We partnered with our friends at Maker's Mark® to celebrate the spirit of Maker’s Mark 46® bourbon—a bold reimagining of the founder's original whisky recipe—with a special recipe contest dedicated to family traditions.

The prize? It's sweet: One grand-prize winner will receive a gift card to use for a private guided tour of the Maker’s Mark Distillery, a $500 airfare gift card and $500 hotel gift card for planning the trip, a $500 prepaid debit card, and their recipe featured in our digital cookbook, A Toast to Family Ties. Here's everything you need to know to enter.

We're looking for recipes—appetizers, main dishes, desserts, cocktails, you name it—that are rooted in family traditions, but with a unique twist or riff that makes them all your own. For instance, upgrading classic Banana's Foster with a cereal crunch topping inspired by a breakfast tradition or transforming your family's go-to grits recipe into a cloud-like soufflé.

Oh, and you don’t need to use Maker’s Mark 46 Bourbon in your recipe (but all entrants must be 21 years or older—whether you submit a cocktail or food dish).

The contest will open on April 3, 2023 at 12:00pm EST. You'll have until April 17, 2023 at 11:59pm EST to submit your recipe.

• A complete recipe with an ingredients list and directions—plus prep time, cook time, and serving size—that ties back to the theme.

• The story behind your recipe, including why it's special to your family and how you reimagined it.

• A photo of your recipe—phone snapshots are totally fine! (We won't be judging your photography skills.)

Once the contest closes, the Food52 editorial team will review (and cook!) the recipes. We'll narrow down all the submissions to the top eight using these criteria:

• Relevance to contest theme and overall appeal of the recipe.

• Whether the recipe is written well in an organized and reproducible way.

• Ease of preparation.

• Taste and presentation.

• Creativity and inventiveness.

Once we select the top eight, the Food52 community will vote on the finalists in a bracket-style tournament via Instagram Stories on the @Food52 account until we have our grand-prize winner. (For the full judging criteria, check out the contest rules and conditions page here.)