Del Monte Mexican Food

Quick & Easy Mexican Recipes from Del Monte Kitchens (1979, 22 pages) is a small colorful pamphlet that contains twenty-one recipes.

At the time of publication Del Monte had an entire line of canned and bottled Mexican food products which included:

Enchilada Sauces (mild and hot)
Jalepeno Chiles (whole and sliced)
Yellow Chiles
Taco Sauce (mild and hot)
Burrito Filling Mix
Hot Tomato Sauce
Refried Beans (regular and spicy)
Green Chiles (whole and diced)
Salsa (Roja and Picante)
Spicy Pinto Beans

All of these products are shown on the rear cover in a color drawing. The product list has color coded heat levels of Mild, Medium and Hot.

The recipes are simple and easy, just as the pamphlet title indicates. The ingredient lists for the recipes range from five to ten ingredients each with most of them being the canned products. Each recipe easily fits onto the 5 x 3-1/4 inch page.

Mexicali Chicken
Jalepeno Bean Dip
Guacamole
Enchilada Casserole
Rice Elegante
Huevos Salsa Picante
Tempting Tacos
Frijoles Con Queso Casserole
Mexican Oven Omelet
Sopa De La Casa
Quesadillas
Celestial Chicken
Chicken Enchiladas
Burritos
Tortillas Rellenas
Texas Style Chile
Vegetable Beef Casserole
Tamale Pie
Ranchero Bake
Sour Cream Nachos
Mexican Spicy Bean Soup

I'm not giving a recipe since they don't make the products anymore, although the ingredients could easily be substituted with those of another brand. However, the recipes are nothing spectacular and really nothing we haven't seen anywhere else.

In the rear of the pamphlet there's a tear-off form with an invitation to join the Del Monte Mexican Food Club (exclusively for Del Monte Mexican Food Product Users).

A yearly fee of $1.00 entitles you to receive by return mail:

Introductory Gift
A Membership Certificate (suitable for framing)
A Quarterly Newsletter containing speical food preparation news from and about other members, Plus tips on how to enjoy preparing Mexican food even more.
Outstanding bargain values on superb Mexican cookery items and accessories, available only to members.

I don't know what happened to the Del Monte brand of Mexican food products. The year this recipe pamphlet was published was the same year that Del Monte was acquired by R. J. Reynolds. That acquisition may have had something to do with the disappearance of the products.

The colors of the pamphlet and the product packaging are very similar to the colors of the Old El Paso brand of Mexican food products. They're so similar that I keep thinking that I must have seen the Del Monte products on the grocery shelves recently, but I know that I haven't. Just goes to show that there's something to all the research that goes into brand packaging and brand recognition.

I wonder if the Mexican Food Club ever got off the ground. I don't recall ever seeing anything else related to it except for this form. Perhaps someday when I get around to digging through all of my miscellaneous ephemera, I might come across something.

Did anyone ever actually join the Del Monte Mexican Food Club? I wonder what the Introductory Gift was?