I was baking cookies, following my old standard Monster Cookie recipe. The recipe said 1 pound of peanut butter. I grabbed a small peanut butter jar out of the pantry that I bought just for the occasion and realized…UGH. There was only 15 ounces in the jar….I needed 16 ounces.
I grabbed the bag of chocolate chips…nope, it’s not 12 ounces anymore…it’s 11.5 ounces. On the packaging there is still a measuring cup with the number 2 on it indicating two cups worth but in small print above the number it now says “approximately”.
I had heard that manufacturers were “cheating” us by putting less in the containers we buy…but I didn’t realize how that may affect my recipes. Many of the recipes we all use were developed with standard container sizes in mind. I cook and bake by habit….I use the same brands most of the time. Are our recipes going to turn out if we just grab the same old container we always have thinking it holds the same size it always did? When shopping I think “monster cookies”. I grab the container knowing I need a small jar…not realizing I need 16 ounces. It was just a fluke that I happened to look at the label on the peanut butter container. This is going to have me thinking and reading labels a bit more carefully.
I am guessing that you’d the recipe for the Monster Cookies….Here goes…
1 1/2 sticks margarine
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
4 eggs
16 ounces peanut butter
2 1/2 t soda
1/4 cup flour
4 1/2 cups quick oatmeal
1/2 lb M&Ms
12 ounces chocolate chips
Mix to make a stiff dough. Form into large walnut sized balls. Roll in powdered sugar. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes. Don’t over bake.
Interesting because I was just thinking that the other day. I have a recipe that calls for 16 oz cans and they aren’t 16 oz anymore. So, it definitely affects the recipes we have. Pretty annoying, isn’t it?
Oh and I’m taking your advice and cutting up my fat quarters willy-nilly except the ones I can use for backings. My problem now is storage for them! LOL! We should all have those problems! :-)
Grrrrr! I so agree that it is angering to see the shrinking sizes! I think the worst is the ground coffee containers. It is almost impossible to buy one full pound of coffee anymore.
Less in the package and a higher price….aggravating. I remember when the candy bars that now cost 99 cents used to be 5censt….and they were bigger then!! Gov’t keeps talking about cutting SS and Medicare for seniors and the grocery prices, utilities and everything else keep going up. Where’s that going to leave us in 20 years? We’re going to need all our quilts just to keep warm in the winter. Keep on sewing!!
I opened a can of bean sprouts the other day, and where it used to be full up the the rim, it was about 3/4″ below. Why don’t they just increase the price? And if they put any less in a tuna can . . .
While I can “fudge” with some of the recipes, the worst one for me is Lasagna, where it calls for lbs, and all the tomato products are smaller not my 1 oz, but by 4-5. That means I really should purchase another can, and throw out some of it to get the right directions! Arghhhh – or else have runny Lasagna. Cheat, cheat, cheat us, all the time! Grrrrrrr
Those smaller packages drive me nuts, especially when I’m trying to make enough dinner for six people. It now takes six cans of tuna to make enough sandwiches for us all to have lunch!
I had this problem at Christmas. One of our family favorite treats is Oreo Truffles which is simply 1 package of Oreo cookies mixed with 8 ounces of cream cheese. Apparently a package of Oreos has shrunk since last Christmas because my “dough” was all gooey and sticky and I had to add cookies from another package (and eventually buy an additional pack since I always make several batches and had bought what I thought I needed). It really aggravated me. Now I always wonder when I see a recipe that calls for 1 package or container if it is going to be enough or if it has changed since the recipe was developed.
The thing I was amazed at is that some of the “64” oz. bottles of juice are no longer 64 oz but the bottle is exactly the same size–UNTIL you turn it upside down and see that the bottom forms a “mound” going up into the bottle so you won’t notice!!! GRRRR!!!
I have wondered about this too. I grew up eating monster cookies and it’s a tradition that my Mom has to make them anytime we go on a trip somewhere. Now it’s just my Mom and Dad at home, but she still has to make them for him. We’ve never rolled them in powdered sugar though…hmmm…that does sound delicious!!
They do that here in Australia too. Instead of putting the prices up, they decrease the packages. One thing I’ve noticed is chocolate. They used to be 250 grams and are now 200 grams. Of course, my recipes are for 250 grams!
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