O
25

Found out my grandma's "secret" mac and cheese recipe was from the back of a box the whole time

I was digging through some old recipe cards my mom kept from the 70s trying to find something to make for a potluck. Saw one in my grandma's handwriting for her famous mac and cheese that everyone raved about at every family gathering. I figured it would be some complicated bechamel sauce with three kinds of cheese or something super old school. Turned it over and it was literally the exact recipe printed on the back of a Velveeta box from 1974. Even the measurement was the same weird half pound of block cheese and a cup of milk. I was kind of shocked at first but then I laughed because the stuff really is good no matter where it came from. Made it for the potluck last Saturday and nobody could tell the difference. Has anyone else found out a family "secret" was just some store brand recipe they tweaked a little?
3 comments

Log in to join the discussion

Log In
3 Comments
lisak26
lisak2627d ago
Oh come on, I gotta disagree with you here. That's not a secret being faked, that's just smart cooking passed down through the family. My mom's "famous" meatloaf recipe is literally from a 1980s Betty Crocker cookbook, and I still make it the same way because it's what I grew up loving. The real secret isn't where the recipe came from, it's that your grandma took the time to write it down and make it for everyone all those years. It doesn't matter if it's off a Velveeta box or from some fancy French cookbook, what matters is the memories tied to that dish at every family dinner.
5
alexw75
alexw7527d ago
Yeah, isn't that always the way with family "secrets"?
2
xena_fox39
xena_fox3927d agoTop Commenter
@alexw75 you hit the nail on the head with "family secrets" being in quotes. The real secret is usually that nobody actually knows where the recipe came from, they just assume grandma invented it. I've got a few "heirloom" recipes in my family that are literally just the back of a soup can verbatim.
5