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Betty Crocker broke recipes by shrinking boxes

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Re: Betty Crocker broke recipes by shrinking boxes

#191

Post by nvader »

nanolith wrote: post #45

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…

After reading this, I have to comment with this link to https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/your-review-my-fathers-inst...

This story describes the dangers of NOT standardizing on a single, proper version.

Re: Betty Crocker broke recipes by shrinking boxes

#192

Post by sniffers »

pessimizer wrote: post #42
brian-armstrong wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This sounds like the argument people make against Hawaiian food. Why use Spam! You can eat real food you know! Thing is, once something has been done a certain way, it becomes a tradition in its own right. It doesn't really matter how it got to be that way, but once people have nostalgia for it, they want to keep doing it the same way.

Spam is a hell of a lot harder to make than cake mix. Cake mix is literally just measuring, and what was in the box when your mom made it isn't from the same suppliers, or probably of the same quality, as what's in the box now.

What's in the box is unknown to most people. Unknowable, even. They are surprisingly complex mixes.

Re: Betty Crocker broke recipes by shrinking boxes

#193

Post by sniffers »

cheschire wrote: post #143
MangoToupe wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Baking in general is very sensitive. I've made batches of cookies that I've tried to reproduce for years but, because I didn't take notes, could not. Hell even the altitude you bake at requires significant adjustment.

Cooking is art. Baking is science.

They are both art and both science.

Re: Betty Crocker broke recipes by shrinking boxes

#194

Post by bruce511 »

crazygringo wrote: post #186
bruce511 wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same people who have flour, sugar, baking powder, eggs, milk ‐ pasta, rice, potatoes, ya know, food. I don't eat a whole bag of rice with every meal. I have a plastic tub. Buy rice, fill tub, remove potions as required, repeat. My pantry is full of plastic tubs with various staples. My veggies come in bunches. My eggs in boxes. When did we become so helpless that "the box is the wrong size" became an issue?

Because we use those ingredients constantly and regularly. You don't usually make a particular type of cookie every week or two. You might only make it once every six months. And your cake mix won't stay good exposed to oxygen for six months. It's not about being helpless, c'mon.

I think you and I have very different ideas of "helpless". :)

"Oh no, the premix is a different size, no more cookies ever" - seems like a pretty helpless response to me.

First World Problems I guess...

Re: Betty Crocker broke recipes by shrinking boxes

#195

Post by kemayo »

pests wrote: post #112
striking wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Miami Fruit will reportedly ship them to you. Unless you live in California or Hawaii, much to my chagrin...

Link for the lazy: https://miamifruit.org/products/gros-michel-banana-box-order... $17 for a single fruit!

Lucille Bluth underestimated, it turns out!

(Context for the unfamiliar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTswXAFA18Y )

Re: Betty Crocker broke recipes by shrinking boxes

#196

Post by bobthepanda »

al_borland wrote: post #116
e28eta wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I first learned of it reading the intro to American Cake, by Anne Byrn. It covers the history of cakes in America, through (updated) 125 recipes. The current recipe for pound cake calls for 6 large eggs, but the notes on ingredients in the book’s introduction said early recipes needed 12-16 (!!) eggs in order to get one pound of eggs. Side note: pound cake uses 1 lb each of eggs, flour, sugar, and butter

This is very interesting. I recently bought an older Better Homes and Gardens cookbook from 1953. I wanted one from before science took over the kitchen too much. I haven’t had a chance to cook anything from it yet, but now I’m questioning if I’ll have issues trying to cook with a 70+ year old cookbook, especially when it comes to baked goods. I’m not into cooking enough to have the patience to experiment and tune th…

Sizes are different but also appliances were a lot more temperamental back then; the first oven with a temperature control was only developed in the 20s and it would take a while for them to be in every home.

If anything, much older recipes tend to be less precise simply because they did not have the technology. Before thermostats were put in ovens, baking was done by feeding a fire by vibes, and then leaving your baked good to sit in the residual heat.

Re: Betty Crocker broke recipes by shrinking boxes

#197

Post by tavavex »

bruce511 wrote: post #175
jaggederest wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> feels like something pretty straight forward to fix. It is actually not. This is something I learned as a lad working in a bakery, professional bakers use all kinds of ingredients not readily available at home. Especially in e.g. boxed cake mix, it's actually a half dozen ingredients that are totally impractical to keep on hand. Various gums, starches, dextrins, mono- and di-glycerides, surfactants, encapsulated fl…

>> Various gums, starches, dextrins, mono- and di-glycerides, surfactants, encapsulated flavors, specific leavening ratios, basically the whole chemistry set. Um. Ok. You say this like it's a good thing? I'll be honest, your statement makes me want that less rather than more. Now granted, I never use mixes anyway, so I'm not the target market. I mean, baking a cake or cookies from ingredients is so simple a 5 year ol…

> Um. Ok. You say this like it's a good thing? I'll be honest, your statement makes me want that less rather than more.

That person listed a lot of completely different ingredients. Did you dismiss them all out of hand for a specific reason? Something tells me this is about that bias people have, the one where long chemical names are all bad, because they're chemicals, and the only good chemicals one may use is ones that are common enough to receive a non-intimidating normal name. It's all chemistry all the way down.

Re: Betty Crocker broke recipes by shrinking boxes

#198

Post by lifeformed »

gwd wrote: post #16
mh- wrote: 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…

Speaking as an American, this is a part of American culture that's so weird -- using a pre-made mix as a base for a recipe that it's not designed for. That recipe looks like it just has flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt pre-mixed (with a load of other garbage you probably don't need). People don't seem to realize that you can just buy those ingredients yourself. It doesn't take that much extra time to meas…

I bet you couldn't consistently make a cake even half as good as a box mix for even triple it's cost.

People who don't bake often then baking is just throwing some stuff together and heating it up. It's very hard to get consistent results! It's literally an exact science. Did you weigh all the ingredients exactly? Did your mix and sift them evenly? Is your leavening agent fresh? Did you account for the humidity in your area and kitchen? Does your oven actually heat at the temperature it says? Does it heat evenly inside? Maybe you can pull off a good cake once or twice, but can you do it again, in a different kitchen? What about a smaller cake or bigger one? Box mixes take as many variables out of the equation as possible. They are very forgiving and delicious. There is no shame in using one for the home.

Re: Betty Crocker broke recipes by shrinking boxes

#199

Post by dml2135 »

crazygringo wrote: post #186
bruce511 wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same people who have flour, sugar, baking powder, eggs, milk ‐ pasta, rice, potatoes, ya know, food. I don't eat a whole bag of rice with every meal. I have a plastic tub. Buy rice, fill tub, remove potions as required, repeat. My pantry is full of plastic tubs with various staples. My veggies come in bunches. My eggs in boxes. When did we become so helpless that "the box is the wrong size" became an issue?

Because we use those ingredients constantly and regularly. You don't usually make a particular type of cookie every week or two. You might only make it once every six months. And your cake mix won't stay good exposed to oxygen for six months. It's not about being helpless, c'mon.

Well this is why it makes sense to bake from standard ingredients like flour that have many different uses, instead of a processed box that can only be used to make one thing.
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