Product Cookbook/Label Recipes

So I had a taste for green bean casserole and thought of this topic.What are some of your favorite recipes from soup can labels,or food company cookbooks?Something from childhood perhaps.I don't think I would have the same reaction to green bean casserole if I first had it at age 20.

I like chicken baked with cream of mushroom soup.

I've actually not had a lot of "classic" recipes. I've never had green bean casserole-- I didn't even know what it was until a few years ago!

Long ago (when William I was Preznit of England, I think), one of my sisters suggested that we undertake to make the "Mock Apple Pie" recipe from the back of a Ritz Cracker box. We did, the results were heinous, but the memory is a fine one. So, while it remains my favorite "back 'o the package" recipe, I wouldn't serve it to my friends.

Hi,

I have made the Mock Apple Pie with Ritz crackers. It indeed fools people into thinking it is an apple pie.

There is historical context for the cracker pie, when they ran out of apples and spring wasn't yet round the corner, they "scraped the bottom of the barrel" to make pies from crackers. In this context it wasn't pie for dessert, it was pie for breakfast, lunch and dinner for up to 6 months a year.

Another apple pie alternative was potatoes soaked in vinegar.

When you're hungry and have the will to survive, you will do whatever it takes.

Without a doubt, my all-time, four-star, hall-of-fame, label recipe is Magic Cookie Bars from the can of Borden's Sweetened Condensed Milk.

(I think they actually call them "Seven Layer" Magic Cookie Bars. )

Best,
Michael / EC

Nestle's Toll House Cookies -- even Cook's Illustrated went back to this ingredient list, although they fuss an awful lot with the process

Peanutbutter-butterscotch Rice Krispies Treats -- more bricklike than the marshmallow version, just peanut butter and butterscotch morsels melted and mixed with the cereal.

Was there a recipe on the fried onion label? Oh well, the can's empty again.

I'm a big fan of the recipe for One Bowl Brownies on the box of Baker's Chocolate.

I will admit to loving the Philadelphia Cream Cheese recipe for Hot Crab Dip:

PHILADELPHIA

I second eatchicago's 7-layer bars. Chex party mix isn't bad.

Another classic is the "Easy Corn Bread" recipe on the back of the round Quaker Corn Meal box. I remember Julia Child referring to it as the best cornbread recipe. When I make it, though, I can't help but add or change something (adding at least a few chopped jalapenos.