The recipes on the backbuilt American kitchens.

Some of the most-cooked recipes in the country never came from a cookbook. They came from the side of a cereal box. The back of a chocolate chip bag. A foil-wrapped square of butter. A tin of cocoa.

Mildred Day at the Kellogg's home-economics test kitchen invented Rice Krispie Treats in 1939. Ruth Wakefield's Toll House Cookie went on the back of every Nestlé chocolate chip bag in 1940. Hershey's Hot Cocoa, Eagle Brand's Magic Cookie Bars, the Original Chex Party Mix — these weren't ad copy. They were recipes families actually made, again and again, until they became American canon.

Back of the Bag is a scrapbook of those classics. One place to find the recipes you grew up watching your grandmother read off a torn label — without scrolling past a thousand words about her trip to Tuscany.

Back of the Bag is a scrapbook of those classics. One place to find the recipes you grew up watching your grandmother read off a torn label — without scrolling past a thousand words about her trip to Tuscany.

A personal note: my favorite recipe in the world is the Toll House Cookie. It needs no improvement — it is the perfect comfort, full stop. And on a snowy winter's day there is nothing I love more than the Hershey's Cocoa recipe printed on the back of the tin. So this is a site to honor those classics — and only the recipes printed on the back of packaged products, because sometimes those are the most perfect recipes ever written.

— David Berkowitz, Founder, Back of the Bag and High Caliber AI

Save your favorites, share them with friends, and cook the recipes that built the American pantry.

Back of the Bag is part of the High Caliber AI network, alongside Cookbook Conversations.