Just realized my grandma's biscuit recipe has been wrong for 40 years

Was going through old family papers my mom sent me and found a handwritten note from my great aunt that showed the actual measurements. Turns out grandma was using a different size egg than what the original recipe called for. She used jumbo eggs her whole life and the recipe was written for large. No wonder my biscuits never turned out like hers. Has anyone else had something like this where a recipe got changed by accident over the years?

3 comments

3 Comments

cooper.nathan21d ago

Holy cow, wait, the egg size? That's wild. So the whole flour to liquid ratio was just off for like four decades because of that one thing? I bet they were good biscuits anyway because your grandma just knew how to make them work with the jumbo eggs, but the fact that nobody caught onto it is kind of hilarious. My aunt accidentally swapped baking soda and baking powder once and my mom still brings it up twenty years later. I feel like this happens more than people realize, especially with those old recipes that just say "one egg" with no size.

milap3520d ago

Wait, wait, wait. Hold up. So your aunt swapped baking soda and baking powder and it's still a family joke twenty years later? That's both hilarious and kind of terrifying. I guess it makes sense they look so similar in those old boxes, but that's a rough mistake since one makes things rise and the other can make everything taste like metal. I bet those cookies were weirdly flat AND bitter at the same time. Honestly though, your aunt probably helped someone else out by making that mistake, because now everyone in your family double checks before they scoop.

kai_knight120d ago

Wait, have you seen those old Betty Crocker cookbooks where they literally just say "1 egg" with no size? I read somewhere that back in the 50s and 60s, egg sizes were way less standardized than they are now. So like, your grandma could've been using jumbos and the recipe writer meant medium eggs and nobody would know the difference. That's probably why some family recipes end up tasting totally different when someone else tries to make them. Makes you wonder how many classic dishes are actually just happy accidents from ingredient mismatches.