My grandma's store brand trick I keep seeing people forget

Everyone keeps saying store brand stuff is worse but my grandma used store brand flour and sugar for 50 years and her pies won county fairs. She always said the real difference is in technique not the price tag. Does anyone else remember when people actually learned to cook instead of just blaming the ingredients?

2 comments

2 Comments

richard_dixon1mo ago

Oh man, for real! Everyone acts like store brand stuff is secretly made of cardboard or something. People really do love to blame the flour instead of their own shaky pie crust technique. Your grandma sounds like a legend, and honestly the county fair doesn't lie. These days folks just want a shortcut and a scapegoat, not a better recipe.

grant_hart1mo ago

Yeah, "your grandma sounds like a legend" really hit me because I used to be one of those guys who swore by name brand flour. Thought it was magic or something. But I watched a friend win the county fair pie contest with store brand and I had to eat my words. It's humbling to realize I was just making excuses for my own bad dough handling. Now I buy whatever's cheapest and focus on keeping the butter cold and not overworking it. You're dead right about people wanting a scapegoat more than a better technique.