Secret RecipesHi! I'm Laura Emerich and Gloria Pitzer, the ORIGINAL Secret Recipe Detective, is my mom. This website is lovingly dedicated to her memory and legacy.
BBQ BEEF SANDWICHES, like A&W’s By Gloria Pitzer, The Copycat Cookbook (Secret Recipes, St. Clair, MI; April 1988, p. 10) Ingredients: 4 cups shredded, cooked beef roast (or round steak) 1 cup Heinz Ketchup 1 cup apple butter 1 cup Catalina dressing ¼ cup Heinz 57 sauce 2 TB Worcestershire Instructions: Combine all ingredients in […]
Happy Monday to everyone, as we approach the end of August and Labor Day weekend – it’s the “unofficial” end of summer! Although, technically, there are 4 more weeks until fall really begins. Mom kept a well-rounded library of sources from which to draw upon for inspiration and information. Remember, this was decades before the […]
DREARY QUEEN FROZEN CUSTARD By Gloria Pitzer As seen in Gloria Pitzer’s Cookbook – The Best of the Recipe Detective (Balboa Press; Jan. 2018, p. 257) Here is an at-home imitation of the very popular soft-serve custard ice cream product that has made many restaurant names famous [since the 1950s]! Ingredients: 3 1/8-ounce package vanilla […]
FRENCH FRIES By Gloria Pitzer As seen in Gloria Pitzer’s Cookbook – The Best of the Recipe Detective (Balboa Press; Jan. 2018, p. 16) ‘NOBODY DOES IT LIKE McDONALD’s CAN’ – [was] the popular television jingle that advertised some of the best French-fried shoestring potatoes to come down the pike in a long while. The […]
PANCAKES, LIKE PERKINS’ by Gloria Pitzer Ingredients: 12-oz can of 7-Up (or Sprite – diet or regular) 2 eggs 2 TB sugar (or an equal sugar substitute) 2 TB oil 3 C Bisquick Instructions: Put it all into a blender on high speed, using an on-off pulse to agitate for 2 minutes or until […]
BARBECUED BABY CHICKEN LEGS By Gloria Pitzer As seen in Gloria Pitzer’s Cookbook – The Best of the Recipe Detective (Balboa Press; Jan. 2018, p. 91) These are chicken wings, split at the joints, with the boney wing-tips discarded. Arrange them side-by-side in a single layer in a greased, shallow baking pan. Coat liberally in […]
Kneaded Fudge, Inspired by Disney World’s By Gloria Pitzer, The Original 200 Plus Secret Recipes Book (Secret RecipesTM, St. Clair, MI; June 1997, p. 9) [*The ingredients of this fudge are similar to those of traditional penuche.] Ingredients: 1 cup butter 2 ounces baking chocolate 1 cup brown sugar, well-packed 3 cups granulated sugar 1 cup milk […]
PAN PIZZA CRUST By Gloria Pitzer This easy pizza crust recipe is from one of Mom’s “free recipes and ordering information” sheets, given out in the late 1980s, and has only 3 ingredients – just stir & spread! A similar version to it can be found on page 54 of Mom’s self-published cookbook, The Best […]
Beautiful Biscuits – Better than KFC’s By Gloria Pitzer Ingredients: 2/3 cup real buttermilk 1/3 cup real mayonnaise 2 1/2 cups Bisquick, plus a little extra Pam spray Melted butter (enough to brush 8 biscuit tops twice) Instructions: In a 1 1/2-qt mixing bowl, with an electric hand mixer on medium-speed, beat together the first […]
BIG BUCKET IN THE SKY! CHICKEN By Gloria Pitzer As seen in Gloria Pitzer’s Cookbook – The Best of the Recipe Detective ( Balboa Press, January 2018; 1st Printing, p. 88) THE FRIED CHICKEN RECIPE that first called attention to my recipes nationally – through the ‘National Enquirer’, ‘Money Magazine’, ‘Catholic Digest’, ‘The Christian […]