When The New York Times announced in the fall of 1989 that it was going to stop its annual reprinting of food writer Marian Burros’ recipe for Purple Plum Torte, the newspaper received a torrent of letters. That’s because the story of the paper’s most requested recipe ever was written at a time when print, and letter-writing, were still key media ingredients.
The recipe appeared for the first time Sept. 21, 1983. As writer Margaux Laskey writes this week, given the simplicity and casual mention of the dish at the end of a column, its popularity was unexpected:
The newspaper received so many requests for the recipe that the editors decided to reprint it the following year, and the next, and each subsequent year until they decided it was time to put an end to the madness.
WORK SMARTER - LEARN, GROW AND BE INSPIRED.
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