We all know that seasons dictate sales — chocolate in February, hot dogs in July, but cereal? Well, for many cereal manufacturers, the last three months of the year are the season of cereal party snacks. From late October until the end of the year, buying cereal — specifically Chex — is at its peak, and there hasn’t been anything rocking the boat for decades. The sugary holiday snack, Puppy Chow, graces the holiday times, but the name has always thrown me off. Why do we call this a hundred percent human food Puppy Chow?
Chex came out in 1937, created by Ralston Purina Company — yes, the company that makes actual Purina dog food. When the company launched Chex, it wanted to steer clear of the term chow, which was associated with Purina’s animal feed products. Chow did not have a positive connotation. The word chow is a term to describe something animals eat, and the slang word was used during World War I to describe the taste of soldier rations (you can guess the taste wasn’t so good).
With the division of the Ralston company in the late 1990s, General Mills acquired Chex, and with the acquisition came about a supposedly new recipe — Muddy Buddies. The hardest thing about this recipe is melting butter. After the butter, you add peanut butter, chocolate chips, and cereal. Once hom*ogenous, the concoction gets coated with a healthy geological layer of powdered sugar.
According to General Mills, Muddy Buddies (a.k.a. Puppy Chow) was developed in 2002, however, in reality, the same recipe, in some form or another, had been around way longer in the American home cook communities. Recipe tins and community cookbooks, specifically in the midwest, document Puppy Chow as a staple party appetizer and easy snack.
Before the advent of the microwave, party mix was something adults still made, but Puppy Chow caught on with children who could make the mix with minimal adult supervision — perfect for keeping them distracted during the holiday season. Its brown kibble-like appearance harkens back to the chow of the Purina company, and the name wasn’t subtle, people called it Puppy Chow, knowing well that the dog food company manufactured that cereal.
While party mix was a little more universally known for many decades, Puppy Chow was a neat quirk of the Midwest. Like candy salad and hot dishes, it was something made not to win a beauty pageant but something to comfort the soul. Yet, with the advent of social media platforms like Facebook and Pinterest the sweet cereal mix has gotten a leg up in awareness and broken into other regions of the US.
If you haven’t already looked, there are many puppy chow recipes here.
Chex is an American brand of breakfast cereal currently manufactured by General Mills. It was originally known as Shredded Ralston, first produced in 1936 and owned by Ralston Purina of St. Louis, Missouri, then later renamed Chex in 1950.
cereal, originally made by the Ralston Purina Company, debuted in grocery stores in 1937. Because the company referred to their dog food as “dog chow” and cat food as “cat chow,” they jokingly called their new cereal line “human chow,” according to Taste.
Puppy chow is thought to have originated in the Midwest, and Chex quickly caught wind of how their product was being enjoyed. They published a recipe for “Muddy Buddies” on their boxes to capitalize on the popularity of the snack.
Puppy chow is a party staple in the Midwest, but not everywhere else. Puppy chow — a snack mix made of Chex cereal covered in melted chocolate, peanut butter, and powdered sugar — is often a fixture at parties. People outside of the Midwest have often never heard of it, and they don't know what they're missing.
Muddy Buddies is actually the official name of the recipe marketed by General Mills, the maker of Chex cereal. Names like “puppy chow” and others have become layman's terms for homemade versions like this one.
Puppy chow, also known as monkey munch, muddy buddies, muddy munch, reindeer chow, or doggy bag, is the name for a homemade candy made in the United States, primarily in the Midwestern States.
The recipe's origins are murky, but puppy chow, or muddy buddies, can probably be traced back to recipe pamphlets and community cookbooks from the 1960s.
Whether Puppy Chow is named for its Purina pet food connection is up for debate, but either way, it's still fun to know that a dog food company invented a central part of this delicious snack. In 2002 General Mills developed Muddy Buddies, the same recipe as Puppy Chow.
phrasal verb. If you chow down on something, you eat a large amount of it quickly and with enthusiasm. [mainly US, informal] Shane was chowing down on a mammoth hamburger.
In some circles, it's called Muddy Buddies. Is Puppy Chow a Midwestern thing? Yes, people across the Midwest loved this sweet and crunchy snack year-round. The “puppy chow belt” runs through Wisconsin and Michigan, North and South Dakota, Iowa, and Nebraska.
Muddy buddies can go by a lot of alternate names; you may have heard them referred to as puppy chow, monkey munch, reindeer chow, or doggy bag. They get the crazy names from their appearance, sometimes looking like dog food or animal treats.
It was a present as emblematic of her blonde hair, blue eyes, and flat vowels. The puppy chow belt runs through the Dakotas, Iowa, Nebraska, and Wisconsin, fanning out into the surrounding areas. There it is at every potluck, picnic, and holiday party table. Children learn to make it early and often.
Because puppy foods are formulated to deliver higher amounts of protein and fat, along with other nutrients needed for a puppy's rapid initial growth, feeding puppy food regularly to a healthy adult can cause unwanted weight gain, among other health problems.
When to Switch Puppy to Adult Food. Once you know when your puppy will reach maturity, you can decide when to switch to adult food. If your puppy will be full grown at 12 months, you can start transitioning him to an adult formula around his first birthday.
Multiple Midwesterners happily shared stories of the prevalence of puppy chow going back to the '60s, but General Mills, the owner and producer of the Chex cereal brand since 1996, says that the Muddy Buddies recipe was developed in 2002.
In some circles, it's called Muddy Buddies. Is Puppy Chow a Midwestern thing? Yes, people across the Midwest loved this sweet and crunchy snack year-round. The “puppy chow belt” runs through Wisconsin and Michigan, North and South Dakota, Iowa, and Nebraska.
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