Coke has their secret recipe, though it’s not quite as secret as people think. KFC has their 11 herbs and spices.
But you ain’t Colonel Sanders. (I’d give a shout out on the off chance Harlan dropped by, but he died several years before I got my first internet connection.) So there’s not much chance you’ve got some secret recipe that’s going to make you rich.
Oh sure, you might, but it’s kind of like planning to win the lottery: You better have a plan B.
So why do so many people have “secret recipes” that they won’t share with friends and family? Does Aunt Betty’s peach cobbler taste better because you don’t know how to make it? Does Cousin Frank think people are going around talking about how good his chili is when he’s not around?
Instead of explaining this over and over to people, I’m just going to say this one more time. Anyone who agrees, feel free to point to this page.
- If you share your secret recipe, your version will still taste just as good.
- If you leave out one or two ingredients so mine isn’t quite the same, I won’t be grateful. I’ll be pissed.
- Yes, I like your cooking, but I visit for the company. If the only reason to visit you is for the food, you’re not a friend: You’re a restaurant. I’ll be sure to leave a tip.
- If I make your recipe and people pay me compliments, I’ll tell them I got it from you.
- If you make me figure it out on my own you get no credit.
- If your recipe really is that great, you could be remembered as the person with the best cookies in the church bake sale. Or if you share it, you could be the person who invented chocolate chip cookies.
Let’s share, people. It’s the right thing to do.
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43 Comments
YES! I’m not quite awake enough right now to figure out where to put it on my blog, but I will the next time I have a coherent moment!
The reason I keep some secrets: So people will come back! The secret isn’t the ingredient, it’s the desire for more opportunities to cook for people I care about.
I totally agree! Unless of courses your entering a contest – then I understand the reason for having to keep mum!
I love rule number 2!
I’m all about sharing a recipe if someone asks. Then again I’ve never created an April original to be secretive about. I’m so giving (or absent minded?) I’d probably end up spilling the beans before I even thought twice about it.
Isn’t it interesting that it’s the anonymous comment that’s in favor of secrets?
But thanks for the reminder, I need to go update that with another rule: If the only reason to visit you is for the food, you’re not a friend: You’re a restaurant. I’ll be sure to leave a tip.
I’ve got 2 secret recipes. One is secret for legal reasons: I know it isn’t original, but I don’t know the provenance. I don’t want to fail to cite it properly.
The other is an old family recipe that was handed down to me, and only me, by my grandmother. She specifically wanted it secret and wouldn’t even let anyone else in the kitchen while cooking it. I honor her memory by not sharing it – but I also don’t post tantalizing pictures of it online.
I’m totally a secret non-keeper when it comes to recipes. I blab my recipes all over. If someone likes something I make, I practically force the recipe on them – I’m just like that. I love it when people love something enough to make it themselves, and they have me to thank for it!
Awesome. Done and done.
A-friggin'-MEN!
It's annoying when folks won't share a good recipe. I'm always willing to share mine – one of the most flattering things that ever happened was when somebody turned around & served one of my dishes to me when I visited for dinner…
Fearless, everyone has to make their own choices, but if I had a favorite family recipe that I thought was that good, I’d want as many people as possible to eat it.
Stephanie, I’m the same way. I try to stop when I see their eyes glaze over.
Bob, it’s now officially a movement.
Darth, that is awesome. But around here the only time people have people over for dinner it’s a cookout.
My Grandma used to do that: leave ingrediants out of the recipes she gave me, because then at the family dinners where I was making ‘her’ dish – she could swoop in and rescue it, very publicly. She was crazy like a fox, and hated sharing the limelight. She’s gone now but I like to bug her (down in the hot place
) by sharing with everyone.
Alyson, that’s … that’s just wrong, on so many levels. I’d love to have been a fly on the wall at your family’s Thanksgiving when Grandma was still around.
I glanced through this yesterday but thought it doesn’t apply, ’cause I have no secret recipes.
HOWEVER!!!! Last night I started to make my amazing cookies and realized the recipe was indeed SECRET because I made it up!!!! And I’m not telling!!!
OK, I’ll tell anybody who’ll ask for it and then remember to call it Meadowlark’s cookies. So maybe it’s not SECRET after all.
I especially like #4. Funny and oh, so true!!
I will defintely be adding this to my blog.
I am adding this to my blog, too.
Cos people that bring things to potlucks then go all secret squirrel about the recipe are not nice people at all. ‘Specially when they laugh in your face like you’ve committed some grievous faux pas by even asking.
I, on the other hand, usually have at least one print out of my recipes to share with people. Otherwise, I will just tell them, type it out real fast or email/distribute it at my leisure.
I love sharing recipes (have gotten some really outstanding ones from all around the world, too.)
Tom and lorrwill, welcome to the movement.
I agree, it’s really annoying browsing a food blog who don’t even want to put the recipe.
Totally agree! We posted it here: http://ladiesrecipes.wikidot.com
I couldn’t agree more. Secrecy with recipes is all about ego, not about sharing–which is what cooking is all about. Great post.
Two real life experiences that show you should share. A friend of mine made a Hummingbird Cake, and when I asked for the recipe, she said that she only wanted me to enjoy it when I was with her. I remember her making it twice. My friend died in a terrible accident. Her daughter contacted me asking if I had any of her mom’s recipes…unfortunately I didn’t. She was very upset that she would never be able to share those cooking memories with her children, because she had none of the recipes. Another friend always shared her recipes. She had a kitchen fire. She called all her friends and relatives and asked for her recipes…she was able to retrieve many of them. I am hapy to share.
I’m so sorry for your friend’s daughter. That’s rough.
In a way, this reminds me of people who won’t let anyone take their picture. They want to control how we think of them. But my memory of you is mine. If you don’t want to be remembered, all you have to do is guard your image jealously. Then when you’re gone you’re well and truly gone.
Wow I love this blog! It reminds me of my blog! Great minds and cooks think alike. http://www.breakfeefromcookbookbondage.blogspot.com
I love this guy Drew though. . My friends know that I will share my recipes with you but you will have to come cook with me to learn. My "secret ingredients" are secret becuse I am not always sure how much of it I use. I am a toos this in and add that kind of person, I measure alot of things with my palm or by sight. So really no secret recipes for me. . you just have to work to get them
Alice, I've still got a few things that are like that. I taste and adjust as I go, but I've never actually measured it. And I never think about it until I'm halfway done.
I've just discovered your blog and am really enjoying reading it.
I do agree with all the points people have made regarding "No Secret Recipes" but do want to contribute one more:
Ever do a recipe exactly the same as someone else, yet it tastes different? Ounce for ounce, measure for measure identical – but there is just something you cannot define in the taste testing.
I've done this with my mom, made pasta salads and sandwiches side by side with her – we were like conjoined twins in the kitchen – and yet I could tell the difference between hers and mine (and preferred hers every time lol).
Something undefined happens during preparation/cooking/etc., of a recipe that makes it your own.
So, in my opinion, secret recipes are moot because if you make it and then I do – it will be similar but never the same.
Topaz, I made two pans of gravy side-by-side when I catered an event a little while ago. Me, both pans, side-by-side … and they weren't the same. I don't expect things to be exactly the same every time.
hi Drew!
I usally mix sugar with normal yogurt to make a small treat. the problem, its nice but there is no flavor! Sorry for my english im from Canadian. Could i use juice powders or soda?
Anon, I'd go with fresh fruit before using a manufactured powder.
This is fantastic! I've lived by this rule since I was a kid. Although, back then it was me making my mom share all her recipes. I think I was too cute for her to say no!
Food is meant to be shared and, in that spirit, I share recipes!
It's so nice to see someone else with this opinion! My German Oma guarded her recipes jealously; she'd tell my mum (good ol' Aussie, descended from convincts and all) bits of it, then probably cackle away silently when it didn't come out right. Awful lady. Fortunately, my Opa was a lovely man, and he'd tell my mum what she was missing! It's only because of this that my sister and I have any traditional recipes to show our half-German heritage.
My most-requested recipe is Chocolate Chip Macaroons, and I got it off the side of the packet! I have told this to every single person who ever complimented me, yet they still ask me to make it! I even wrote the recipe down for a few of its most adamant admirers, but they still get me to make them. Funny how it works, isn't it?
Wyv, I just stood in front of five people and made something for them, showing them every step and every ingredient, and they still acted like it was a mystery.
One of them did ask some good questions though, so I suspect she'll be making it soon.
And what about we new cooks, you know those of us who can boil water without burning it.
I agree with Haniff about posting food blogs with not recipe or like to a recipe. Every time I learn how to make something I tell any and everyone how to make it.
However, once I was blessed ot be given a friend's family recipe that I could not share ever. That did not stop me from finding and giving out a copy recipe online.
Elftea, I've found that most "secret family recipes" really aren't that different from how everyone makes it. If you've seen Kung Fu Panda, it's like the Secret Recipe Soup.
I absolutely agree with no secret recipes, though the last one I shared was used by that person to make money in their coffee shop – no credit or money for me
Those people just tend to ruin things for everyone, don't they?
I also HATE it when people leave out a technique, step, or ingredient that is what makes the recipe work. Took me watching my ex-sis-in-law make her "famous" pasta salad to realize she adds sugar to meld the ingredients together, and vinegar to take away the sweetness – neither of which are in the recipe!
Now that is not cool. They should at least name it after you or something.
The least they could have done was told me why they wanted the recipe. I just felt completely hijacked. I don't at all mind sharing recipes and family recipes with friends who enjoy them, but monetary gain out of them is another story..lol
BTW, Thank you for sharing your recipes with us!
I’m so glad you all are doing this…. I don’t have enough ego to have secrets anyway…
Thank you very much……….. Michael’s Kitchen
Michael, I tried to leave a comment on the chili cook-off post but some script kept hanging. So I’ll tell you here, that was one of the funniest things I’ve ever read about food. And Frank’s problem was using beer to try to kill the heat. Everyone knows you use milk for that. (Everyone does know that, don’t they?)
Drew,
I’m Looking for a old fashion Bread Pudding that’s stands up high after it’s cooled down, my Mother In Law made the best.But she is not with us anymore and the reciept went with her.
thanks
Lori
Lori, I think my mother-in-law has a recipe. I’ll check with her. If she does, I’ll make it here.
Usually, I agree with this sentiment. Unfortunately, my family has had problems with identity theft and people going to ridiculous means to portray themselves as “the REAL Doe family,” so the true “family” recipes– as in, they weren’t found in cookbooks, but were spawned by family members over fifty years ago– are given only to people I actually know. It’s sad, because I WANT to share. I won’t feel safe doing so until my mother tells me the legal stuff is over. So, even though I support the ideal… I can’t put the badge on my recipe blog. It would be hypocritical. Sorry.
If there is existing name recognition, then I can totally understand trying to protect that value. It’s the people who are using a recipe straight out of Better Homes that won’t tell anyone what’s in it who drive me crazy.