Food - Drink
The Longstanding Trend Of Etching Recipes On Gravestones
By VANESSA NIX ANTHONY
Favorite recipes prepared by loved ones leave indelible marks on our hearts and in our memories; when those loved ones pass, their recipes are a way to keep their memory alive. While there are cooks who hold tight to their culinary secrets, even after they pass, others, however, leave their recipes on their gravestone for all to enjoy.
TikTok Influencer Rosie Grant began collecting recipes etched on gravestones and making them during the pandemic lockdown in remembrance. Grant told The Guardian, “As I made more of the recipes and got more feedback from everyone, I began to understand how important cooking is for people and for family histories."
While Grant is still tracking down and whipping up headstone recipes online, don't expect to find rows of gravestones covered in recipes the next time you visit the cemetery since it’s a fairly new practice. Even so, if you want to take your own graveyard recipe tour, Grant isn't the only one compiling recipe lists.
Atlas Obscura is cataloging these gravestone recipes online, while author trio Allison C. Meier, Bronwyn Hazelwood, and Claire Voon put together “Cooking with the Dead: A zine of tombstone recipes” for sale on Etsy. Whether you're cooking food in celebration of loved ones passed or cooking a recipe from a grave, it’s the remembering that matters.