We had a dear family friend who always slightly messed up his recipes so that they wouldn't come out quite as good when you made them. Jim died of AIDS just months after the first protease inhibitors became available. I miss him, and his cooking, still.
https://twitter.com/ProfEmilyOster/status/1336770008505053185
Another Jim story--my mother once found out that his "secret" for making these great pork pies was to order them from Myers of Keswick. My mother had begged like four terrible recipes from him over the years. Watching the triumph and rage war on her face was absolutely delicious.
(These days, you'd think "Of course, Myers of Keswick", but it wasn't particularly well known back then, and I have the idea that it had just opened.)
My own family story is that no one ever got my Great Grandmother's recipe for suet pudding. She wasn't secretive about it. Just no one thought to ask, and it died with her. We've been trying to reproduce it ever since.
I have never experienced Great Grandmother Taylor's suet pudding, but I have googled up many recipes for my Mom over the years, none of which, apparently, could touch Great Grandma's.
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