Are you known for some dish that you prepare frequently? Do others rave to praise your cooking? If so, you might have the recipe engraved on your (future) tombstone.

In cemeteries from Alaska to Israel, families have memorialized their loved ones with the deceased’s most cherished recipes carved in stone. These dishes — mostly desserts — give relatives a way to remember the sweet times and, they hope, bring some joy to visitors who discover them among the more traditional monuments.

Recent advancements in gravestone technology, like lasers that can carve directly into the stone, have made it easier to leave a more personalized memorial, Mr. Keister said. Some include QR codes that lead to memorial websites.

“You only have one chance to make a last impression,” said Douglas Keister, a photographer and author who has written several books about cemeteries, including “Stories in the Stone: A Field Guide to Cemetery Symbolism and Iconography.” (For his own memorial, Mr. Keister plans a bench with the inscription “Keisters go here.”)

Recipes on gravestones are a relatively new phenomenon in the long history of cemetery iconography, he said. But they’ve found an ardent following online.

On her TikTok channel, @ghostlyarchive, Rosie Grant shares headstone recipes, drawing hundreds of thousands of views from a devoted audience fascinated by the intersection of cemeteries and cooking. “Cemeteries are an open-air museum,” said Ms. Grant, 32, who lives in Washington D.C.

Recent advancements in gravestone technology, like lasers that can carve directly into the stone, have made it easier to leave a more personalized memorial, Mr. Keister said. Some include QR codes that lead to memorial websites. You can read more in an article published in the DNYUZ.com web site at: https://bit.ly/3ArNWk0.