July 2021 - Secret Recipes

July 26, 2021July 26, 2021

Mondays & Memories of My Mom – Happy Monday

Happy Monday to everyone! You know I always look forward to each and every Monday, as they’re my 52 Chances per year, in which I get to share Memories of My Mom with all of you!

#TheRecipeDetective

#TGIM

EVERY DAY IS A NEW BEGINNING! I think Mondays especially represent the 52 weekly, fresh opportunities we have each year… to learn something new; to stop and smell the roses; to see the sun rise and set; to meet a stranger; to share our talents with others; to lend a helping-hand to someone in need; or to simply appreciate all that life has to offer! How do you spend your Mondays?

For me, Mondays are when I blog about my mom’s legacy, as the ORIGINAL copycat cooker, the Secret Recipes Detective. I enjoy sharing some of her stories and a recipe or two from her massive collection every week. I try to use Mondays for carrying Mom’s torch forward and bringing attention to all of her pioneering efforts in the industry.

Through Mom’s stories and my own remembrances of her, I want to re-inspire love in the kitchen, in the home, in the family, throughout the neighborhood and community, as well as around the world – just as Mom did – because, as she often loved to recite, from her lifelong faith, “let there be peace on Earth and let it begin with me.”

FROM MOM’S MEMORIES…

Excerpts by Gloria Pitzer, as seen in…

This is not a Cook Book – It’s Gloria Pitzer’s Food for Thought (Secret Recipes^TM, St. Clair, MI; Oct. 1986, pp. 7-8)

ESCAPE

THE HAPPIEST LITTLE ESCAPES in our lives can be, to us, what the spout is to a tea kettle that is up to its neck in hot water! It can give us an outlet for letting off steam – in a nice way! Everyone, who has their own little escape from the harsh realities of everyday life, seems to fare better than those who have absolutely nothing to which to escape.

I escape to a good book that will make me smile – or better yet, laugh right out loud, like George Burns has written. I escape to crocheting and good music, to long walks and long drives in our motor home, with my husband. There are so many lovely little escapes that each of us can choose that it’s a wonder more of us who seem to suffer from unreasonable burdens and false responsibilities, don’t seek out their retreats more often. It helps! (p. 7)

‘GOOD CHEER IS something much more than faith in the future, it is gratitude for the past and joy in the present!’ – Gloria Pitzer

HAPPINESS IS…

I WASN’T KIDDING WHEN I said I envied happy people more than I did wealthy or famous people. From what I’ve read and what the rich and famous have said in filmed interviews, not too many of them are really happy with their wealth and their fame.

John Luther said that ‘happiness is not a matter of good fortune or worldly possessions. It’s a mental attitude. It comes from appreciating what we have, instead of being miserable about what we don’t have. It’s so simple – yet so hard for the human mind to comprehend.’ I agree! (p. 8)

#LearnSomethingNewEveryDay

I often learn something new from NationalDayCalendar.com, which also claims that “Mondays are often full of new beginnings.” The website even suggests that “not only does the observance [Thank God It’s Monday Day] focus on the first Monday in January, but on every Monday throughout the year.”

I LOVE THAT! Especially since I post these blogs every Monday, in memory of my mom. They always energize and inspire me for the rest of my week’s workload (both, paid and unpaid.) I can only hope that they energize and inspire others as well.

Since I started this blog series a few years ago, writing has become one of my “escapes”. It’s very therapeutic for me, just as it always was for my mom. I’ve written more than a few blog posts about Mom’s love for writing ever since she was a young girl and how it bloomed into a legacy, as the Recipe Detective; investigator of the secrets of the food industry.

Mom loved to tell everyone that, for her, writing made a worthwhile living, but it also made living worthwhile. During her last few years, while suffering from dementia, Mom’s love for writing and journaling came as second-nature to her. Even though she couldn’t write as much as she used to, every little bit helped her to deal with the forgetfulness, immensely!

Mondays & Memories of My Mom – Junk Food

Happy Monday once again! If you’ve read any of my blog posts, you probably already know that I always look forward to Mondays because they are my 52 Chances each year, in which I get to share Memories of My Mom with all of you!

#TheRecipeDetective

#WhiteCastle

First of all, I want to wish a very happy 100^th birthday to White Castle! They’re one of a handful of companies that were actually happy with and flattered by Mom’s imitations of some of their menu items. A few years ago, I found an old letter among some of Mom’s things that I got after her passing; from Gail Turley, who was at that time, the Director of Advertising and Public Relations with White Castle (Columbus, Ohio).

Gail was very flattered with Mom’s imitation of their slider and dually impressed with her clever use of baby food to enhance the flavor of the beef. She even bought 15 copies of Mom’s cookbook (which contained the White Castle Hamburger knockoff) to share with some of her colleagues!

Mom’s original editorial on the company, along with other information and her make-alike recipe, can be found on pages 12-13 of Mom’s last book, Gloria Pitzer’s Cookbook – The Best of the Recipe Detective (Balboa Press; January 2018, 1^st Printing) – which is a re-write of her famous book, Gloria Pitzer’s Better Cookery Cookbook (Secret Recipes, St. Clair, MI; May 1983, 3^rd Printing).

#NationalJunkFoodDay

This coming Wednesday is, among other things, National Junk Food Day! Beginning in the mid-1970s, my mom quickly became well-known locally, nationally and internationally (as Canada is just across the river from us), for busting the mysteries behind making restaurant dishes, fast food items, and junk food fare at home!

Mom reasoned that she could take the junk out of junk food if she controlled the ingredients that went into the products and cuisine, in the first place. Throughout the first two decades of her family-operated business, she demonstrated her talents for imitating our favorite foods from our favorite places on TV shows like the Phil Donahue Show and ABC’s Home show. She also visited hundreds of radio shows, nationally and internationally, for over four decades!

Mom developed THOUSANDS of “secret recipes” over the years, imitating trendy menu choices from many popular chain and fine-dining restaurants; in addition to well-liked, shelf-stable grocery products! Most of Mom’s cookbooks focused on imitating grocery products, junk food, fast food and other restaurant dishes at home.

She was known as the Secret Recipes Detective – the pioneer who first forged the copycat cookery concept, writing and self-publishing more than 30 cookbooks in a 30-year span, from 1973 through 2002; as well as hundreds of newsletters from January 1974 through December 2000! You can find more information on most of her publishings by clicking on the “Cookbooks” and “Other Publications” tabs on this website.

Mom’s definition for ‘junk food’ was always “poorly prepared food”, but she found a way to “have the cake and eat it too!” Junk is in the eye of the beholder. Mom claimed to be able to take the junk out of junk food, by imitating the taboo products at home, where she could control the ingredients. It was a food industry break through that had many companies up in arms, like Sarah Lee and Hostess, to name a couple!

FROM MOM’S MEMORIES…

As seen in…

Eating Out at Home (National Home News, St. Clair, MI; September 1978, pp. 2-3)

SECRET RECIPES

YOU DON’T HAVE TO KNOW exactly how the original dish was prepared by the commercial food chains. All you need is a basic recipe to which you will add that ‘special seasoning’ or that ‘secret method of preparation’ that sets one famous secret recipe apart from those similar to it…

When I work to duplicate a recipe so that the finished product is as good as (if not better than) a famous restaurant dish, I begin by asking myself a series of questions: I want to know what color the finished dish has…[and] was it achieved by baking, frying or refrigeration?…What specific flavors can I identify?… and about how much of each may have been used…

Similar tests are used in chemistry…[to]…break down the components of an unknown substance and try to rebuild it. So the cook must work like a chemist (and not like a gourmet; who, most of the time, never uses a recipe – but, rather, creates one.)

The most remarkable part of the duplication of famous recipes is that you can accept the challenge to ‘try’ to match their [dish or product]. Sometimes, you will be successful. Sometimes you will fail in the attempt. But, at least, it can be done [‘practice makes perfect’], and it certainly takes the monotony out of mealtime when, for reasons of financial inadequacy, we cannot always eat out…

Stop cheating yourself of the pleasure of good food. Eat what you enjoy, but DON’T OVER eat…This is what really causes the problems of obesity and bad health – rather than believing the propaganda of the experts that ‘fast food’ is ‘junk food’…It is not! Poorly prepared food, whether it is from a fast-service restaurant or a [$20-plate in a] gourmet dining room, is ‘junk’, no matter how you look at it…if it is not properly prepared…

To debunk the junk…don’t think of Hostess Twinkies as junk dessert but, rather, the very same cake ingredients prepared in the Waldorf Astoria kitchens as the basis for their “Flaming Cherries Supreme”. All we did [to imitate the product] was shape the cake differently, adding a little body to the filling and putting it INSIDE the cake, rather than on top as the Waldorf did!

Mom’s original concepts of “eating out at home” and “taking the junk out of junk food” has brought so much joy to so many people who couldn’t afford such “luxuries” as eating out, even fast food, or buying junk food; either for monetary or health reasons. Mom gained a lot of followers in the copycat movement (also some plagiarists) since she started the concept in the early 1970s.

If it saved her household money, my mom wanted to share it with the world to help others save money also. Mom was a trail-blazer when it comes to copycat cuisine, as nobody else was imitating the fast food dishes and junk food products that people craved, and which the critics constantly warned the public were unhealthy!

Mondays & Memories of My Mom – Michigan Summertime

Happy Monday everybody! Personally, I always look forward to Mondays because they are my 52 Chances each year, in which I get to share Memories of My Mom with all of you!

#TheRecipeDetective

#PureMichigan

I’m a Michigander, as were both of my parents. I’m very grateful that all of my grandparents migrated to this beautiful state, which we’ve called home for four generations, since then. Like the rest of North America, Michigan is a multicultural “melting pot”; combining the sum of its various heritages into one whole society – Michiganders. Wherever we go in life, we are forever kindred spirits!

In my Michigander-biased opinion, this is one of the most beautiful states in our country! Its bordered by four of the five Great Lakes, which is a major part of the St. Lawrence Seaway. Michigan is home to an abundance of historic places, beautiful sights, famous people, iconic foods, renowned restaurants, and so much more.

As a Michigander, I grew up on (and still enjoy) some awesome, Michigan-made products. Many of which were among Mom’s famous imitations – such as Mackinac Fudge, Vernors Ginger Ale, Kellogg’s cereals, Sanders’ various confections, Win Schuler’s products, J.L. Hudson’s and Frankenmuth’s famous restaurant dishes; as well as many others!

Here’s a bit of trivia: Did you know that Michiganders call carbonated soft-drinks “pop”; while everyone else calls it “soda”? No matter what you call it, add a few scoops of ice cream to it and you have a delicious concoction that some call a “cooler”, while others call it a “float”. Either way, it’s a great summertime treat!

It’s probably those rough winters we go through that make us, Michiganders, appreciate the summer months even more than most others! The “Thumb Area”, in which I grew up and continue to live, is all about celebrating summer; especially after a long, hard Michigan winter!

However, hot and humid Michigan summer days, like those in July (and August), are when a lot of us like to head “up north” to vacation in a slightly cooler and drier atmosphere. It’s very refreshing – especially so when you’re close to the shore one of our Great Lakes!

I have many fond, childhood memories of my family’s own Michigan, summertime vacations. Mom and Dad took us to so many places around our beautiful state – such as the Tahquamenon Falls and the Soo Locks, both in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula (aka: the U.P.); as well as beach towns like Alpena, Petoskey, and Mackinaw City in the “Tip of the Mitt” region; plus, Mackinac Island, in Lake Huron, between the two peninsulas.

Mackinac Island has always been tops in my summertime memories. It’s full of many heavenly scents from the sugary confections being made in the fudge and candy shops to the wonderful aromas seeping from the island’s restaurants and bakeries to the heavenly scents surrounding all the beautiful gardens that are everywhere.

It’s also a very nostalgic place full of history that takes you back to around the turn of the 20^th century. To this day, no cars are allowed on the island (except for some emergency vehicles). Getting around the island is usually done by foot, bicycle or horse in some manner. Whenever I’ve gone there, it’s always seemed like a magical trip back in time…

That was especially so in the summer of 1979, when we were staying at the Grand Hotel during the filming of the movie, Somewhere in Time. What a special treat for all of us to experience! It’s probably in the top five of my favorite summertime vacation memories.

[FYI: More than three decades earlier, another movie was filmed at the Grand Hotel. In 1947, during the filming of This Time for Keeps, Ethel Merman swam in the Grand Hotel’s kidney-shaped pool. Thus, the hotel named the pool, in her honor.]

FROM MOM’S MEMORIES…

As seen in…

Gloria Pitzer’s Cookbook – The Best of the Recipe Detective (Balboa Press; Jan. 2018, p. 235)

[A revised reprint of… Gloria Pitzer’s Better Cookery Cookbook (Secret Recipes^TM, St. Clair, MI; May 1983, 3^rd Edition)]

SOMEWHERE IN TIME – MACKINAC ISLAND

Our reservations were made in February, that year, to spend the Fourth of July week at The Grand Hotel on historic Mackinac Island in Northern Michigan. We had heard, when we arrived, that Universal Pictures was filming a movie with Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour and that our two-day stay at the hotel might be disrupted from the usual routine we were used to when we stayed there.

The place was booked, and we were lucky to have those two days because other customers had canceled. The scene when we arrived was one of spectators and glamorous Hollywood activity in the lobby and on the grounds.

Paul was just teeing off at the green next to the golf pro shop, the next morning, when we heard a sympathetic moan from the beautiful leading man, himself, as he locked up his bike and headed across the street to the filming activity. I know I should have run after Christopher Reeve for his autograph, but I was in shock!

Later, in the hotel lobby, we watched the scene when Christopher Reeve checks into The Grand and, later, when he and Jane Seymour take a buggy ride away from the entrance of the hotel with Christopher Plummer looking on. Take the time to enjoy seeing the movie they were filming – we’ve seen it 4 times and can’t wait to see it again! It’s for everyone who has ever been in love – or who has ever visited lovely Mackinac Island, as we do every summer.

In one scene of the movie you’ll notice, on the main street of the village, a sign over a shop that reads ‘Murdick’s Fudge’, a recipe which I have coveted for years. Finally, after dozens of tests, I came up with the secret for purporting this product at home… It whips up in five minutes and, a week later, it’s still smooth and creamy.

#GiveSomethingAwayDay

#GloriaPitzersCookbook

https://www.balboapress.com/Bookstore/BookDetail.aspx?BookId=SKU-001062253

Every summer that I can remember, while growing up in the “Thumb Area” of Michigan, there was usually a couple of memorable family trips; as well as some special one-day-events like taking a boat ride on the St. Clair River, going to a summer festival, playing at the beach, picnicking in a park, as well as having or attending a backyard party and barbeque. All of it filling my Michigan summers with a lot of fun memories.

The best time to discover Michigan, depends on your interests. If you like winter activities, Michigan has it in spades, December through March! For most others, May through October is when Michigan’s weather is most pleasant. It’s generally warm in the spring and fall, while the mild, summertime heat is great for enjoying a vast array of activities – especially water activities.

#LearnSomethingNewEveryDay

Did you know that Michigan has 3,288 miles of coastline that borders four of the five Great Lakes? It’s the longest freshwater coastline in the U.S. In fact, regardless of water type (sea or fresh), Michigan is only second to Alaska in total length of coastline.

Just as my parents used to do, after a long work-week, my husband and I LOVE to go on one-day jaunts or weekend road trips to different places around our scenic state. We really enjoy traveling the sparkling, blue water shoreline that surrounds most of our state; as well as exploring the in-land lakes, rivers, parks, forests and farmlands throughout Michigan, too.

LAST THOUGHTS…

I found a great article online by Lana Law & Lura Seavey, called 14 Top-Rated Tourist Attractions in Michigan (Nov. 17, 2020). Their list contains many of my own bucket-list-destinations; a lot of which I’ve already accomplished, plus a few that are planned for this summer!

1-Mackinac Island – Been there. Done that. Can’t wait to go again this summer!

2-Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore & Lake Michigan – Been there, done that and want to go again soon!

3-Detroit Institute of Arts – Been there, done that and want to go again!

4-Pictured Rocks National Seashore – Can’t wait to go this summer!

5-Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park – Been there, done that and want to go again soon!

6-The Henry Ford complex (including the Museum, Greenfield Village, and the Ford Rouge Factory) – Been there, done that and want to go again soon!

7-Isle Royale National Park – This is definitely going on a future bucket list!

8-Detroit Zoo – Been there, done that and want to go again!

9-University of Michigan campus – Been there, done that and want to go again!

10-Belle Isle Park – Been there, done that and want to go again!

11- Fort Michilimackinac – Been there and done that. Can’t wait to go again this summer!

12-Michigan Historical Museum (Lansing) – #LearnSomethingNewEveryDay

13-Windmill Island – Been there, done that and can’t wait to go again!

14-Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum (Paradise) – Been there. Done that. Can’t wait to go again this summer!

Furthermore, I also discovered another great article, called 20+ Things to Do in Michigan: Your Ultimate Summer Bucket List, that suggested many great activities to do at a lot of the wonderful Michigan destinations mentioned above!

#NationalPecanPieDay

#GiveSomethingAwayDay

In honor of TODAY, being National Pecan Pie Day, and Thursday’s National Give Something Away Day, here is one of Mom’s “Original 200” copycat recipes, for Stuckey’s Pecan Pie; as seen in… The Secret Restaurant Recipes Book (Nat’l Homemakers Newsletter, Pearl Beach, MI; Jan. 1977, p. 11)

P.S. Food-for-thought until we meet again, next Monday…

#LearnSomethingNewEveryDay

Other celebrations happening this week include:

Today is… Paper Bag Day and Eat Your Jello Day!

Tomorrow, July 13^th is… National French Fry Day, National Beans ‘N’ Franks Day, and National Delaware Day!

Wednesday, July 14^th is… National Grand Marnier Day, National Tape Measure Day, and National Mac & Cheese Day! In honor of the latter, here is a re-share of Mom’s imitation of Woolworth’s Macaroni & Cheese, from her “Original 200” recipes collection!

Thursday, July 15^th is… National Tapioca Pudding Day and National Gummi Worm Day! Plus, as the third Thursday of the third quarter, it’s also… Get to Know Your Customers Day!

Friday, July 16^th is… National Corn Fritters Day and National Personal Chef’s Day!

Saturday, July 17^th is… National Lottery Day, National Peach Ice Cream Day, and World Emoji Day. Plus, as the third Saturday in July, it’s also National Strawberry Rhubarb Wine Day and Toss Away the “Could Haves” and “Should Haves” Day!

Sunday, July 18^th is… National Sour Candy Day, National Caviar Day, and National Ice Cream Day, which is the third Sunday in July! Being the third week in July, it’s also… Everybody Deserves a Massage Week, National Zoo Keeper Week, and National Parenting Gifted Children Week!

#TGIM

https://nationaldaycalendar.com/national-thank-god-its-monday-day-first-monday-in-january/

…28 down and 24 to go!

July 5, 2021

Mondays & Memories of My Mom – Fame And Fried Chicken

Happy Monday and happy July to one and all! I hope everyone had a happy and safe 4^th of July celebration yesterday! This is the first Monday of the second half of 2021 but I always look forward to all Mondays because they’re my 52 Chances each year, in which I get to share Memories of My Mom with all of you!

#TheRecipeDetective

This coming Wednesday is, among other things, the 40^th anniversary of Mom’s FIRST appearance on the Phil Donahue Show (July 7, 1981). That was undoubtedly the biggest milestone event in our family-run, dining-room-table, cottage operation, which had started 8 years before that! It was even an historic event for our small hometown, to say the least!

St. Clair’s little post office (which was serving, at that time, less than 5,000 citizens) was inundated with about a million letters, throughout the summer and fall; just from that episode airing and re-airing around the world for about a year, following the initial taping! It was truly an overwhelming response that none of us ever expected. More about that story appears in one of my early blogs, More than 15 Minutes of Fame.

Secret Recipes^TM was just a family affair (other than an Administrative Assistant, who was also a family friend) until that summer, when my parents had to pay some summer temp-workers, who were actually my friends, to come in and help with all the extra mail. None of us had any idea of what the impact of such a popular, internationally syndicated show would be.

We were sending out hundreds of thousands of Mom’s sheets of “free recipes and product-ordering information” in all the SASEs (Self-Addressed Stamped Envelopes) that came in; as Mom offered during the show. There were also a lot of newsletter subscription orders that generated from those “free sheet” mailings, so once a month (for a while) the family also needed extra help just in putting address labels on the newsletter issues that were mailed out.

Mom’s copycat recipes revolution took the nation by storm and washed over the world – thanks to the Phil Donahue Show – like a tidal wave! Ever since her early cookbooks on the subject were first released in the mid-1970s, Mom referred to her copycat imitations as her solutions to “eating out – at home”, and that, she’d add, no longer meant hot dogs on the grill, in the backyard!

Word spread like a wildfire in the 1970s that a small town, Michigan housewife was duplicating famous foods from famous places and sharing her secrets in her self-published newsletter and cookbooks! Radio stations, newspapers, magazines and television – they all picked up on the story through the wire service (pre home computers and internet) and it snowballed from there. Here are a few of Mom’s stories about that first appearance on the Phil Donahue Show.

#NationalFriedChickenDay

Additionally, tomorrow, July 6^th, is National Fried Chicken Day! As such, here are a few more re-shares of Mom’s stories about imitating famous chicken dishes from places like KFC and Chicken-In-The-Ruff; each followed by re-shares of her copycat recipes for them, as well!

AGAIN, MORE FROM MOM’S MEMORIES…

As seen in…

Gloria Pitzer’s Cookbook – The Best of the Recipe Detective (Balboa Press; Jan. 2018, pages 87-88)

[A revised reprint of Gloria Pitzer’s Better Cookery Cookbook (Secret Recipes^TM, St. Clair, MI; May 1983, 3^rd Edition)]

CHICKEN…

FRIED CHICKEN has always been a basic American favorite, even before it was a restaurant offering. It was ‘down-home’ and wholesome and has never lost its popularity. When Colonel Harland Sanders, in his retirement years, took a can of his favorite secret spices & herbs and his precious fryer and traveled across the country demonstrating his technique for preparing chicken. No one dreamed it would someday become one of the most successful corporations of the American restaurant industry, much less of the American free enterprise system, itself!

There are names that will be identified with fried chicken for a long time to come that include Church’s Fried Chicken, Brown’s, Popeye’s, Original Recipe, Banquet Fried Chicken, Pioneer Fried Chicken, Southern Fried Chicken and, of course, the leader of the industry, Kentucky Fried Chicken, which will be familiar to us with an affectionate regard, as we recall the big bucket at the top of the pole revolving above the Colonel’s restaurants across the country – and now across the world!

There are very minute differences between these popular restaurants in the way that their individual recipes are prepared. At home, when you want definite inspiration in preparing your own fried chicken, I have given you only a few of the great versions. There are many more, but the side dishes that accompanied the chicken in these various restaurants deserve some attention as well. I have included some of these in this section.

My own favorite is still the original recipe that we sampled when we were traveling in Ontario many, many years ago, and stopped at the White Horse Inn, where the Colonel, himself, was preparing his chicken and passing samples around to the customers. If the owners of the restaurant liked the response, Harland Sanders would provide them with the spices and the technique for preparing it under his name, which he eventually did – growing to the largest in the business.

THE SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCE – WITH THE COLONEL’S HELP

I look back now to 1976 and 1977 and realize how fortunate I was to have had my life touched by so many helpful people – so many famous people! It’s almost incredible that what started out to be merely the frosting on the cake, of my monthly newsletter, soon became the whole cake!

While duplicating the secrets of the food and restaurant industry was only going to be a part of the publication I was writing, it was a surprise to me that the interest and the response from the public led to my specializing in the fast food division entirely! I thought my first book was going to be my ‘only’ book on that subject, but – six books later – I was still seriously, but lovingly, engaged in the pursuit of new information and challenging recipe imitations.

I’ve been asked by restaurants to give them permission to use my recipes and say so on their menus. I’ve been asked by ‘People’ magazine, at least once a month for six months – even before the Donahue show appearance – to grant them an interview. The fact that I had declined the invitation because I couldn’t handle any additional mail, made the columns of the Detroit Free Press, when their ‘Tip-Off’ columnist said it was ‘classy’ to turn down People Magazine – refusing publicity in a national magazine because I did not want to ‘get big’!

[NOTE: As I mentioned in previous blog posts, Mom did eventually grant “People” magazine an interview, which appeared in the issue dated May 7^th, 1990.]

It was just good business sense to me. For like Maurice and Dick McDonald, I like what I’m doing and having somebody else do it for me, as Ray Kroc did it for the two brothers, would be like Liberace having somebody play the piano for him.

However, one of the most important turning points in the events of my recipe work was the influence that Col. Harland Sanders had over me and his direct suggestions on how to make my fried chicken recipe more like the one he originally developed!

With the tests for COUNTERFEITING FRIED CHICKEN AT HOME that was as good as what you could buy out – but for less – I felt I HAD to have a pressure fryer. This meant I had to have a place to also put it in my kitchen, which was already bursting at the seams with appliances and gadgets and utensils I really didn’t get enough use from, as it was.

Then one summer, while visiting relatives in West Virginia, we sampled some pan-fried home-style chicken that was every bit as good as the chicken produced in a pressure fryer. Paul’s 82-year-old-and blamed why the chicken always came out just right every time she made it, which was religiously every Sunday! It was the pan!

She used an 80-year-old wrought iron skillet that had never been washed in soap and water. She ‘seasoned’ it was shortening – lard, mostly. She kept it in the oven of her wood-burning, porcelain enamel dough, where it was always warm.

The fried chicken recipe that first called attention to my recipes nationally – through the ‘National Enquirer’, ‘Money Magazine’, ‘Catholic Digest’, ‘The Christian Science Monitor’, ‘Campus Life Magazine’ and, yes, even ‘Playboy Magazine’ – was this following combination of ingredients.

The method is quite unorthodox and the original idea for developing it in this manner, came from a conversation I had with ‘Col. Sanders’ over the air with radio station WFAA in Dallas when I was a regular guest on a talk show with them for several months. We discussed the secrets of the food industry with listeners by phone from our homes.

The Colonel was fascinated by the publicity I had received for my “Big Bucket in the Sky” fried chicken recipe and agreed that I was on the right track if I’d add more pepper. He loved pepper! He also suggested browning the chicken in a skillet and then oven-baking it until tender to achieve a likeness more to the original recipe he had created in 1964. He told me to look around the grocery store for 1 packaged product to replace the 11 spices – which I did diligently – and discovered that powdered Italian salad dressing mix was the secret!

So, I set to work to revamp the recipe. My original recipe was quite close to the famous Colonel’s product, but the coating kept falling off – because, as he explained, I couldn’t get the oil hot enough. He liked peanut oil, himself, but suggested that I could achieve a similar result by using corn or Crisco oil – with 1 cup solid Crisco for every 4 cups of oil. He talked about the quality in his product changing after turning the business over to new owners.

When Heublein Conglomerate bought out the franchise, they paid a few million dollars for ‘The Colonel’s’ recipe and technique. It seemed unlikely that a home-kitchen-rendition of such a famous product could be had for the price of my book. But the letters came in – ‘best chicken we ever had’; ‘LOVED that fried chicken recipe’; ‘our favorite chicken recipe… and ‘maybe the Colonel should have YOUR recipe!’

#BigBucketInTheSkyChicken

IN CLOSING…

#NationalGrahamCrackerDay

In honor of TODAY, being National Graham Cracker Day, here is Mom’s copycat recipes for “Chocolate-Covered Graham Crackers” & “Chocolate Coating For Graham Crackers”, like Keebler’s; as seen in… Gloria Pitzer’s Cookbook – The Best of the Recipe Detective (Balboa Press; Jan. 2018, p. 228) [A revised reprint of Gloria Pitzer’s Better Cookery Cookbook (Secret Recipes^TM, St. Clair, MI; May 1983, 3^rd Edition)].