Why Every Home Cook Should Keep a Kitchen Journal (and What to Write in It)

Why Do You Need a Journal?

To keep improving, quite honestly. We all think we’ll remember that the biscuits needed an extra five minutes, or that the chicken marinade felt positively life-altering because of one extra squeeze of lemon. Spoiler: we rarely do. Our brains are too busy juggling bills, meetings, family WhatsApps, and the existential dread of the laundry pile.

And it happens in every part of life – school, work, even play.

It’s just like the problem described by essay writers from EssayShark: students losing marks simply because they overlook tiny details in their instructions. The devil’s in the detail, right?

In exactly the same way, your recipes never reach their full potential if you don’t jot down what you learned from your past triumphs and kitchen catastrophes.

You discover your personal style.
Sure, online recipes are lovely. But sooner or later every dish starts tasting a bit… generic. As if a committee politely approved it. Your journal is where you record the tweaks that make a dish truly yours.

Maybe that soup turns glorious with more broccoli, or perhaps that pie becomes cloying with sugar but sings with honey instead. Over time, patterns appear – and you learn exactly how you like to eat. No need to live your life copying and pasting from the internet.

You save money.
We’ve all bought a heroic family-sized pack of mushrooms… only to discover them attempting to evolve in the back of the fridge. The waste adds up, both financially and emotionally.

A journal helps you track what you actually use, what tends to rot before you even look at it, and which impulse buys must never darken your doorstep again. You might realise you only buy coriander when guests guilt-trip you into it, or that you can easily swap pricey cheeses for a cheeky sprinkle of Parmesan. Suddenly your wallet – and your bin – breathe a little easier.

What to Write

What you cooked.
Note the recipe, but more importantly, write down what actually happened in your kitchen journal. Did the pasta soak up all the sauce or collapse into mush? Did that new chilli powder deliver dinner… or a fire-breathing competition? These details might feel obvious now, but they’re pure gold for future you.

Timing and tools.
Record your oven’s quirks. Identify which pan insists on burning every pancake. Every kitchen is its own unreliable narrator. Work out what behaves, write it down, and never again ask, “Why is this still raw?” or “How did this end up as charcoal?” And always note how long something really took, not the fantasy version printed on the recipe.

Taste changes.
Perhaps you once loathed olives but would now commit minor crimes for tapenade. Note shifting preferences: too sweet, too salty, too dull to bother making again. Tracking how flavours hit over time means you can tailor meals to the people you actually feed – including yourself.

A Sample Entry for your Kitchen Journal

If you’re still unsure how to approach your journal, here’s a simple starter:

• Date, recipe name, and where it came from.
• Steps you took – not the recipe’s instructions, but what you actually did.
• Ingredient swaps and whether they worked.
• Reactions from you/guests/pets/judgemental neighbours.
• Notes for improving it next time.

Feel free to add doodles, chaotic arrows, and dramatic commentary about the soufflé that betrayed you. Make it yours – that’s the whole point.

So go on, get yourself a kitchen journal and start writing!

Lin xx

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