If only there wasn't a universal unchanging unit of measure that did not depend on third parties and was used across the world.
Betty Crocker broke recipes by shrinking boxes
401–410 of 721 posts
Re: Betty Crocker broke recipes by shrinking boxes
#402Earlier quoted context omitted.
> It’s so much easier to measure with a kitchen scale than it is to wonder “did I pack the X in too tight or too loose into this cup?”. Here in the UK, I get irrationally annoyed by seeing recipes that use "U.S." measurements. A "cup" is mostly meaningless to me as I've got lots of different size cups and as you state, it's not a consistent way to measure most ingredients (I can understand it being used for liquids,…
I’m in the UK too and you can buy measuring cups here easily. It doesn’t mean “a mug from your cupboard”. It _is_ a volume measurement. I do agree it doesn’t make sense for things that aren’t fluid-like.
"Cups" are also usually labelled on measuring jugs too. I'd refuse on principle to buy a specific measuring cup.
Re: Betty Crocker broke recipes by shrinking boxes
#403Earlier quoted context omitted.
The amount of people in the cooking enthusiast world that dismiss chemistry and assume it makes the end product worse is just a socially acceptable form of ludditeism. Meanwhile in the professional world Sysco does 80 billion dollars of business.
Yeah, there's a pervasive and strange focus on purity in cooking, for whatever definition satisfies that term. All food is the result of a sequence of chemical and physical reactions; understanding those reactions might take away some of the magic but also allows you to systemically and precisely hone the outcome. I think some people resent that the magic can be explained and improved.
For the competing view, a lot of the chemistry involved in food is to maximise shelf life, with the cost to health or taste considered acceptable given the improved economics to the supplier.
Re: Betty Crocker broke recipes by shrinking boxes
#404I feel like nobody in this thread has made a cake before and thinks it's trivial to do, and boxed mixes are just premeasured flour, baking soda, and sugar.
Baking a cake IS easy. Try it out XD
Re: Betty Crocker broke recipes by shrinking boxes
#405Earlier quoted context omitted.
I keep four to six flours in my pantry, but none of them contain additives like baking powder. It’s so trivial to add the appropriate amount when it’s called for, I have trouble understanding why self-rising flour would be a popular product.
What are your flour varieties?
We're getting off-topic, but let's nerd on baking! Right now:
- All-purpose (the trade term sifted/sieved/filtered wheat)
- Bread flour (same but higher protein content, in this case it's just a different variety of wheat. Some brand use additives like added gluten.)
- Whole grain wheat. I just ran out of regular but I have whole-grain emmer on hand that I can substitute. Anything with gluten and full-grain will do the job, it's usually only 10-20% of a bread anyway.
- Spelt (sifted)
- Whole-grain rye (fine-milled, for something like a French country rye bread or Finnish rye)
- Whole grain rye (course milled, for pumpernickel type breads or Danish rye)
- Durum (for ciabatta and pasta)
- 50/50 mix of sifted rye and wheat, a local specialty called "rågsikt". You can't usually get sifted rye except mixed with wheat so for some fine rye breads you need this mixture. For sweet Scandinavian type breads using syrup.
Re: Betty Crocker broke recipes by shrinking boxes
#406Earlier quoted context omitted.
Something that I didn't notice until I lived in the US was the implicit availability of standard ingredients, like graham crackers. So many classic American recipes are very simple but assume you have access to that one brand of canned pumpkin or cherries that everyone uses to make their pie with. It makes online recipes a lot easier. A beverage example is the Piña Colada. The original recipe calls for Coco Lopez (se…
Yeah, it's like people who spend time around campfires and have watched American media are all going "let's make s'mores" [1], and then they realize that "graham crackers" [2] are a mystery ingredient that nobody knows anything about. Digestives [3] are the typical substitution in my experience, but again nobody knows how close they're getting. They look thicker, to me ... [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%27more…
Digestives are a bit thicker, but the ones I had while over there weren't substantially so. You're less likely to get the shared experience of dealing with the goopy mess all over your fingers because your graham is shattering at the first bite.
Re: Betty Crocker broke recipes by shrinking boxes
#407Earlier quoted context omitted.
I had a family member that used to work for the county in the SNAP-like assistance program. He was aghast at the state of the average family. No, not the average one coming to the county for assistance, just the average. The average household in the county was without a kitchen. Maybe a dorm fridge, maybe a microwave or a hotplate, typically neither. A Winnebago had better food preparation than the average county res…
SNAP like implies some poverty. They are likely not representative. Though it is still shocking. i'm also shocked how many people I know who eat out often at fast food. I can make a better meal for less and it will be healthier as well. Even hight end resteraunts are obviously reheating the same industrial froozen meals.
> i'm also shocked how many people I know who eat out often at fast food. I can make a better meal for less and it will be healthier as well.
A burger at McKing takes what, a minute to order, a minute to eat, and a minute to dispose of the wrapper paper.
Making a burger on your own? At least an hour worth of time just to buy the ingredients, drive home and store them appropriately so they don't go bad (which assumes you have a car in good working order and a fridge + freezer that work), another hour worth of time to cook it, oh and after you've eaten it you need to properly store all the leftovers...
It is not a coincidence that the rise of the popularity (and availability!) of processed ready-to-eat or fast food more or less correlates with women entering the workforce - one might even say that minimum-effort food was a requirement for women to work.
Re: Betty Crocker broke recipes by shrinking boxes
#408> Her cookie recipe — a box of Betty Crocker chocolate cake mix, two eggs, and > ⅓ cup neutral oil — no longer works now that the box is a full 5 ounces smaller > than its original 18.25-ounce size ... “It’s just so upsetting,” says Judith, > whose cookie recipe was passed down by her mother. Shrinkflation is irritating but I dunno if I'd be pushing the "old family recipe" angle if it's just adding two eggs and some…
Wait until you see the family recipes for limoncello.
I cut the sugar in grandma's limoncello by 30% and still end up with rocket fuel syrup which my friends think will cause sleep problems and diabeetus
Re: Betty Crocker broke recipes by shrinking boxes
#409Earlier quoted context omitted.
No need for scare quotes, US customary units are a thing. A US customary cup is, at least, quite standard at 8 fluid ounces. This is more standardized than the unit of measure used in British recipes and whatnot. The issues surrounding volumetric measurements for dry goods is an entirely separate matter. 240 mL of apricots is just as useless as 1 cup of apricots.
> This is more standardised than the unit of measure used in British recipes and whatnot. How so?
There's no such thing as an imperial cup ergo the cup is not a standardized measurement. Within US customary units the cup is defined.
Re: Betty Crocker broke recipes by shrinking boxes
#410Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
Homemade cake mixes rarely win blind taste tests against box mix. I baked two cakes with and without glycerol monostearate—it really does make a difference.
yes for your health