PSA: Found my grandma's old bread recipe tucked in a cookbook last Tuesday

I was cleaning out my kitchen and pulled out this beat-up cookbook from 1972 that belonged to my grandmother. Inside was a handwritten note with her white bread recipe and a little stain from what must've been butter from her last batch. Has anyone else stumbled on a family recipe hidden somewhere unexpected?

3 comments

3 Comments

ivanb412mo ago

Did you notice if the handwriting changed at all in the recipe? I heard somewhere that old family recipes passed down by hand often have little tweaks added by each person who copied them. That butter stain sounds like a sweet little proof your grandma really used that recipe.

rowangonzalez2mo ago

Grandma's recipe box had this one for lemon cookies that had a coffee stain shaped like a dog's face right next to the oven temperature. Makes you wonder how many batches got made with "a little extra love" because someone couldn't read the smudged number.

anthonykim22d ago

Actually I gotta push back on the romanticizing of smudges and stains in old recipes. That butter stain probably means she was messy in the kitchen, not that it added some secret flavor or love to the bread. If you can't read the actual oven temp or ingredient amounts, you're just guessing and that's how you end up with dense bricks instead of fluffy loaves.