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The Melting Pot
Chex Mix hero image coming soon
1950s-present - Ralston Purina home economists, marketers, and postwar party hosts
A savory baked party mix of Chex cereal, pretzels, nuts, butter, Worcestershire sauce, garlic, and seasoned salt.
Difficulty
Easy
Prep time
10 minutes
Cook time
1 hour
Total time
1 hour 10 minutes
Servings
12 cups
Region
United States party tables and snack aisles
Era introduced
1950s-present
Introduced by
Ralston Purina home economists, marketers, and postwar party hosts
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Chex Mix is a packaged-food success story that became a family recipe. Chex cereals came from Ralston Purina, and savory party-mix recipes began appearing in the early 1950s as a way to turn breakfast cereal into cocktail-hour food. The formula is still sturdy: crisp cereal, pretzels, nuts, butter, Worcestershire, and enough low oven time to toast everything through.
Drafted with Chex party-mix history from Quaint Cooking (https://quaintcooking.com/2022/12/02/the-history-of-chex-party-mixes/), party-mix context from Yankee Magazine (https://newengland.com/food/appetizers/party-mix-history-recipe/), and snack-era context from Snack Stack (https://snackstack.net/2021/09/23/the-snack-that-came-to-party/).
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