There are recipes based on package sizes which is fine for chocolate chips or nuts but becomes intensely problematic when it is leavening ingredients. Half-a box of bisquick was a valid measure when there was one size on the shelf.

Some of my family recipes go back 150-250 years so along the way some of the collection contains cards calling for a tin of x, y, or z. I still sometimes use a ham glaze that calls for a bottle of coca cola.

You can also science cooking. Meat thermometers are absolutely fantastic.

During the previous round of shirkflation I warned people about knowing what year a recipe was from because “a can” means something different in 2004 than in 2010. And now it means something different again in 2025.

Now boxes are getting the shrink treatment too.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.bestiver.se/post/618032

Comments

Who the fuck is buying those boxes if they still need things like eggs adding?

It’s just pre-measured flour, baking soda and sugar. You can do that in under a minute. Shit, the stuff is in the same aisle.

I’m curious, do you use the first line on your middle finger to measure water?

That’s how my grandmother taught us (pot and rice cooker).

I said the average grandma because I was talking about the average instead of mine. Today an average grandma is someone who grew up in the '80s. This shouldn’t have gone on this long so I’m going to try to make this very clear. I was not talking about my grandmother. I’m talking about the average grandmother. The average grandmother grew up in a post kitchen era. They grew up as a latchkey kid in the '80s tossing things in the microwave. The vast majority of grandmas don’t know how to cook anymore.

Never heard of the place around here, but I like the thought. Buying things for odd amounts like to top up a spice jar without having a separate large container.

It’s brain dead easy cooking and people that do it were probably taught by their parents to.

During the previous round of shirkflation I warned people about knowing what year a recipe was from because “a can” means something different in 2004 than in 2010. And now it means something different again in 2025.

Now boxes are getting the shrink treatment too.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.bestiver.se/post/618032

Comments

Cmon man, there’s two kinds of recipes: one with exact measurements and precise instructions, usually written in metric with a lot of notes and contingencies… and then there’s general guideline cheat sheets and refreshers, which you use when you already know how to cook it.

If a recipe tells me “a couple spoonsful” and I don’t know what to do, the problem is not the recipe, it’s that I don’t know what I’m doing.

So what do you do? you learn. or I guess you could be like NileRed and watch food burn in front of your face because you don’t want to deviate from the recipe. over and over again. but hopefully you’ll learn to deviate soon.

Who the fuck is buying those boxes if they still need things like eggs adding?

It’s just pre-measured flour, baking soda and sugar. You can do that in under a minute. Shit, the stuff is in the same aisle.

It would be better if other recipes adjusted accordingly.

The Zatarans Jambalaya box still says to add a pound of smoked sausage. But those sausages went down to 14oz. Then 12oz. Now some are 10oz. The box still says to add a pound. It’s becoming a hotdog/bun situation.

Cmon man, there’s two kinds of recipes: one with exact measurements and precise instructions, usually written in metric with a lot of notes and contingencies… and then there’s general guideline cheat sheets and refreshers, which you use when you already know how to cook it.

If a recipe tells me “a couple spoonsful” and I don’t know what to do, the problem is not the recipe, it’s that I don’t know what I’m doing.

So what do you do? you learn. or I guess you could be like NileRed and watch food burn in front of your face because you don’t want to deviate from the recipe. over and over again. but hopefully you’ll learn to deviate soon.

American here. I always sucked at baking until I discovered a UK site using the metric master race measurements.

It was all in grams instead of tablespoons/ounces/cups.

Suddenly my shit was perfect…

baking by volume is INSANE why would anyone do that?!

i remember as a kid my nan telling me to not pack the flour too tightly in the cups or the measurement will be off. like why not just weigh the flour?!

Where do galette (buck wheat savory pancakes from Britanny) and puff pastry come together? Or is that just another Amerikan kitchen misnomer like “pepperoni” or “bologna”?

Same only with Pasteis De Nata:

Pastéis de nata from the Big Green Egg

Craving pastéis de nata? No need to buy them when you can bake this sweet Portuguese delicacy yourself using this recipe on your Big Green Egg.

Big Green Egg (www.biggreenegg.eu)

My problem: There are different puff pastries out there and so I made the recipe THREE TIMES to figure out the best one to use.

Spoiler - The most expensive one.

Dufour.

PUFF PASTRY DOUGH - Dufour Pastry Kitchens

Dufour's puff pastry is the epitome of fine dough—crisp, buttery, and flaky, perfect for both savory and sweet creations.

Dufour Pastry Kitchens (dufourpastrykitchens.com)

Here’s the difference:

“first enclosing a “butter block” in the dough”

Compared with:

Frozen Sheets Pastry Dough - Pepperidge Farm

When you start with Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry, you can create extraordinary dishes, both savory and sweet. Let your imagination take you to delicious places! Each Puff Pastry sheet is made up of many delicate layers, each one essential to creating its supremely light, airy texture. Sheets are ready to be shaped, filled and baked. […]

Pepperidge Farm (www.pepperidgefarm.com)

“VEGETABLE OILS (PALM, SOYBEAN, HYDROGENATED COTTONSEED)”

Store brand is the same.

None of them were AWFUL, just the Dufour is head and shoulders above the others, and 4x the price.

The reason for having to add an egg, milk, or some other simple ingredient is because the mix companies found out people were more willing to adopt these mixes if there was a step where they had to do something beyond just adding water. Or at least this is what they told me on the Jiffy Mix factory tour as a child.

I often have issues explaining to literally everyone that oz and fl oz are not the same… Only true match is water which is what it was created for.

8oz is weight.
8 fl oz is volume…

So a cup of flour is a volume measurement of something that should be measured by weight.

I bought a food scale and gram everything now.

Oh, man, “bottle of Coca-Cola”. When I was a kid, that meant a 16 ounce glass bottle, but prior to that it could have been 8 ounces, 10 ounces. Now it could be 1, 2, or even 3 liters.