free pics out there and just use the search if you need site recommendations. Lots of valuable info on HP

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   psycheskinnerposted 12 years ago

   I would suggest one recipe per hub.
   
   And why not revisit the recipes and make them?  I, personally, don't trust a recipe the poster hasn't made.

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   kathyinmnposted 12 years ago

   If your grandmother cooked like mine, hand full of this, a pinch of that, equal amounts of this and that. You are going to have a very interesting time with these recipes.
   
   To be a good cook take pratice. The more you cook the better you become.
   I do understand about them not turning out as it should, I am still having a problem with my sour dough rye bread.......
   As for photos, if the recipe calls for useing potatoes, for example, take a photo of patotoes and post that.
   
   I would do 1 recipe at a time, perhaps a series, Grandma's Recipes, 1,   and the name of what it is as a sub title.
   
   But do try to make them first, maybe you can do a series on that, Adventures in Cooking Grandma's Recipes 1. and subtitle of what your cooking

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      Healthy Pursuitsposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Be careful about using the same title, even adding numbers to the end of the title. HubPages tends to look at it as title duplication. Besides, when people are searching for a specific recipe, say potatoes au gratin, they won't find your recipes as part of their search results.

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         jansharesposted 12 years agoin reply to this

         Interesting, Healthy Pursuits. I'm doing a seafood series and switched up the title putting the name of the dish first (Baked Salmon With Herb Crust) followed by the series name (Healthful Seafood Dinners Part I). Will that be acceptable to hub pages or will that be title duplication?

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            Healthy Pursuitsposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            I'm not sure. I was warned off series titles when I first started, so haven't really used them. I'd think, though, that putting the dish name first would add enough variety to each title to make the repetition of the series name a none-issue.

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               jansharesposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               I will tweak somethings, try it out and see, based on what you and wilderness have shared. Thanks for your help.

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            wildernessposted 12 years agoin reply to this

            Could be wrong here, but my understanding is that Google will only put one or two of your hubs on a page if the titles are too similar.  They don't want someone "stealing" all the top spots simply by writing more.
            
            The result (if I'm right) is that with several hubs all titled "Healthful Seafood Dinners" XXXXXXXX you will only get one on first page, maybe two.

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               jansharesposted 12 years agoin reply to this

               Thank you so much for that wilderness, back to editing I go. However, if they were spread out over time, it would probably be ok. I'd be happy to have just one hub show up on google's first page.

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   kathyinmnposted 12 years ago

   I have been doing serries 1,2,3...etc and I have not had any problems.
   
   But it is true looking for "how to make mashed potatoes" and it's in the serries may not be found by someone looking for that.
   
   Janshares has a good idea that may work

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   SmartAndFunposted 12 years ago

   Take your camera to Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations, birthdays, Easter, etc. Maybe some of your relatives will make at least a few of Grandma's recipes for the holidays and you can photo those dishes without even having to cook them.
   
   If you do cook some of her recipes now and then, take photos of all of them. Try to get in the habit of taking a photo of everything you cook. I often cook for my friends and family but don't think to write a recipe hub until after we start eating and the compliments begin rolling in. By then, the leftovers usually look unappetizing.  After dinner, immediately load the photos into the "my photos" storage on your HP account. That way, if you decide to write a hub about it some day, you'll already have the photo.

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   Uninvited Writerposted 12 years ago

   I personally feel people should not post recipes if they have never cooked them.

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   1. 67

      Heather Trippposted 12 years agoin reply to this

      Oh grandmas recipes have been tried.. I didn't live in the area the last few years of her life, so whenever I would pop in town, she would always start cooking everything she could think (because she thought I was "skin and bones"...) since she past away a few years ago, I have used a lot of her recipes. I like pulling them out and seeing her handwriting! :-)

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   Dale Hydeposted 12 years ago

   One thing I have learned from recipe publishing is that you need a "unique" title.  Some quality that you may remember about the dish that your grandmother prepared.  The technique used, the atmosphere created, the time of year..... In other words not just Southern Home Fried Chicken... That just came off the top of my head (well rolled off as there is not much hair up there anymore).. I feel that there would be a ton of recipes out there with that title or very close to it.  Hard fight up the mountain to the top with that going on.  However, something unique like Grandma's New Hampshire Fried Chicken Southern Style may do better.  That is just a wild guess.  Now you may use something to show it is healthy fried chicken in the title, or focus on a particular spice or spices.
   
   Hope that makes sense.

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   Xenonlitposted 12 years ago

   I do recipes and recommend taking extensive photos throughout the process. Then, you can make sure that you are showing the important steps. Many times, the photos are good enough to use in many hubs.
   
   I agree that your stories about your Grandma, combined with the recipes will be very good. You will also give credit to the person who originated the recipes.
   
   If you have a title that tells the reader that a single recipe is part of a series, that helps.
   
   You can also put all of the recipes in a group, so they stay together.
   
   Tags are also important.
   
   Here's to a good series.

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