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> This sentence makes me so angry. If you’re going to come up with a great new way of doing something then the worst thing you could do is to keep it a secret s
by realusername 8y ago
> This sentence makes me so angry. If you’re going to come up with a great new way of doing something then the worst thing you could do is to keep it a secret so it’s impossible to figure out how it works and it ends up forgotten.
It's the case for lots of inventions, the ones which are not documented end up forgotten. I could add as an example the Russian Olivier Salad (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olivier_salad https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olivier_salad), where the modern recipe only comes from a sous-chef of the original restaurant which sort-of reverse-engineered the recipe, because the recipe was totally secret. We still are not sure that recipe is exactly the same as the original one.
- irrational 8y agoA family "friend" growing up made the most delicious dinner rolls. But she refused to share the recipe with anyone because they were a family secret. The pure selfishness just boggles my mind.
- adrianN 8y agoThere was a Reddit thread about secret family recipes where a lot of them turned out to be store bought stuff prepared by following the instructions on the box.
- tobr 8y agoDescribing a Reddit thread but not linking to it is somewhat in the same vein, don't you think? :) There's this great Atlas Obscura article + HN discussion from a few months ago: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/secret-family-recipes-copied https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/secret-family-recipes-... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16534495 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16534495
- cageface 8y agoMy brother worked in an Italian restaurant that claimed to have a secret Sicilian spice blend recipe they'd kept in the family for generations. In fact it was Mrs Dash in big Costco bottles.
- rootusrootus 8y ago"I have this incredibly tasty beef and noodle casserole that we've been making in my family for generations." (... reaches into pantry for box of Hamburger Helper ...)