Even More Top Secret Recipes: More Amazing Kitchen Clones of America's Favorite Brand-Name Foods

This is a must have cookbook...in fact I have all of the cookbooks by this author!

If the poor condition of the library copy is any indication, Even More Top Secret Recipes is a very popular book! Todd Wilbur has a number of books, and it can be a little confusing sorting them out. There are three "Top Secret Recipes" books, Top Secret Recipes, More Top Secret Recipes (this book) and Even More Top Secret Recipes. These books focus on what Wilbur calls "convenience foods." That is, most packaged sweets and fast food. He also has a book Top Secret Restaurant Recipes, in which he attempts to duplicate the foods of mostly casual dining restaurants like Chili's and Applebee's. He also has a book solely on drinks. Wilbur explains in the Introduction of More Top Secret Recipes that these are not the actual recipes used by restaurants, and he did not obtain them through bribery, theft other illegal or illicit means. He starts with the ingredient list on packages of food and modifies the relative amounts, or with fast food, tries to identify the ingredients by taste. He admits that the real producers of these foods often use custom ingredients unavailable to the consumer, and that the goal was to match the texture and flavor of the food, and appearance is secondary. So why try to clone commercially-available food? In both More Top Secret Recipes and Even More Top Secret Recipes, the author mentions availability. Some of the foods are regional, and you may not get them where you live. In the introduction to More Top Secret Recipes, he gives a list of reasons including low cost and curiosity. I'm not so sure about the cost argument, since I have to sacrifice two boxes of Macaroni and Cheese to make half a box of Cheese Nips, but the curiosity is what applied to me. I just wanted to know, "Can I really duplicate these commercial foods at home?" This book contains 88 recipes, a big increase over the 37 of the previous book. The recipes clone the likes of McDonald's, Nabisco, Carl's Jr. and Taco Bell. Every recipe includes a history of the food item, something alone which makes this book valuable, and a dimensioned engineering graphic of the product. Even More Top Secret Recipes includes an interesting introduction discussing the fast food industry, and gives some tips on creating the clones. The recipes make as much use as possible of premade food and mixes. For example, most candy bars are coated with melted chocolate chips, so you will not find that you have to crush cocoa beans, or perform any such low-level task. From this book, so far, I attempted to make Girl Scout Thin Mint cookies, (I AM a Girl Scout after all. Really. My wife signed me up. It was a surprise to me, too!) and Nabisco Cheese Nips. The thin mints turned out pretty good. The flavor and texture were pretty close. The only problem is that the chocolate was a little thick. Applying it to a desired thickness is difficult. Also, the chocolate remained quite soft. A little more experimentation with cookie thickness and baking time and tempera

These recipes cover common brand-name favorites which are now reproducible in the home kitchen, from Girl Scout cookies and Cinnabon to candy bars and Wendy's chicken filet sandwich. Even More Top Secret Recipes will prove particularly intriguing to fans of brand name items and fast foods, who will enjoy the dash of humor added to the recipes and food descriptions.

I am a huge fan of Top Secret Recipes and all of the clones. Actually there are quite a few in this new book that are not on the website - so there are some nice, delicious surprises in here. I love to cook and the Top Secret Recipes are always fun to make and a hit with my whole family.

This book has absolutely fantastic recipes - all the favorites and then some! My husband and I make a lot of these "clones" regularly. Particular hits are the KFC Honey BBQ wings and the Baskin Robbins Ice Cream Cake. Great for get-togethers or when you're having a craving at home.