My mom's old recipe box had the wrong ingredient amounts for 12 years

I was making her famous lasagna last month and it came out watery, so I checked the card she wrote and realized she had the tomatoes measurement wrong. She always said it was my fault for not stirring enough. Has anyone else found a family recipe that was just straight up wrong the whole time?

3 comments

3 Comments

west.richard1mo ago

had the wrong ingredient amounts for 12 years" - oh man, that's rough but also kind of hilarious in a painful way. My mom's meatloaf recipe said "1 cup breadcrumbs" but after years of dry meatloaf I finally realized it was supposed to be 1/2 cup. She still swears up and down she didn't write it wrong, but the handwriting on the card is literally in her cursive. I just started adding a little more tomato sauce and praying. Your lasagna story makes me feel less alone in this family recipe deception.

finley_gonzalez491mo ago

I mean, at this point I'm convinced half our family recipes are just ancient typos nobody wants to admit, like a cooking game of telephone that's been going on for generations. My aunt's "secret" chili recipe turned out to be just a random page ripped from a 1987 issue of Good Housekeeping with the margins cut off. Maybe we should all just admit our grandmas were human and move on to eating whatever comes out of the oven without the guilt.

ryan_shah381mo ago

My grandma's banana bread recipe said "3 mashed bananas" but it ALSO said "1 cup sugar" and let me tell you, it came out more like a brick of sugar with banana undertones. Turns out she had glaucoma and couldn't read her own handwriting for the last 10 years she was cooking. I ate that dry crumbly mess for two decades thinking it was SUPPOSED to be like that, like some kind of weird family tradition. At this point I'm convinced half our family recipes are just ancient typos nobody wants to admit.