Assuming you read the article, they address that: "She now calls them 'unusable.' She could buy an additional box to make up the difference, she acknowledges, 'but out of principle, I just can’t.'"

As someone who likes to cook, I understand this appeal too. I rarely make brownies (one or twice a year), but when I do, I just go to the boxed stuff. It reminds me of my childhood when I made them with my parents and siblings. I could reverse engineer the recipe to mimic what it does (and probably improve it), but given how little I make them, so it isn't high on my list of things to do. Now if they changed the recipe, sure, that may make me motivated enough to reverse engineer the recipe, but I would still be disappointed.

I think that's what they are going through. Sure, they could figure out what "1 box" used to be, they could go through the effort of reconstructing it with only from scratch ingredients, but that doesn't take away from the fact that it's disappointing to have to go through. Maybe this recipe is one they always made for their kids and now grand-kids.

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bruce511 2 days ago | parent [-]

I get the nostalgic aspect. But it's not like there aren't a zillion from-scratch brownie recipes to choose from.

And since you're doing it twice a year, honestly, get 2 boxes. If throwing away some extra premix destroys the pleasure, then that's a low bar.

Would I reverse-engineer the box? No. That sounds like work. But its not hard to find recipes online.

Of course with every problem comes opportunity. What I see here is an opportunity for a devoted grandson to box up 18oz of premix for grandma. Grandma's "secret" was that she "cheated", her pleasure was in the feeding not the baking. Enabling grandma to continue this going forward is the easiest thing ever.

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citizenkeen 2 days ago | parent | next [-]

“It’s not a problem for me so I struggle to see why it’s a problem for anybody else”.

The lack of empathy throughout your comments here is staggering.

I’m a fantastic baker. I can bake a much better cake than my grandma ever could, but I can’t bake the cake I had in my childhood without a box. “Just but two” is nonsense dumb advice.

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fluoridation a day ago | parent [-]

You can't bake the cake you had in your childhood. You already had it. Even if it had all the same atoms in the same positions it would not be the same, because you are not the same.

	▲	account42 8 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I agree that the precise atoms don't matter that much, but disagree that you can't have the same cake again. You just need to believe that you can.

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kop316 18 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> I get the nostalgic aspect.

While you may understand the nostalgic aspect from a logical level, I don't think you understand it beyond that. This next line:

> But it's not like there aren't a zillion from-scratch brownie recipes to choose from.

To me anyways really indicates that. I know there are a zillion from-scratch recipes online and in books and in other media. That isn't the point.

> If throwing away some extra premix destroys the pleasure, then that's a low bar.

Once again, I think you are totally missing the point. I think this captures why it's a big deal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3D8TEJtQRhw Betty Crocker is effectively doing that.

Without understanding it at more of emotional level, I can see why this doesn't resonate with you. Unfortunately, that also means it is unlikely that you will able to understand why it is a big deal and why other folks are arguing with you the way they are.