The Secret Family Recipe

While some recipes are traditions openly passed down and taught from generation to generation, one Australian family kept a traditional butterscotch dessert a closely guarded secret.

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The contributor’s grandmother, Nana, kept a secret family recipe for butterscotch pudding throughout the contributor’s childhood. The pudding was a family favorite, requested at every dinner or gathering, but Nana refused to share the recipe with anyone; not even her closest family members knew.

The contributor grew up curious about the mysterious pudding recipe. Determined to uncover the secret, they begged Nana to share it. One day, the pestering wore Nana down to the point where Nana and the contributor's grandfather, affectionately known as Pop, began laughing nonstop and agreed to reveal the secret.

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The secret recipe wasn't a coveted family tradition passed down to Nana by her own grandmother, or a secret ingredient; it was rather a recipe from a magazine. Nana had quietly ripped the recipe from a women’s weekly magazine while sitting in the waiting room at her doctor’s office. At tAt the next appointment, she saw signs posted around the waiting room asking patients not to rip pages out of magazines. The signs even offered to happily photocopy recipes for patients instead.

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Embarrassed by the incident, Nana kept the recipe's origins hidden from her family, swearing Pops to secrecy. Yet, once the secret was revealed, the contributor shared the origins of their family’s famous pudding recipe with the rest of the family.

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The contributor notes that it remains a secret family recipe, but the truth makes it easy for family members to look it up online when they want to make it.

For this family, a butterscotch pudding recipe is more than a well-loved dessert; each bite comes with an amusing family story