won't give out recipes....

Lisa Figueroa

Anyone else have a family who won't give out recipes?? 

My MIL won't give out her recipes either. She pretends to give out her recipes but they are always missing 1 key ingredient or step. The family greatly suffered this Thanksgiving when SIL tried to create one of MIL's dishes. (sabotage??? I swear....) But honestly, I think it's because a- she doesn't want anyone stealing her thunder and 2- her kids will stop going to her house.

 

hulachick

My Tias (Aunts) and Abuelita(Gma) do  the same thing! I ask what is in certain dishes and they won't tell me  exactly what the ingredient is and  never say how much to add! They beat around the bush and suggest other things to put in the recipe! I'd like to know what exactly is in it so that I can pass on the recipes to my children

Jenn09/04

My grandmother was like that. She had a couple of desserts that were to die for. She wouldn't give out the recipes to anybody even though I asked numerous times. We found the recipes after she died and they weren't even some big family secret, they were all out of various magazines. I don't understand why she wouldn't share them.

Mindymo25

I guess I sort of understand it...but I think I don't understand it more.  My grandmother in the last few years has been making a lot of effort at sharing a lot of her recipes with us, which I really appreciate because I would be so sad not to have some of my favorite dishes of hers someday when she is no longer with us.

malibou-kar

My Great Grandma would make you hang out with her while she cooked and write down everything if you wanted a recipe because she claimed she only kept it all in her head.... its a good thing my mom spent a lot of time doing that or we wouldn't have any of those old recipes!

myonetruelove

malibou-kar:

My Great Grandma would make you hang out with her while she cooked and write down everything if you wanted a recipe because she claimed she only kept it all in her head.... its a good thing my mom spent a lot of time doing that or we wouldn't have any of those old recipes!

 

My mother cooks like this. She does not have anything written down and when you ask her she answers with "a little of this a little of that".

autumn42

my mom makes a lot of things that i'd LOVE the recipe too.  She refuses to give them to me.  She says, if you want something.. just ask and I'll bake it for you and ship it to you. 

  Thats not the point mom!!!

 My mom has been very ill for a long time, and I'd be super sad if she passes away and I never get to know how to make some of her dishes.

 

2bBush

there are some things you just can't replicate, though. I have watched my mom make spaghetti sauce a million times. I know how she chops the onions, how many cloves of garlic, how much salt she seasons the ground beef with, whether she uses tomato paste or sauce, and I have timed when she adds what to what... and yet I can't for the life of me replicate it!

And of course, all her recipes are from her head too, so when she dies I'll never taste her broccoli cheese soup again, or her fried chicken, or that maddeningly good spaghetti... 

Snow_Goddess

I've been trying to get the recipe from DH's family for all their Armenian dishes since DH can't cook anything and his grandmother is getting old. I've gotten some of them written down now but his grandmother never seems to remember how she makes things anymore so each time she makes something it's never quite right. It's fun to go over and try and get the measurements before she just "tosses" something in to the recipe. Everytime she gives me a recipe I just laugh because it's always 1 cup of xyz ... but it's not 1 standard cup it's always a random cup in her cabinet she always uses for that recipe.