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Grandma's pound cake recipe had 2 sticks of butter, not 1
I was looking through my Nana's old recipe box last weekend and found her handwritten pound cake instructions. Turns out for 30 years my mom has been using half the butter because she misread the faded numbers. I made a batch with the full 2 sticks and it came out way denser and richer than what I grew up eating. Has anyone else found a family recipe that got changed somewhere down the line?
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johnson.jason8d ago
Whoa, hold up. I mean cool that it came out different but like... was the old version bad or something? If nobody complained for 30 years, maybe half the butter was the right call for modern tastebuds.
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amy_foster798d ago
You said "maybe half the butter was the right call for modern tastebuds" @johnson.jason but honestly, butter isn't something you cut back on for taste. It's the main flavor. I've baked these cookies for years and tried it both ways. The full butter version is richer and has a better texture too. The half butter ones come out drier and don't hold together as well. If people were used to the half butter version for 30 years they probably just didn't know what they were missing. Once you try the real recipe it's hard to go back.
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ellis.mia5d ago
Reminds me of how my aunt's spaghetti sauce recipe got "lightened up" over the years by everyone adding different stuff. By the time it got to my cousin it was basically tomato water. We all just accepted it because that's what we grew up with. Same thing happens with family traditions too, not just food. People tweak things little by little until the original is gone and nobody even notices. Sometimes the old way was better, sometimes the change was good. But you never know until you actually go back and check the source.
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