My mom's 1989 sourdough recipe needed way more water than I thought

I pulled out my mom's old recipe card from 1989 last weekend. The handwriting said one cup of water but the dough was like a rock. After three tries I added almost two cups total and it finally looked right. I looked it up online and old flour from back then absorbed less moisture than today's stuff. Kind of wild that a simple recipe can change that much in 35 years. Has anyone else had to adjust old family recipes for modern ingredients?

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the_miles3d ago

My grandmother's cornbread recipe took me six tries before I figured out the buttermilk situation... turns out the stuff from 1972 was way thicker than what we get now, so I was basically making cornmeal soup. I finally just called my aunt and she laughed for a solid minute before telling me to add an extra half cup of flour. Now I just assume every old recipe needs at least one ingredient doubled or halved and a prayer tossed in for good measure.