Comforting Thoughts Straight Off the Back of the Box

The guests were praising the cook’s gourmet talents. Everything was executed to perfection--the clams Casino, the beef Bourguignonne and particularly the fettuccine Alfredo.

“This is the best fettuccine Alfredo I have ever eaten anywhere,” one of the male guests proclaimed with the flourish of a critic anointing a restaurant with four stars. “It is far better than I have eaten in some of the finest Italian restaurants. My dear, you are a wonder in the kitchen.”

While the cook was pondering whether or not to confess her secret, her big-mouthed female guest blurted out the truth: “Oh, that? She did it in 15 minutes. A moron could do it. The recipe comes from the back of the Ronzoni box.”

Whether it is fettuccine Alfredo from the Ronzoni box or California dip from a Lipton dry soup mix, the recipes on the package are the classics of down-home American food that real people really cook. They may not be the recipes that everyone brags about, but they certainly are the old standbys that nearly everyone cooks. And if you scratch a snooty gourmet deep enough, chances are that you’ll find a craving for a Milky Way cake or Toll-House cookies.

Throughout the years, these recipes have brought us warm and fuzzy memories of our childhood and a dependable anchor in a high-tech world where everything seems to be changing with the speed of an MTV video. And now, as the world seems more uncertain than ever, no time is better for familiar food.

“These recipes are important to a lot of people,” says Michael McLaughlin, a food writer for upscale gourmet magazines who has written the latest in the back-of-the-box collections, “The Back of the Box Gourmet” (Simon & Schuster: $14.95).

“Even if you now are happiest with a mouthful of lobster and wild mushroom pizza, you didn’t eat these kind of things as a child. You are what you used to cook or what your mom used to cook. . . . There’s still a home-cooked quality about these foods that we remember from our childhood.”

McLaughlin, a foodie who admits to stocking three kinds of olive oil and having a favorite brand of sun-dried tomatoes, says it is unlikely that he would have written a book like this five years ago when Americans were submerged in their duck sausage pizza mania. Then, just the thought of a pina colada cake with pineapple chunks, maraschino cherries and coconut garnish was enough to send a foodie into hysteria.

But when John Boswell, a cookbook packager best known for his “365 Recipes” series, approached McLaughlin with the back-of-the-box idea, he agreed without hesitation. The concept had been used many times before, but never quite like this.

For example, his anecdote about the Lipton California dip recipe illustrates the McLaughlin formula for mixing nostalgia with a dash of humor:

“When my pajama-clad brothers and I were small, huddled at the top of the stairs listening to mysterious adults partying below, ‘onion dip’ seemed the height of grown-up sophistication. Later, when the three of us were allowed to hold our own ersatz parties while our parents were away at the real thing, the dip--plus smoked oysters, olives and cubes of Cheddar cheese on toothpicks, washed down with 7-Up--was always on the menu.

“This imagined savoir-faire was based on our childish sense that dips--particularly onion soup dip--were what grown-up celebrants ate while having a good time.”

Nostalgia may be important to home cooks, but it is the last thing on the minds of manufacturers. The companies develop these recipes or sponsor contests to reward cooks to develop them so that they can create more of a demand for their products.

The criteria have remained basically the same throughout the years--the recipes are easy to prepare with inexpensive ingredients that are easy to find throughout the country.

But at some of the larger companies with multi-brands, such as Pillsbury, the criteria become more complex. Typically, Pillsbury develops recipes for the packages that echo the marketing strategy for the product.

“A product such as American Mixtures (vegetables with a light sauce) appeals to customers that are looking for something quick and healthy,” says Sally Peters, Pillsbury’s director of consumer service. “So we would develop recipes with a short list of ingredients that you would have on hand, and instead of sour cream, we might use yogurt.”

Although the companies like to change the recipes on the boxes occasionally, Pillsbury’s product gurus thought it was time to substitute a recipe for caramel-pecan rolls on the back of a package of biscuit dough. Customers were outraged, and Pillsbury soon realized that pizza dough was a primary use for the product. It took several months to change the label to the pizza recipe; meanwhile the coveted recipe for pizza dough was included in a package insert.

Basically, if the recipe was always on the box, consumers expect it to be there forever.

“Even I don’t have the Toll-House cookie recipe written down,” Peters says, “you buy the package and just expect it to be there.”

Manufacturers are often surprised what consumers do to avoid writing down the recipes.

“One woman told us she had kept an empty can on her shelf for years because she was saving the recipe,” says Polly Murray, manager of consumer affairs for McCormick-Schilling. “Somebody in the family thought they were doing her a favor and threw the old can out. She called in a panic to get the recipe.”

She adds: “A lot of times we don’t know it’s their favorite recipe until we take it off the label. Then we find out what recipes people are really clinging to.”

McLaughlin says that this recipe from Campbell’s defines the American casserole:

CLASSIC TUNA NOODLE CASSEROLE

1 (10 3/4-ounce) can cream of celery soup

1/2 cup milk

2 cups cooked medium egg noodles

1 cup cooked peas

2 tablespoons chopped pimiento

2 (7-ounce) cans tuna, drained and flaked

1 tablespoon butter or margarine

2 tablespoons fine dry bread crumbs

Combine soup and milk in 1 1/2-quart casserole. Stir in noodles, peas, pimiento and tuna. Bake at 400 degrees 25 minutes or until hot. Stir.

Melt butter in small saucepan over medium heat. Stir in bread crumbs until lightly browned. Top casserole with bread crumbs. Bake 5 minutes longer. Makes 4 servings.

Note: If desired, substitute cream of mushroom soup for celery soup; short, curly fusilli-type pasta for egg noodles; uncooked, thawed frozen peas for cooked peas. Potato chips may be used in place of buttered bread crumbs: lightly crush potato chips, about 1/2 cup, sprinkle over top before stirring and bake another 5 minutes.

Polly Murray, manager of consumer affairs for McCormick-Schilling, says this recipe for lemon chicken is a customer favorite.

ELEGANT LEMON CHICKEN

1 package Bag ‘n Season for chicken

2 1/2 pounds chicken pieces

1 (10 3/4-ounce) can cream of celery soup

2 teaspoons lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon dried tarragon leaves

Place opened roasting bag in 13x9-inch metal baking pan. Wash and dry chicken. Roll in seasoning mix, coating all sides. Place chicken, skin-side up, in single layer in bag.

Combine any remaining seasoning with celery soup, lemon juice and tarragon. Cover chicken with soup mixture. Close bag with twist-tie about 2 inches from end. (No part of bag should be extended over sides of pan.) Puncture 4 small holes in top of bag.

Place baking pan in lower half of oven, leaving about 8 inches between racks. Bake at 350 degrees 50 minutes. Remove from oven and let stand 5 minutes. Cut across top of bag and remove chicken. Skim excess fat from sauce and spoon sauce over chicken. Makes 4 servings.

These two recipes are favorites that I have been using for more than a decade. The vinaigrette comes from the Grey Poupon bottle; the fettuccine Alfredo comes off the Ronzoni box.

DIJON VINAIGRETTE SALAD DRESSING

3/4 cup oil

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

2 tablespoons Dijon white wine mustard

Combine oil, red wine vinegar, salt, pepper and mustard in cruet with stopper or bottle and shake well. Makes 1 cup.

FETTUCCINE ALFREDO

1 (12-ounce) package extra-long fettuccine

2 to 3 cups light whipping cream

1/4 pound unsalted butter, melted

1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese, about

Cook noodles according to package directions. Drain and place in warm serving bowl or platter. Pour over whipping cream. Add melted butter and about 1/2 Parmesan. Toss noodles with fork and spoon until well blended, adding remaining cheese slowly while tossing. Top with additional grated cheese, if desired. Makes 3 to 4 servings.

Note: Original recipe contained an uncooked egg yolk, but because of problems with salmonella contamination in raw eggs it is advisable to omit uncooked egg yolk. I have made some other adjustments. For good cheesy flavor, use half Pecorino Romano cheese and half good-quality Parmesan cheese. Add peas for color and pine nuts for crunch. Or dust top with dash freshly ground nutmeg or freshly ground black pepper.