So sad to line up the old Gourmets for trash pickup as part of a general move to downsize my paper junk.

I think my sister-in-law in Toronto bought us our first Gourmet subscription, shortly after the death of her husband, my oldest brother (and the first real gourmet I knew).

Eventually, we ordered hard-copy indexes of the recipes. It was a strangely inefficient system, noting a recipe in the index, then going back to the indicated edition for the actual recipe. Especially since the pages with the best recipes were permanently bookmarked by sticky sauce stains in our paper issues.

Finding the recipes online will be a less authentic experience. And no convenient interruptions by photos of great food and the interesting places where it’s discovered.

I hope our old copies will be appropriately trash-picked.