Kellogg's Cookbooks

This morning I have been looking through The Kellogg's Cookbook, a cook book published earlier this year by the Kellogg Company to commemorate their 100th anniversary.

The cookbook gives a nice, concise history of the company from its 1894 origins up until the present time. There are 200 recipes, many of which have been previously featured on Kellogg's cereal boxes, in magazine advertisements and in various recipe booklets throughout the years.

As with many newer cookbooks publishing collections of their older recipes, the recipes may sometimes change either slightly or significantly. Rarely do all of the recipes remain identical throughout the passage of time. Sometimes the product itself goes through production changes that account for the recipe modifcations. In this book the Kellogg Kitchen states "Our recipe collection has evolved over many decades to meet a variety of criteria for taste, texture, nutrition, appearance, ease of preparation and availability of ingredients so all of our consumers can enjoy our recipes."


I compared a couple of the Crispix recipes in this new cookbook to recipes with the identical names published in 20 Greatest Crispix Mix Recipes of All Time (1991, 16 pp) and found them to be exactly the same.

I compared some others to those found in Kay Kellog's Creative Cookery (1971, 64 pp). The recipes for Sweet Chocolate Cake with Coconut Pecan Frosting were almost identical, with the newer version showing a slight modification to the amount of salt and coconut. The recipe for the Almond Tea Ring in the newer version decreased the amount of sugar by 1/2 cup and had a different topping glaze. The Cherry Winks of 1971 have transformed into Cherry Dot Cookies in 2006 and now call for less cereal. The recipe ingredients for Fiesta Cookies (2006) and Fruit Loops Fiestas (1971) are the same, as are those in the Chocolate Scotcheroos.

All in all, I'm satisfied that the classic recipes probably haven't changed all that much. I think this new cookbook is a handy book to have, in part because it also shows many newer and more contemporary recipes for entrees and side dishes.