My grandma's handwritten bread recipe is basically a ghost now

I used to make her rye loaf exactly like she showed me, with a sourdough starter she kept for 30 years and a specific soak for the caraway seeds. After she passed, my aunt typed it up 'to preserve it' but left out the part about the damp cloth over the bowl during the first rise. I found the original card last month and the difference is wild, the typed version makes a brick. Has anyone else had a family recipe get messed up like that by someone trying to 'help'?

2 comments

2 Comments

gray_walker4915d ago

That damp cloth detail is everything (it controls the dough skin forming, which changes the whole texture). My mom's cookie recipe got "translated" into grams by a cousin, but they rounded the baking soda and now they spread into flat pancakes. The tiny, unwritten steps are the whole recipe.

adam_anderson615d ago

Actually, baking soda is one of those things where rounding can really mess things up. It's a leavener, so too much makes things spread too fast before they set. But the damp cloth trick is more about keeping the dough from drying out, not really stopping skin from forming. That skin is what gives some cookies structure. The real unwritten step is often how you handle the dough right before it goes in the oven.