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I finally found out why my granddad's recipe cards had those weird pencil marks
Was cleaning out my late grandmother's kitchen last month and found a stack of her old recipe cards, the kind in that worn metal box. I always figured the pencil dots and little numbers next to ingredients were just her way of keeping track of portions. But I got curious and asked my aunt, who used to cook with her. Turns out those marks were from my granddad. He worked at a diner in Pittsburgh back in the 1950s and he'd jot down how long certain steps actually took on their big line, then transfer those times to her home recipes. So when grandma's card said 'simmer 20 minutes,' the pencil mark said 6 minutes because that's what it really took on a commercial stove. Blew my mind. My aunt said they never fixed the cards, just knew to ignore the printed times. Now I'm wondering how many of my other family recipes have hidden notes like that. Has anyone else inherited recipe cards with mysterious shorthand or correction marks that turned out to be some insider trick?
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the_christopher1mo ago
Whoa, wait... I gotta push back on the part about the commercial stove taking less time. That's usually the opposite in my experience. Those big flat tops and ovens run way hotter, sure, but they also have a ton more thermal mass, so stuff can hang onto heat forever... a home stove loses heat every time you open the door. So simmering something on a diner line might actually take longer if you're doing a big batch, not shorter... unless your granddad was writing down prep times for like, a single serving or a smaller pot than what the card listed. Anyway, cool find, but I'd double check that six minute mark before I trust it with a pot roast.
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