Which of Your “secret Family Recipes” Is Not Such a Big Secret?
Hello and welcome back toWhat’s Cooking? , an open thread where you can share your brilliant thoughts, tips, recipes and opinions on all food related matters. This week I would like to talk about family recipes, from kept and cherished, to open secrets.
Most “family recipes” seem to be rarely developed by families , many of which come from cans of mayonnaise, on the back of Jiffy boxes and cookbooks. My family has always been quite open about this, but I was still a little surprised to find that the Giffy-based corn casserole was not unique to my southern sour cream-obsessed family. I expect your family to have similar secrets and I would love to hear about them. As always, I have specific questions:
- What ready-made recipe do you think your family developed? As mentioned above, I thought my aunt came up with the recipe for the corn casserole . It is not, but we do our part by covering it with chopped cheddar.
- Have you ever given out a proprietary recipe that has its own? Have a family member? As far as I know, no. My grandmother practically brags about the opposite, making sure that everyone knows how little time and energy she spends on this or that dish.
- What’s your favorite recipe you’ve ever gotten out of a bottle, can, or box? I love these Jiffy products, but I also love the Rotel and Velveeta quesos, Nestle Tollhouse chocolate chip cookies, the iconic grape jelly, and the Heinz Chili Sauce . When I did the latter for Offclair, he called it “the best thing I’ve ever done,” which annoyed me a little, but rightfully so.
- Do you have a favorite hacker mix from Jiffy? I just love this corn casserole.
- What recipe you were scrambling to find that your family member didn’t actually develop? Other than this damn casserole, I have no answer to that, but I’d love to hear yours.
- Do you have a real family secret recipe? It was kind of a secret that my stepmother added mayonnaise to her mashed potatoes , but I told everyone about it.
As always, feel free to chat about anything that has anything to do with the topic under discussion. And, if you have a real secret that you want to share – food related or not! – I would like to hear it. I just love secrets.