Use high-altitude directions, yes or no?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’m at 5439 feet above sea level.

I never use high altitude directions, and I rarely even know what they are.

My husband buys brownie mixes (I usually make them from scratch, from an old recipe) and the box says to do this if you’re above 4000 feet.

Mine, from scratch, come out fine. From the box, well we have mixed results (but almost always edible; they are brownies after all). Oddly, it is actually cheaper to get a mix.

Since I don’t see any difference, I’m wondering why even bother? Plus the directions make no sense to me. Add a little more water and a little more flour, use 1 egg instead of 2. ???

I am mystified by a lot of things, though. Maybe these directions are for people more particular about their brownies than I am?

I have made some adjustments for cooking rice, but other than that, I don’t know what could be going on that would require a change in the recipe.

2

The boiling point of water at your altitude is less than 95 degrees C. Certain foods need to be raised to certain temperatures for certain times for the chemical reactions involved in cooking to take place. Boiled potatoes are the canonical example.

3

Use the directions. In addition to the lower boiling point, it is one hell of a lot drier up here (think Colorado Rockies keeping baseballs in a humidor). If you bake bread according to a basic recipe, you could build a house out of the loaves. You need a* lot* of additional water.

4

As previous posters have noted, plus:

Higher altitude = lower air pressure; this will affect leavened baked goods, which are filled with air bubbles.

5

I’m a flatlander in Chicago, but on a family trip to Winter Park baked up some brownies from mix, never even thinking about high-altitude directions.

After using a hammer to break it into manageable chunks, I had plenty of chocolate jerky for my long train ride back home.