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I can do them one better: my family has a meta-secret recipe. It didn't used to be secret, but it became secret through no effort or intent of our own. For a
by blahedo 9y ago
I can do them one better: my family has a meta-secret recipe. It didn't used to be secret, but it became secret through no effort or intent of our own.
For a long time, decades at this point, my mom has been known for the brownies she brings to events (and, by extension, that my sister and I bring to events). People would rave about them and demand the secret, which my mom, my sister, and I would all freely give out: it's from a box, Betty Crocker, make sure you get the "Supreme" kind and don't overbake it. That's it.
But. But! A while ago, maybe 3-4 years at this point, my mom noticed that the brownie box had changed. She had a stockpile (being known for the brownies, you see) but tried the new box before exhausting the stockpile. And it was not the same. The new recipe had different amounts of every ingredient and it just did not come out right. At all. She called the company to complain and actually managed to escalate the call far enough to get someone to admit a dark truth: the recipe on their end for the mix hadn't changed, but for various reasons to do with what they wanted to put on the "Nutrition Facts", they had changed the instructions of how to prepare them and the amount of the mix that was in each box.
My mom, not leaving this to chance, did a little bit of kitchen science and verified that what came out of the old box (from the stockpile, following the recipe) was either identical or a very close match to what came out of the new box (but following the old recipe), albeit a little inconvenient as you now needed roughly 1.25 boxes' worth of mix to make one batch of brownies. But this was but a minor hurdle for the truly devoted; and it meant that we now had, wait for it, a bona fide secret family recipe. The easiest one ever, since it still involved just making brownies from a box. (And keeping a jar of "remainder brownie mix" for use in the next batch.)
The epilogue to the story is that although the good recipe had been stable for a really long time, we were evidently not the only ones to notice a problem with the new one, because the box recipe has changed on several occasions since then—each time, as far as we can tell, without changing the blend in the underlying mix (because if we follow our Secret Recipe it still turns out fine). Really, I'm just waiting for them to throw up their hands, give up, and return to the original recipe, which would sort of deprive my family of a good story, but everybody would get better brownies so it's a win overall. :)
- aaachilless 9y agoThe humanity in this comment is invigorating. I appreciate the time you took to share it!
- jraby3 9y agoThat was a really fun read and now I'm dying to try your secret family recipe brownies.
- Nition 9y agoI've always been a fan of the Edmonds Cookbook coconut chocolate brownie recipe, if you ever want to try out a non-boxed recipe. I see it can be found online here: http://edmondscooking.co.nz/recipes/slices-squares/coconut-chocolate-brownies http://edmondscooking.co.nz/recipes/slices-squares/coconut-c... One bonus of the Edmonds recipe is it also uses only ingredients you probably already have (except maybe the desiccated coconut).
- 8_hours_ago 9y agoMy family’s “famous” chocolate cake recipe is from the side of the Hershey’s Cocoa container. It is way better than any other chocolate cake, even from baking cookbooks. I should write it down in case they ever change it...
- Infernal 9y agoIs this the one with the cup of boiling water that you pour into the batter right before it goes into the oven? I don't know why more people don't make that, it is my mom's (and of course mine now) go-to chocolate cake, and it is truly excellent.
- 8_hours_ago 9y agoYes, that's the one! (I just checked the back of my cocoa powder to make sure)
- heleph 9y agoGood on your mother for persisting until she got to the bottom of the brownie mystery! It’s a bit of a pity the company tampered with such a successful recipe! My brownie recipe is from a cookbook and I tried a lot of variations on it and then had to concede that the person who wrote the recipe got it just right. I make it with high quality chocolate and butter and then am very careful not to over bake it and they turn out deliciously decadent every time!
- pnutjam 9y agoI recently discovered that you can cut moist brownies with a plastic knife and avoid them sticking and falling apart. For those moments you just can't wait for them to cool, although, even cooled a good moist brownie tends to stick to the knife. Your welcome.
- trop 9y ago> I tried a lot of variations on it and then had to concede that the person who wrote the recipe got it just right. Part of this phenomena comes from 20th century cooking (especially for sweets): the ingredients are mass produced to high standards of consistency, and hence there may be one just right recipe (especially if you're backing in a climate controlled kitchen at sea level). Consider, instead, artisanal bread baking in 2018. Your flour comes from a food coop which used to get it stone ground by an Amish cooperative, but now switched suppliers to a local farmer -- and the recipe needs to change. Your sourdough starter turned acidic because you went away on vacation and it sat in the fridge -- change the recipe again! It's an unusually damp and chilly day, and the loaf is sitting out during its second rise -- you'll need to change the recipe! Of course this is part of the thrill of this sort of baking -- that you have to understand the underlying processes, not just the well-made building blocks, to end up with good results. Sort of like switching from running OS X or Windows to, say, Linux from Scratch...
- tropo 9y agoI suspect the butter is the result of two substitutions. This has happened to many recipes. First, there was a money-saving switch from lard to commercial shortening or margarine. Either one was made of partially hydrogenated vegetable oil. Second, due to trans fats or a desire to be less fake, that got switched to butter. Lard makes wonderful brownies. Compared to butter, the taste comes out far cleaner. The purity of the chocolate really comes through. Another fine option is coconut oil.
- wayanon 9y agoYour mother could walk into a boardroom job at any Fortune 100 company.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- DoofusOfDeath 9y agoSo, mind sharing a formula for getting it right, irrespective of which version of the box one has? E.g., what the ideal quantity of mix is?
- isk517 9y agoI'm seconding this. Use to love the boxed Betty Crocker brownies but have noticed in the last few years that they do not come out correctly anymore.
- blahedo 9y agoSorry, should have included this! 3¾c. of brownie mix (again, Betty Crocker Original Supreme) 2 eggs ¼c. water ⅓c. vegetable oil and the included packet of Hershey's syrup The baking times on the old box were: for 13x9 pan, 28-30m at 350°, for 9x9 pan, 35-40m at 350°, and for 8x8 pan, 50-55m at 325°. (We usually use the 13x9, can't speak as much to the other sizes.) As of the original redesign mentioned in the story, the amount of brownie mix in a box was cut back to 3 cups, the recipe involved 1 egg instead of 2, and I don't remember how the water and oil were affected but they were different.
- DoofusOfDeath 9y agoThanks! Bonus points for anyone who posts the quantity of Hershey's syrup in that packet :)
- e40 9y agothey had changed the instructions of how to prepare them Is the quantity now the only difference?
- LoSboccacc 9y agoit's actually a big difference. lower quantity in the same tray will make less volume and overcook faster and even adjusting time to avoid overcooking since the volume/surface ratio is different they'd be well cooked but still more dry
- e40 9y agoI'm sure it's a big difference, but people here want to know how to make these brownies!! So, if we do the 1.25 thing and follow the instructions, they'll be perfect?
- LoSboccacc 9y agothere's only one way to tell! double blinded study with repetitions!
- kevin_b_er 9y agoThey can't return to the old recipe because marketing demands the box say certain things about fat, sugar, etc. This marketing demand is usually greater than product quality.
- 0xdeadbeefbabe 9y ago> The new recipe had different amounts of every ingredient and it just did not come out right. So what are the right amounts if you please? PS. I've heard of people adding an egg to a box of cake mix when it isn't required.
- dmckeon 9y agoThere is a marketing story of a company that created a cake mix with everything in the box: "just add water and bake". Sales were poor, and market research and perhaps focus groups determined that people felt slightly guilty that they weren't doing enough work in creating a cake - so the company went back, removed the egg components from the mix, changed the instructions, and sales rebounded.
- ValentineC 9y agoIt's also somewhat similar to the "IKEA effect": https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1057740811000829 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S105774081...
- ChuckMcM 9y agoThat is an awesome story. Although I am a bit leery of the 'Nutrition value' argument. It sounds like the manufacturer wanted to do what everyone else seems to do which is reduce the quantity of product in the same size box rather than raise the price, and when they did that the 'old' recipe would not work correctly. Which they "fixed".
- nugi 9y agoWell, smaller brownies, less calories. So perhaps both are 'reasonable', and compatible hypothesises.
- LoSboccacc 9y agomy secret familiy recipe is cheesy rice with sausages. It's secret because it only comes out good if you add to the mix kraft cheese, which is widely regarded around here between cheapening out on your guests and not caring about using quality ingredients. so I just use it and people love it, but I literally can't tell them or they'd think I'm serving them rubbish