# Anyone use the recipes on the box? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 27, 2016, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-use-the-recipes-on-the-box/769876 "2016-10-27T19:56:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2016, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-use-the-recipes-on-the-box/769876/21 "2016-10-28T02:41:40Z")
They’re a start. Add more milk and Jiffy Corn Bread becomes awesome corn pancakes. ETA: I’ve ranted before about people who Just Can’t Cook. The manufacturers pay people to cook better than you, using the same ingredients. You are free, and likely are an idiot. Listen to your betters. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2016, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-use-the-recipes-on-the-box/769876/22 "2016-10-28T05:48:09Z")
> [@Peanuthead](#): > > I once made an apple pie that wasn’t to my girlfriend’s liking and she would tease me: “Is this a Mock Apple Pie from the Ritz Cracker box?” I wonder if anybody has ever made a mock apple pie. What an absurd concoction! Fill a pie crust with crackers and call it an apple pie! actually Nabisco ripped off the government on that one … the original called for “butter crackers” and came from a ww2 home ec book on how to make your favorites on ration coupons … A lot of “mock” recipies that became standards came from ww2 rationing ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2016, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-use-the-recipes-on-the-box/769876/23 "2016-10-28T12:32:17Z")
> [@Cartoonacy](#): > > Grape-Nuts Puff Pudding was much better than I expected it to be. It would almost have to be. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2016, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-use-the-recipes-on-the-box/769876/24 "2016-10-28T12:51:35Z")
I’ve never made the recipe on the box, but I do get annoyed that the recipe is always very prominent on the package but the actual instructions for making what’s actually in the package are always printed in a little tiny box in the corner, or not even on the side of the box opposite the nutritional information but the _same side_ as the nutritional information in only _slightly_ larger print than the ingredients list. I hate that. ---
**Author:** ![Haunted\_Pasta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/94ad74/32.png) [@Haunted\_Pasta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Haunted_Pasta)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2016, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-use-the-recipes-on-the-box/769876/25 "2016-10-28T17:20:48Z")
A bottle of Heinz 57 Steak Sauce once featured a recipe for skillet chicken breasts, using a sauce made of two parts Heinz 57 to one part limeade concentrate. Garnish with mint leaves. That was more than 20 years ago. As a sales gimmick, it totally worked on me, exactly as intended. In the time since I’ve bought many bottles of Heinz 57 for the specific purpose of making that recipe. There’s an unopened bottle in my pantry right now when the next opportunity arises. ---
**Author:** ![Arrendajo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Arrendajo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arrendajo)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2016, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-use-the-recipes-on-the-box/769876/26 "2016-10-28T17:58:40Z")
Sure I look at the recipes on the packaging. Then I might riff on the theme, if I’m familiar with the product already. Sometimes it’s a recipe I wouldn’t have thought of on my own. Both the wife and I are good cooks, and we’re always checking out new dishes. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2016, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-use-the-recipes-on-the-box/769876/27 "2016-10-28T18:27:25Z")
> [@Mister\_Rik](#): > > My mom, OTOH … My mom wasn’t a great _cook_, but she was a fantastic _baker_. She would bake pies for dessert when we had guests, and she would constantly get other husbands covertly asking for her pie crust recipe because it was so much better than what their own wives made. My mom was baffled by this because, “It’s just the recipe on the Crisco can!” > > (Honestly, Mom’s pies were so amazing that I rarely eat pie as an adult. I’ve never had a pie with a crust as good as Mom’s.) Same here – my Mom would only make pie for guests (we had ice cream after dinner, and she occasionally made birthday cake). Her chocolate silk pie was to die for. Homemade crust (with Crisco) and homemade whipped cream on top. She made one at Thanksgiving one year and the last piece became a pivotal prize in a poker game. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![stillownedbysetters](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/41988e/32.png) [@stillownedbysetters](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stillownedbysetters)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2016, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-use-the-recipes-on-the-box/769876/28 "2016-10-28T19:30:38Z")
I have an excellent recipe for chicken with three peppers that I found on a package of refrigerated linguine 15 or so years ago. It is so tasty that I make it for company and am often asked if I got it from a chef. I also make a Mexican pizza that was featured on a Bisquick box. It was a favorite of my son and his buddies throughout their school years. It certainly wasn’t as ‘cheffy’ as the other recipe, but even the pickiest of kids would eat it. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2016, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-use-the-recipes-on-the-box/769876/29 "2016-10-28T22:42:35Z")
Mom made Bisquik biscuits. They somehow managed to make lumps of flour, shortening, salt, and leavening barely edible. In these pages some years ago I took a recipe that lacked some vitals and made something I was pleased with, given enough butter and jam. I brag without basis that I can cook, but it’s all about proportions. Which, to my daughter’s regret, involves words like “yea,” “some,” and “not too much.” ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2016, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-use-the-recipes-on-the-box/769876/30 "2016-10-28T23:25:13Z")
**I don’t need no stinkin’ recipes!** I wing it, man! I’m crazy like that. You can’t stop me! ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2016, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-use-the-recipes-on-the-box/769876/31 "2016-10-28T23:39:30Z")
Yeah, baking powder biscuits, on the can of Clabber Girl. You mean, as opposed to preparation instructions, like on a cake mix? Which are not all the same. ---
**Author:** ![Common\_Tater](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/common_tater/32/13846_2.png) [@Common\_Tater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Common_Tater)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2016, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-use-the-recipes-on-the-box/769876/32 "2016-10-29T13:11:13Z")
> [@Mister\_Rik](#): > > I don’t, but I’m a professional cook. At home, I either don’t feel like cooking after doing it all day at work and so just throw a frozen pizza in the oven or microwave a burrito … Is this the culinary equivalent of the old adage “The cobblers son has no shoes”? Alton Brown slumming it at home with a Swansons TV dinner, natch. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2016, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-use-the-recipes-on-the-box/769876/33 "2016-10-29T14:36:20Z")
A dish that always appears at our family’s Christmas dinners (and similar get-togethers) is green bean casserole, which was invented by the Campbell company as a recipe to make use of Campbell’s mushroom soup: > **[Green bean casserole](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_bean_casserole)** > > Green bean casserole is an American baked dish consisting primarily of green beans, cream of mushroom soup, and french fried onions. > It is a popular side dish for Thanksgiving dinners in the United States and has been described as iconic. The recipe was created in 1955 by Dorcas Reilly at the Campbell Soup Company. As of 2020\[update\] Campbell's estimated it was served in 20 million Thanksgiving dinners in the US each year and that 40% of the company's cream of mushroom soup sales go into a vers... ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2016, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-use-the-recipes-on-the-box/769876/34 "2016-10-29T16:30:05Z")
> [@Common\_Tater](#): > > Is this the culinary equivalent of the old adage “The cobblers son has no shoes”? Alton Brown slumming it at home with a Swansons TV dinner, natch. 🙂 More or less :)` It seems to be true amongst many of the other cooks I’ve known, at least the single ones (I’m 50, but have only been married for six months, first marriage). I actually cook for real at home more often now, since cooking for my wife is something nice I can do for her that doesn’t cost a whole lot of money (since we don’t have much). But when I was single and had nobody at home to cook for but myself, my philosophy was that I wasn’t going to spend 30 minutes preparing something that I was going to wolf down in 10 and then spend 20 minutes afterward cleaning up. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2016, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-use-the-recipes-on-the-box/769876/35 "2016-10-29T16:59:27Z")
The two cookie recipes, Toll House and Quaker oatmeal raisin. Also a delicious soft, chewy gingersnap from a bottle of molasses (don’t remember which brand). But the most surprisingly good back-of-the-box recipe I ever made were corn muffins from the back of a Kellogg’s Corn Flakes box. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Girlfriend](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.girlfriend/32/193_2.png) [@Dr.Girlfriend](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Girlfriend)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2016, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-use-the-recipes-on-the-box/769876/36 "2016-10-29T17:33:50Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > Cheddar-garlic drop biscuits recipe from the side of the Bisquick box. Of course, I’m as liable to mess around with that recipe as any other. I make these all the time. That and the Bisquick chicken pot pie recipe. I use the Toll House chocolate chip cookie recipe, and my base baked macaroni and cheese recipe came from the back of a macaroni box. I don’t even remember what brand. I mess with the mac & cheese recipe a lot but I hardly ever change the cookies. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2025, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-use-the-recipes-on-the-box/769876/37 "2025-12-16T15:23:35Z")
I am bumping up this zombie to provide a link to a book on this topic: [Best Recipes -: Ceil Dyer -: Amazon.com: Books](https://www.amazon.com/Best-Recipes-Ceil-Dyer/dp/B000QS31FM/ref=sr_1_4?crid=25ZHOPPFA9MWD&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.VmsKJXmZGDXC8fD0_awpE_qIqr5ny0pOA8is7RCnOnW2s_KE_qxN5jrC0DYdNvo3SYwlFzbmneVOP2euScLq_GBF4BsOTM2yo82ztS2KQW5R01_oplVUgGa-SAhvJ5AIJqCqtkvORms9VCX3AnmyJ1G5AUmtARIie-nFIcRrJGM3GU_1n10XmBG57xY3aU5s_kkeYJmXa_kTHtjHh9EjEthDzqQh4KgW8ap4HhmtDmE.g5mdVp9_Ue-E9beNp1zj9M14wcemOBEF7_A2MwtAmnQ&dib_tag=se&keywords=best+recipes+from+the+backs+of+boxes&qid=1765898496&sprefix=Recipes+on+the+box%2Caps%2C101&sr=8-4) I haven’t received it yet, but I am looking forward to seeing what I can make with just what’s in my kitchen cabinets. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2025, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-use-the-recipes-on-the-box/769876/38 "2025-12-16T16:28:50Z")
The Baker’s German’s Sweet Chocolate (the one in the green box) has a recipe on the inside of some of the boxes for a chocolate pie: > **[Double GERMAN'S Sweet Chocolate Pie | BAKER'S | United States | Recipes -...](https://www.kraftheinz.com/bakers/recipes/502188-double-german-s-sweet-chocolate-pie)** > > Dive into deliciousness with our Double GERMAN'S Sweet Chocolate Pie. Fans of German chocolate pie love the chocolate crust and extra chocolate drizzle. A relative of mine has made it for every Thanksgiving for years and years. Once she got older the recipe was handed down to me and it’s now my Thanksgiving thing. Other than the time required to freeze it, it takes all of 10 minutes to make and _always_ goes over really well. FWIW, we do make it with two slight changes. A chocolate (ie Oreo) crust instead of a graham cracker crust and adding a lot of hershey’s syrup to it…like, add way more than you think, then add a bunch more. It’s noticeably darker when I’m done. But then I _really_ like hershey’s syrup. Of course, even making it exactly as stated will still be really good, but, at the very least, using a chocolate crust IMO, makes it much better. ---
**Author:** ![Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/marvin_the_martian/32/2898_2.png) [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marvin_the_Martian)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2025, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-use-the-recipes-on-the-box/769876/39 "2025-12-16T16:29:22Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > A dish that always appears at our family’s Christmas dinners (and similar get-togethers) is green bean casserole, which was invented by the Campbell company as a recipe to make use of Campbell’s mushroom soup I once had an entire cookbook of recipes using various Campbell’s soups. Was very handy during grad school. The sodium levels of those dishes had to be extreme. One I remember well was: 1. Slice hot dogs partially through lengthwise; 2. put slices of cheese in the cervices; 3. cover with a can of cream of celery soup, undiluted (!); 4. bake and enjoy. One Christmas I decided to try a green bean recipe I found in one of my favorite cookbooks (“Master Recipes”). I started going through the steps: blanch green beans, make a white sauce, add chopped mushrooms - then realized it was the Campbell’s green bean casserole made from scratch. Didn’t taste as good - probably needed more salt. > [@Tara57](#): > > Bisquick - quite a few - biscuits, **impossible pies** , oven fried chicken, coffee cake (My highlighting) Very much this. Better than real quiche and way easier. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2025, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-use-the-recipes-on-the-box/769876/40 "2025-12-16T16:40:30Z")
I use the Quaker Oats recipe for meatloaf. It calls for ground beef, egg, tomato juice, A1 Worcester sauce, salt & pepper and Old fashioned Oats. The Quaker Oats recipe is a basic and delicious meatloaf. The oatmeal flakes makes a good binder and absorbs the flavors. Lipton Onion Soup mix has a pot roast recipe on the box. I use it with a few modifications. Velveeta has a Nacho cheese sauce on the box. It’s very good. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-use-the-recipes-on-the-box/769876.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-use-the-recipes-on-the-box/769876.md?page=3)