Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Betty Crocker broke recipes by shrinking boxes

cubbyathome.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

681–690 of 721 posts

Re: Betty Crocker broke recipes by shrinking boxes

#681

Post by account42 »

asciimov wrote: post #384
teekert wrote: post #361

Ok, this is weird right? '“It’s just so upsetting,” says Judith, whose cookie recipe was passed down by her mother.' Why pass some boxed commercial mix through your family? Maybe I have too much Italian in me (I'm not Italian, just love their mindset when it comes to cooking) but that's like passing some cheap plastic kitchen utensil down the family, instead of your cast iron skillet. Just learn to bake properly base…

For Judith it’s about the nostalgia of being a girl and having her mother make these cookies with this method. Judith’s mom was likely over-worked and buying a box was a timesaver. Who cares if it’s not “properly” made?

Judith should take this as a generational learning opportunity to provide her children and grandchildren with memories that don't depend on a corporation not altering their products.

Re: Betty Crocker broke recipes by shrinking boxes

#682

Post by moolcool »

sdoering wrote: post #429
lifeformed wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't be so snobby about cake ingredients. There's nothing wrong with using processed food in a recipe. I garuntee a box mix will make a much better cake than "from scratch" unless you are very experienced. Cooking is not always about making the ultimate gourmet meal, it's about connection and tradition. Processed food is a normal part of every day people's lives and makes it's way into traditions. Grandma's secret r…

> Grandma's secret recipe that uses a box mix will taste 10000x better than anything you think you can come up with from scratch. Made my day. I would bet you my monthly salary, if I wouldn't have to suspect - based on the quoted sentence - that your taste buds are already fully dorked up based on the crap you put into your cake hole from years of industrialized and processed food-simulacrum. > Baking is actually qui…

> Poor every day people. I pity them

I'm sorry, but this reads like a piece of Ignatius Reilly dialog.

Re: Betty Crocker broke recipes by shrinking boxes

#683

Post by account42 »

SamoyedFurFluff wrote: post #412
teekert wrote: post #391

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ok yeah I get that. It's certainly a shame for Judith. But companies come and go. They change recipes all the time. They do research to make everything as cheap as possible, you may never know it but I knew someone working at Unilever and the Mars bar for example constantly evolves, and let me tell you it's not because they want to give you the best Mars bar, it's just "we found a cheaper supplier for X" or "If we re…

Hey man, maybe practice some empathy. Unexpected change is hard. Unexpected change from a childhood standard really sucks. How could Judith possibly “know better” and ahead of time detach from core memories of her time with her mom like a psychopath?

We're not telling off Judith, were discussing this on an entirely unrelated forum. Any empathy displayed here would be performative.

Re: Betty Crocker broke recipes by shrinking boxes

#684

Post by account42 »

xandrius wrote: post #394
vincnetas wrote: post #380

And thats why i hate all recipes with measuring "units" like : pinch, spoon, dash etc.... Can i tell you about our lord and saviour the have metric system? :)

I honestly don't mind things likes pinch and dash as they are clear to be left mainly to the taste of cook. I mind slightly more teaspoons and tablespoons but I also can usually see them as "add at least a bit, up to you". The worst offenders are cups, as they often measure large quantities, which often do make or break a recipe. Even just the way you use that cup to collect the ingredients changes the resulting quan…

In US recipes a cup doesn't mean whatever literal cup you have in you cupboard, it means 237ml. If you cook a lot it pays to have measuring cups of the appropriate size.

Re: Betty Crocker broke recipes by shrinking boxes

#685

Post by phil21 »

internet_points wrote: post #393
phil21 wrote: post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cake mixes almost always come ahead in blind taste tests. Very few bakers short of folks with a lot of volume are doing stuff from scratch. It may or may not be healthier, but the subjective taste preferences of the masses is pretty much settled fact at this point. Frosting is a different topic - totally agree there, but I haven't seen any blind taste tests on that one. The professional bakers around me who do a doze…

Don't neglect the cultural component when considering taste tests. I've heard there are many americans who actually prefer american chocolate. To me it tastes like sugary beeswax with a hint of sock.

Fair. I am definitely speaking of US consumers.

Re: Betty Crocker broke recipes by shrinking boxes

#686

Post by account42 »

ksenzee wrote: post #120
declan_roberts wrote: post #87

When I actually started cooking I was shocked at how simple a lot of these box ingredients actually are. They somehow tricked a whole generation into buying "pancake mix" which is just flour, sugar, baking soda and salt!

Why on earth would I make pancakes from scratch when I can buy Krusteaz? If someone gets enjoyment from buying their flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, buttermilk, and oil separately, and turning pancakes into an entire weekend morning activity involving a sinkful of dirty dishes, then they should definitely do that. Meanwhile I’m dumping a cup of Krusteaz into a bowl, adding water, and eating pancakes within five minu…

Is this satire?

Re: Betty Crocker broke recipes by shrinking boxes

#687

Post by account42 »

wccrawford wrote: post #480
ricardobeat wrote: post #475

> Her cookie recipe — a box of Betty Crocker chocolate cake mix, two eggs, and ⅓ cup neutral oil > whose cookie recipe was passed down by her mother Sorry grandma, but that is not a recipe. A cake mix is just flour, sugar and yeast, there is little reason to use it especially for a recurrent recipe.

It's pretty hard. There are a ton of people who can make a cake from a box, but not "from scratch". It's a really precise, easy way to get the basics done. Doing it yourself means the ratio is never quite the same as last time, even if you try really hard. Especially if one of the ingredients is a lot smaller quantity than the others, making it really hard to measure accurately. The answer is probably to make your ow…

> It's pretty hard. There are a ton of people who can make a cake from a box, but not "from scratch".

I don't buy it. A basic cake recipe is simple measuring (with enough tolerance that anyone can do it), mixing and pouring. No special skills required.

> Doing it yourself means the ratio is never quite the same as last time, even if you try really hard.

Ok, for sufficiently small values of "not quite the same", but so what? There's going to be more significant differences in your eating experience than the cake having a tiny bit more sugar or whatever. And companies change their mix all the time too.

Re: Betty Crocker broke recipes by shrinking boxes

#688

Post by account42 »

muppetman wrote: post #24
eulgro wrote: 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.

Because you live in a small apartment and don't have storage space for a thing of flour, a thing of sugar, cocoa you might use twice a year? Because you have little kids and you want to give them a single easy-to-follow box with instructions on it? Because you value convenience? Honestly, what a silly take. The world thrives on convenience products.

Basic cake recipes are simple enough for even younger children to do and are a great way to teach basic cooking skills.

And if you only use flour and sugar twice a year then there's probably other things you would be better off making yourself.

Re: Betty Crocker broke recipes by shrinking boxes

#689

Post by account42 »

llbbdd wrote: post #150
marssaxman wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With that attitude, you might as well just buy a finished cake from the store!

You can, and you can use that cake as an ingredient in something else! But if your goal is to "make a cake" and put your own touches on it, likely that weighing out the ingredients is not worth your time outside of the educational context you describe wrt teaching kids. (e.g. "here's how cake is fundamentally made, and later here's a box mix that takes care of the most boring parts and works better than anything we c…

What? If you want to make your own touch then varying the ingredients is one of the most impactful things you could do.

Re: Betty Crocker broke recipes by shrinking boxes

#690

Post by RandomBacon »

nixosbestos wrote: post #589
RandomBacon wrote: post #584

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't feed the idiological troll.

Suuuuure, grocery store consolidation, and the consolidation of farming, and processed food has NOTHING to do with their ability to arbitrarily implement shrinkflation, with consumers having few or no other options. Also, kindly fuck off with the name-calling.

You're drawing the wrong conclusions.

Also, your writing is overflowing with emotion which is interpreted as idiological and not serious.

Reasonable people are not going to waste their time trying to have a civilized discussion with someone who drops f-bombs and isn't serious.

Edit: I wrote the above before looking at the rest of your comments. After looking at the rest of your comments, I rest my case.

Post reply on HN