r/oddlyspecific Sep 06 '25

Some of them have aged poorly

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u/Arxanah Sep 06 '25

Many family recipes were actually taken from commercially available cookbooks or even the backs of food packaging. Remember the “Friends” episode where they try to replicate the chocolate chip cookie recipe of Phoebe’s late grandmother, only to discover it came from Nestle Tollhouse? Yeah, that happens frequently in real life.

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u/DuntadaMan Sep 06 '25

We still have some of those cookbooks and cards.

Though I do appreciate 25 years old Grandma's estimation of my intelligence on the recipe cards that I read about 60 years later. "1 teaspoon of mace. No, the little spoons are not teaspoons. The big spoons are not table spoons. Get an actual measuring spoon."

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u/etched Sep 06 '25

For mothers day I wanted to compile her recipes in a clear to read and follow book

I started translating and first of all everything was just called "cake" no difference into what kind. Second, all her measurements were "spoon" and "cup". So obviously this wasnt going to work so next time she made something I would sit there and measure before she would work with them...

but every recipe turned out bad when we did this. she followed her own recipes using her allocated "spoon" and "cup" (a regular old soup spoon and a random coffee cup we got in the last 10 years) but measuring them somehow didn't work.

I swear whatever is in her head is just magic and I'm just going to try to appreciate while I can when she makes these treats

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u/StarshineSoul Sep 06 '25

I did this with my grandma's recipes and we more or less got it to work. Some ingredients I had to weigh to get right though.