Betty Crocker Found Recipes: Beloved Vintage Recipes Worth Sharing

• Author: Betty Crocker
• Genre: Cookbooks
• Publication Date: November 26, 2024
• Publisher: Harvest

Thank you to NetGalley and Harvest for providing me with a copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

From Betty Crocker, the brand beloved by generations of Americans, a carefully curated treasure trove of more than 100 favorite vintage recipes found in the Betty Crocker archives, dusted off and so delicious you’ll love them on today’s table.

Over the last century, Betty Crocker has created thousands of well-tested, wonderful recipes, some especially that spark fond memories today, whether they were made by a grandparent, served at holiday meals, or were part of a trend of the time. In Betty Crocker Found Recipes, you’ll find these rediscovered vintage but timeless favorites. Some of these rare recipes were most frequently requested by lifelong Betty Crocker fans, which you’ll see in the Found Lost Recipe features throughout the book. Others are ones that rose to the top of the Betty Crocker Test Kitchens recipe boxes over the years. And, during the search for favorite recipes to be included in this book, Betty Crocker fans shared stories of favorite recipes they’ve lost and couldn’t find—so the Betty Crocker Kitchens recreated them for the Recreated Lost Recipes features, along with the fans’ heartwarming memories behind them.

The comprehensive chapters are organized by occasion and course, from Holiday Celebrations, Memorable Main Dishes, and Warm from the Oven Breads, to Irresistible Cookies & Bars, and Better than Ever Desserts, and the specially curated recipes include nostalgic favorites like:

• Eggnog French Toast Strata with Cranberry Syrup
• Hush Puppy–Fried Chicken
• Beef Burgundy
• Coconut Chicken with Chutney
• Parmesan Bread Bowls
• Chocolate Buttermallow Cake
• Peachy Custard Squares
• Oatmeal Refrigerator Cookies
• Strawberry-Raspberry Fool

Betty Crocker Found Recipes shares these timeless, rediscovered recipes, with full nutritional information, for the next generation of home cooks and bakers to enjoy for years to come. These tasty dishes are lost no more!

Growing up in a kosher household, the only Betty Crocker recipes that we made were the boxed brownies, cookies, and cake. Keeping kosher involves a lot of rules and food restrictions, so many of the Betty Crocker recipes I came across weren’t things I could ever make. Now that I’m the one who does all the cooking, I was curious about some of the most cherished vintage recipes. I have to admit that I was slightly concerned about seeing recipes involving gelatin molds that were so popular in bygone eras, but there was not a single gelatin mold or unusual combination in the entire book.

To start with, there was a lot more than simply recipes. One of my favorite parts of this book were the historical snippets that came along. Readers get to learn the origins of the Betty Crocker brand, how it has changed over time, and the ways that it has touched the lives of home cooks and aspiring cooks. I was so surprised to discover that for the majority of the time, Betty Crocker was responsible for more than simply cooking information and products. There was a radio show and columns in magazines or newspapers, where they offered practical tips for household chores or needs, as well as recipes and quick kitchen hacks before we knew them as life or kitchen hacks.

That being said, there are a ton of great recipes and tips throughout this book. It is broken up into intuitive chapters focusing on: Holiday celebrations, memorable main dishes, warm from the oven breads, irresistible cookies and bars, better than ever desserts, and closes out with a metric conversion chart and an index of recipes.

I was honestly expecting to discover a ton of cool sounding recipes yet only a few that I could make in my kosher kitchen, and probably only bookmarking the desserts. Boy, was I wrong! This book is full of bookmarks, and I am going to have to buy a hard copy of this so that I can keep the recipes handy. Probably half of the recipes are things that I can prepare and aren’t too far beyond my kitchen skills (I’m a lousy baker). Fortunately, I didn’t have to worry about my baking skills either. So many of these recipes either use familiar items (Bisquick is the one that comes to mind first), and allow me to get away with not having to roll dough because I can never figure out how to make it not too sticky or floury. The bread section was even more surprising to me, because now I have a bunch of breads that I can make at home without needing anything that isn’t easily on hand in my kitchen, and that I don’t have to work with the dough. Also, I discovered a couple of bread recipes that might be out of my comfort zone, but sound like I could make a decent (and edible) version of the recipe in the book.

Each recipe includes nutritional information, some tidbits on where the recipe had originally come from, and there are even a few where readers wrote in about a beloved lost recipe and Betty Crocker recreated it for them. There are a lot of photos of the recipes and while it is clear that it was prepared and photographed by professionals, the vast majority of the recipes themselves aren’t as the photos led me to believe. A lot of them come together quickly, and don’t involve any special ingredients or kitchenware. This is the perfect book for home cooks, aspiring home cooks, and people looking for some nostalgic recipes, and I can’t wait to make these recipes.

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