Stories from the kitchen

Good food should stay in the family—and find new tables, too.

Our Midwest Recipe Box is a cooking-first home for dishes recorded on index cards, tucked into community cookbooks, and remembered around supper tables.

A homemade chicken pot pie ready for the family table

Our purposeKeep the recipe useful. Keep the story visible.

What belongs in the box

Twelve core states. Room for meaningful borderland stories.

The collection's core is Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. A nearby recipe may be included only when its contributor explains a real Midwestern community connection and an owner approves it.

Explore all 270 recipes Preserve a community cookbook

Our editorial promise

Preserved with care, presented with honesty.

Every public recipe shows what is known, what still needs review, and where the dish came from.

Place stays factual

Cards display only verified location and era details. Unknown provenance remains clearly labeled rather than guessed.

The source stays visible

Every entry keeps its supplied recipe-card image beside the transcription so cooks can compare the two.

Review status stays visible

OCR-assisted transcriptions remain labeled until an editor checks them. Automation cannot invent measurements, provenance, or safety advice.

The founding collection

270 official family recipes, preserved and made useful.

The live archive pairs supplied source cards with readable transcriptions and interpretive prepared-dish photography. The original card remains available so every visitor can compare the source with the cooking reference.

Read the editorial, sourcing, and corrections policy