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Betty Crocker broke recipes by shrinking boxes

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Re: Betty Crocker broke recipes by shrinking boxes

#61
post #11

Why would you buy overpriced cake mix in the first place? Buy flour, sugar, cocoa and sodium bicarbonate and... that's it? Oh wait you probably have all of them already.

The people relying on cake mid probably don’t have any of that in their pantry.

Re: Betty Crocker broke recipes by shrinking boxes

#62
post #13
post #4

> “It’s just so upsetting,” says Judith, whose cookie recipe was passed down by her mother. These “perfect little cookies” once made the rounds at bake sales, Christmas cookie exchanges, and birthdays. > a box of Betty Crocker chocolate cake mix, two eggs, and 1/3 cup neutral oil I realize it's not the point of the story, but this is like that Friends episode[0] where Phoebe finds out her grandmother's secret cookie…

I've had the tiniest nagging confusion about that... From what I recall, it seemed pretty common to use the recipe on the bag of chocolate chips, yet somehow each family's cookies came out different. My mom's instantiation of the bag recipe, for example, were pretty consistent across runs, yet not quite like anyone else's (that you're exposed to at friends' houses, school birthdays, bake sales, church potlucks, famil…

The tollhouse recipe is amazingly fragile. Slight variations in temperature can make the cookies "go flat" or end up with a thick skin. No surprise there is a variation of outcomes using older ovens that were very imprecise.

Re: Betty Crocker broke recipes by shrinking boxes

#63

Speaking of cookie recipes, have you tried the Neiman Marcus Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe? Bejabbers it's fine. Pecan flour. Walnuts. 2 kinds of chocolate... Costs $50 to do a batch tho.

Which recipe are you following? I found a few, including one on the Neiman Marcus website, but none had pecan flour and only one had walnuts.

The one from email spam circa 2003?

Re: Betty Crocker broke recipes by shrinking boxes

#65

Much to the chagrin of my mother, I made it a point about a decade ago to standardize old family recipes on "from scratch" versions. As part of the process, I also did some research on old recipes and fixed some of the corruption of these recipes that occurred during the copying and recitation, bolstering them with culinary techniques that were in use at the time. I also captured things that drift over time, such as…

What a beautiful story. This - generally, a journey through the drift of recipe fidelity over time, and specifically grounded in your story - would make a great book. Mark Kurlansly has some lovely books that weave the history of recipes with history generally. His history of Salt is truly captivating.

Re: Betty Crocker broke recipes by shrinking boxes

#66

Much to the chagrin of my mother, I made it a point about a decade ago to standardize old family recipes on "from scratch" versions. As part of the process, I also did some research on old recipes and fixed some of the corruption of these recipes that occurred during the copying and recitation, bolstering them with culinary techniques that were in use at the time. I also captured things that drift over time, such as…

[deleted]

Re: Betty Crocker broke recipes by shrinking boxes

#67

Much to the chagrin of my mother, I made it a point about a decade ago to standardize old family recipes on "from scratch" versions. As part of the process, I also did some research on old recipes and fixed some of the corruption of these recipes that occurred during the copying and recitation, bolstering them with culinary techniques that were in use at the time. I also captured things that drift over time, such as…

Wait I thought Gris Michel went extinct?!

Where oh where on God's green earth did they survive and can I get them shipped!?

Re: Betty Crocker broke recipes by shrinking boxes

#69
post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're only making cakes occasionally it's a pain to buy all the ingredients and have them sit around. Besides, even professional bakers use premix.

Oh no they don't.

Oh yes they do: https://youtu.be/CZDFwqHkPec

(Also linked above)

Re: Betty Crocker broke recipes by shrinking boxes

#70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Sales of betty crocker mix can go down. Grandma will now search for a cookie recipe without the shrunken mix and go buy flour and eggs and vanilla sugar.

vanilla and sugar has also shrinkflated
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