Menu Description: “Banana Cream Cheesecake Topped with Bavarian Cream and Fresh Sliced Bananas.”
I’ve learned a lot about cheesecakes over the last couple decades in the process of duplicating a variety of popular versions for the Top Secret Recipes cookbooks, and I’ve made a lot of mistakes. But the biggest secret I’ve discovered for baking picture-perfect cheesecakes is using a water bath. By baking the cheesecake in a pan filled with just a little water you add moisture to the oven, thereby allowing the top of the cheesecake to expand as it cooks without developing what will look like an aerial view of the San Andreas Fault. If you don’t over mix your filling and use a water bath, you’ll bake a restaurant-quality cheesecake every time. You also need to have a good recipe of course, and this one here is great if you like banana cream pie. It’s quickly become a top choice at the restaurant chain because of the banana flavor hidden in each layer. And everyone knows that Nilla Wafers go great with bananas, so these ground-up cookies make the perfect crust.
Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 3 by Todd Wilbur.
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Menu Description: "Two cheeses, bacon, tomatoes, onion, jalapenos grilled between tortillas with guacamole, sour cream and salsa."
When Bill and T.J. Palmer opened their first restaurant in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1980, they realized their dream of building a full-service, reasonably-priced restaurant in a neighborhood setting. They called their first place T.J. Applebee's Edibles and Elixirs, and soon began franchising the concept. In 1988 some franchisees bought the rights to the name and changed it to Applebee's Neighborhood Grill and Bar. By that time, there were over 650 outlets, making Applebee's one of the fastest-growing restaurant chains in the world.
According to waiters at the restaurant, the easy-to-make and slightly spicy quesadillas are one of the most popular appetizers on the Applebee's menu. The recipe calls for 10-inch or "burrito-size" flour tortillas, which can be found in most supermarkets, but any size can be used in a pinch. Look for the jalapeno "nacho slices" in the ethnic or Mexican food section of the supermarket. You'll find these in jars or cans.
Menu Description: "Quickly-cooked steak with scallions and garlic."
Beef lovers go crazy over this one at the restaurant. Flank steak is cut into bite-sized chunks against the grain, then it's lightly dusted with potato starch (in our case well use cornstarch), flash-fried in oil, and doused with an amazing sweet soy garlic sauce. The beef comes out tender as can be, and the simple sauce sings to your taste buds. I designed this recipe to use a wok, but if you don't have one a saute pan will suffice (you may need to add more oil to the pan to cover the beef in the flash-frying step). P. F. Chang's secret sauce is what makes this dish so good, and it's versatile. If you don't dig beef, you can substitute with chicken. Or you can brush it on grilled salmon.
First served at Wendy's in 1969, the Frosty continues as a favorite in fast food shakes. This clone recipe is an improved version of the recipe that appeared in my first book, Top Secret Recipes. I've designed this new version for a one-person serving and have given it less of an intense chocolate flavor that's more like the real thing. I find the smaller yield also helps to make the shake blend better.
You might not think that a tough World War II flying ace would open a restaurant called "Mimi's," but that's exactly what happened in the 70s. Arthur J. Simms flew spy missions over France during the war and helped liberate a small French town near Versailles. After the war Arthur ran the commissary at MGM studios in Hollywood, stuffing the bellies of big-time celebs like Judy Garland, Clark Gable and Mickey Rooney. He later joined his son Tom in several restaurant ventures including one called "French Quarter" in West Hollywood. This was the prototype for the French-themed Mimi's Cafe. In 1978, the first Mimi's opened in Anaheim, California. Today there's over 90 Mimi's in the chain with a new one opening every other week; all of them serving this great French onion soup that's topped with not one, not two...three different cheeses. Oui!
Outback Steakhouse makes a tasty version of creamy ranch dressing for its house and Queensland salads. To get the same flavor and creaminess of the original at home, you'll need to add one teaspoon of Hidden Valley Ranch instant salad dressing mix. Since there's three teaspoons of dressing mix per packet, you can make three batches of dressing with one envelope of dressing mix.
Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2 by Todd Wilbur.
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Chi-Chi's cofounder Marno McDermott named his restaurant chain after his wife Chi Chi. He claims the name is quite memorable as it translates in Spanish into something like "hooters" in English. The Minneapolis Star quoted McDermott in 1977 shortly after the first Chi-Chi's opened in Richfield, Minneapolis, "English-speaking patrons remember it because its catchy. And the Spanish-speaking customers are amused. Either way it doesn't hurt business."
One of the side dishes included with several of the entrees at Chi-Chi's is the Sweet Corn Cake. It's sort of like cornbread, but much softer, almost like corn pudding. You'll find it goes well with just about any Mexican dish. The recipe requires a bain marie, or water bath—a baking technique used commonly to keep custards from cracking or curdling. This is done by baking the corn cake in another larger pan filled with a little hot water.
Bring the tropical spirit of this drink to your house with a clone of this potent cocktail from the growing Chinese bistro chain. Mai tai is Tahitian for "out of this world," and P.F. Chang's recipe is one of the best and most authentic. The secret to a true mai tai is found in the original recipe developed by Trader Vic in 1944: almond-flavored syrup, called "orgeat." You can find the sweet stuff in stores that sell coffee flavorings (Torani is one very popular brand), or from bar supply outlets. If you can't find orgeat, there's a clone recipe included in the Tidbits below.
Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2 by Todd Wilbur.
First served at Wendy's in 1969, the Frosty continues as a favorite in fast food shakes. This clone recipe is an improved version of the recipe that appeared in my first book, Top Secret Recipes. I've designed this new version for a one-person serving and have given it less of an intense chocolate flavor that's more like the real thing. I find the smaller yield also helps to make the shake blend better.
Take one of Tony Roma's famous sauces, brush it over some grilled salmon and you've got a bravo moment. But it's not just about saucing up the fish. The salmon is first rubbed with a secret seasoning blend before it's grilled. The sauce doesn't join the party until the end. For an encore, serve this dish along with the clone recipe for Maple Sweet Potatoes on the side just like in the restaurant, and absorb the applause.
To make a version of this frozen treat at home, with fat reduced by about 75 percent, you will need fat-free vanilla ice cream, Nestle Quick, and low-fat milk. Oh, and a blender.
Nutrition Facts Serving size–1 16-ounce Total servings–2 Calories per serving–470 (Original–440) Fat per serving–2g (Original–11g)
Source: Top Secret Recipes Lite by Todd Wilbur.
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Of the four fabulous barbecue sauces served on the delicious ribs at Tony Roma's, this is the only one that wasn't cloned in the third book, Top Secret Restaurant Recipes. This sweet, smoky sauce is great on baby back ribs cooked with the Tony Roma's clone technique found on page 298 of that book or in recipes here on the site: for Chili's Baby Back Ribs here, and for Roadhouse Grill Baby Backs here. Or use the sauce on a recipe of your own for pork or beef ribs, even chicken. Now Tony Roma's sells each of its sauces at the restaurant chain, separately, or in gift sets. But if you don't have a Tony Roma's close by, or you just like to dabble, this is a good way to get great pro barbecue taste at home.
Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2 by Todd Wilbur.
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Menu Description: "Some like it hot! Tender, meaty ribs basted with our spicy red hot sauce made with five types of peppers."
If you like your sauces really spicy, this is the recipe for you. Five different peppers go into this one: crushed red peppers, red bell pepper, Tabasco, cayenne pepper, and ground black pepper. The restaurant serves this on pork spareribs, but you can slather it on any ribs, or chicken, or steaks.
Use pork spareribs and the cooking technique from here to make the ribs.
The packet of Taco Bell spices you buy in grocery stores makes delicious spicy beef for tacos, but don't expect it to taste exactly the same as the beef at the giant Mexican food chain. For a better clone, use this recipe. Once the meat is prepped, it's simple to build soft tacos the Taco Bell way using these steps. If you want crispy tacos, replace the soft flour tortillas with crunchy corn shells.
Potato skins are good for you, but those at chain restaurants can be loaded with fat and calories. For my appearance on The Dr. Oz Show I created this version using oil spray, turkey bacon and reduced-fat cheese to clone the famous potato skins, but with around one-third of the calories and one-quarter of the fat.
Todd's Dr. Oz Clone Calories: 178 (3 pieces) Fat: 9g
Original T.G.I. Friday's Calories: 624 Fat: 41g
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Check out the menu board at any Starbucks and you’ll find this frozen drink described as a blend of raspberry and other fruit juices plus Starbucks’ own Tazo brand tea. We’ve discovered that those other fruit juices include white grape juice, aroniaberry, cranberry, and blackberry. Since aroniaberry juice is next to impossible to track down in a local supermarket, we’ll have to make a taste-alike drink with a combination of just the other; more important flavors. Grab the raspberry syrup and a jar of seedless blackberry jam made by Knott’s Berry Farm, and brew up a little tea. Starbucks used Tazo black tea for the drink, but you can use the more common Lipton tea bags. You will only use 1/3 cup of the tea for this 1-serving recipe, so you’ll have plenty left over for additional servings, or for a quick iced tea fix.
Each holiday season Starbucks brings out one of its most beloved dessert recipes: a soft triangle of white chocolate and cranberry cake covered with delicious creamy lemon frosting and dried cranberries. But when the holidays are over, the Bliss Bars go back into hiding until next season. That's when we bust out our home clone. The cake is flavored with bits of crystallized ginger that you can find in most markets near the herbs and spices. Be sure to finely mince the chunks of ginger before adding them, since ginger has a strong flavor, and you don't want anyone biting into whole chunk. For the white chocolate, one 4-ounce bar of Ghirardelli white chocolate will give you the perfect amount of chunks after you chop it up. If you can't find that brand, any brand of white chocolate will do, or you can use 4 ounces of white chocolate chips. This clone recipe will make a total of 16 cake bars, at a fraction of the cost of the original.
Oprah named this blended concoction from the New York City-based Serendipity 3 one of her “Favorite Things” in 2006 saying that it makes her want to “dance on the chandeliers.” Started in a basement on East 58th Street in 1954, Serendipity 3 has been a top stop for many celebrities though the years. Tennessee Williams and Jackie Kennedy were regulars. Andy Warhol used to pay for his meals with original drawings. With locations now open in Boca Raton and Las Vegas, Serendipity 3 is more than just a sweet shop, and also serves omelettes, salads, pizza and ribs. But the joint is best known for its Frrrozen Hot Chocolate, which is ordered by around 10,000 customers each month. In the restaurant each frosty creation is made by combining a secret dry mix with milk and ice in a blender on high speed until smooth. The dessert is poured into a huge goblet, topped with whipped cream and chocolate shavings, and served with spoons and straws. The chain claims the secret mix is a blend of many different chocolates, and then released a recipe to the Oprah Winfrey Show a while back (posted on the show’s website) which supposedly revealed the secret formula. But it appears to be way off. The recipe given to Oprah says to use 6 half-ounce pieces “of your favorite chocolate,” but the chocolate in the restaurant’s secret dry mix comes only from cocoa powders. Also the recipe doesn’t mention anything about nonfat dry milk which is a big part of the dry mix. All you have to do is look at the ingredient list on the package of mix to see “sugar, nonfat dry milk, dextrose, and cocoas.” That’s it. But you don’t need to order a 5-dollar package of mix to enjoy this dessert. I’ll save you a little time and money with this original Top Secret Recipe I’ve worked up which uses three popular brands of cocoa, plus dry milk and sugar. Blend this mix with whole milk and ice and you’ll have a delicious (and cheap!) clone of Oprah’s favorite drink that tastes better than any recipe out there.
Starbucks makes its hot chocolate with mocha syrup that's used for a variety of other drinks in the store. A barista combines mocha syrup with a couple squirts of vanilla syrup and heated milk, and he then finishes off the drink with a sweet pile of whipped cream. We can duplicate the process by first creating our own chocolate syrup in the microwave with cocoa—Hershey or Nestle brand each works great. After adding milk to the heated chocolate mixture, pop it back into the microwave again until piping hot. Add a little vanilla extract at the end to give the drink vanilla hints like the original. I found that a 2-cup glass measuring cup with a spout works best to heat the drink in the microwave. Then, when it's ready, you can easily pour the hot chocolate into a 16-ounce coffee mug and get on with the sipping.
Source: Top Secret Recipes Unlocked by Todd Wilbur.
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When sales of this once limited-offering sandwich exceeded expectations, Wendy's made it a permanent menu item. Now you can re-create the spicy kick of the original with a secret blend of spices in the chicken's crispy coating. Follow the same stacking order as the original, and you will make four sandwich clones here at a fraction of the cost of the real thing.
Wendy's kicked it up a notch in 1996 when the burger chain introduced the Spicy Chicken Fillet Sandwich. The deep-fried chicken fillet is breaded with a secret coating containing just a bit of sting for those who like their food with heat. It's not knock-your-socks-off hot, but the spice gives the chicken a great flavor that's got customers coming back for more.
In this Top Secret Recipes reduced-fat conversion, you'll learn how to get that heat in the chicken, and then how to use a special baking technique that will give the clucker meat a breaded-and-fried consistency without too much oil.
Nutrition Facts Serving size–1 sandwich Total servings–4 Calories per serving–380 (Original–410) Fat per serving–8g (Original–15g)
Western Sizzlin is a steakhouse similar in some ways to Sizzler, but the companies are not related. Although Western Sizzlin is known for its steak, the restaurant has a nice teriyaki chicken dish, topped with a slice of pineapple. You may like that this recipe includes a way to make delicious teriyaki sauce to use as a tasty marinade for a variety of dishes, and it keeps well for weeks in the fridge. For the pineapple juice in the teriyaki recipe, you don't have to buy a separate can of juice. Instead, you can use the juice that comes packed in the can of pineapple slices that you use as a garnish on the chicken—it's just the right amount for this recipe.
Nicknamed "Sliders" and "Gut Bombers," these famous tiny burgers were one of the earliest fast-food creations. It all started in 1921 when E.W. Ingram borrowed $700 to open a hamburger stand in Wichita, Kansas. Ingram chose the name White Castle because "white" signified purity and cleanliness, while "castle" represented strength. permanence, and stability. White Castle lived up to its name, maintaining that permanence and stability by growing steadily over the years to a total of 380 restaurants.
Ingram's inspiration was the development of steam-grilling, a unique process that helped the burgers retain moisture. The secret is grilling the meat over a small pile of onions that give off steam as they cook. Five holes in each mini-burger help to ensure that the meat is completely cooked without having to flip the patties. Today customers can buy these burgers "by the sack" at the outlets, or pick them up in the freezer section of most grocery stores.
The small slider buns used by White Castle are square. We can make something similar by slicing hot dog buns—you'll get 2 small burger buns from each hotdog bun. You may also use small hamburger buns and slice them into 2x2-inch squares.
Some call them "whitey one-bite." They're also known as "sliders," gut busters," and "belly bombers." The cooking technique is unique to the chain, because it involves steaming the ground beef patties. Minced onions are placed on the grill, with a beef patty on top. The steam from the grilling onions rises up through the five holes in each thin patty so that the beef is thoroughly cooked without having to flip it over.
Now you can use the same method, but with reduced-fat ingredients, to cook a lower-fat version of one of the country's first chain burgers. Nutrition Facts Serving size–2 burgers Total servings–8 Calories per serving–310 (Original–310) Fat per serving–5g (Original–17g)
The real version of this chili sauce comes to each Wienerschnitzel unit as concentrated brown goo in big 6-pound, 12-ounce cans. After adding 64 ounces of water and 15 chopped hamburger patties the stuff is transformed into the familiar thick and spicy chili sauce dolloped over hot dogs and French fries at America's largest hot dog chain. The proper proportion of spices, tomato paste, and meat is crucial; but the real challenge in hacking this recipe is finding a common grocery store equivalent for modified food starch that's used in the real chili sauce as a thickener. After a couple days in the underground lab with Starbucks lattes on intravenous drip, I came out, squinting at the bright sunshine, with a solution to the chili conundrum. This secret combination of cornstarch and Wondra flour and plenty of salt and chili powder makes a chili sauce that says nothing but "Wienerschnitzel" all over it.
Here's a recipe that comes from a challenge issued by the New York Daily News. The paper wanted to watch a West Coast dude duplicate the taste of an authentic New York City knish. But, mind you, not just any knish. This knish comes from one of the oldest knisheries in the Big Apple, a place that also takes pride in the low fat content of its knishes as opposed to the popular deep-fried variety. When I tasted the famous Yonah Schimmel knish (the first knish I had ever eaten), I realized that not only could a good clone recipe be created, but even more fat grams could be eliminated. The Daily News had a food lab analyze the fat content of the original knish and the clone, as well as the fat in a street vendor knish and a supermarket knish, just for comparison. The lab results are listed following the recipe.
In the early 20s Natalie Olivieri was watching his wife can tomatoes, when he got the idea to create a bottled chocolate drink with a long shelf life while. When New York Yankee great Yogi Berra later met Natale and tasted his drink he was an instant fan, and helped raise funds to make Yoo-hoo a national success.
I cloned this drink in the first book, Top Secret Recipes, but have since discovered an improved technique. Using a blender to mix the drink, as instructed in that first recipe, adds too much unnecessary foam. So here now is a revised recipe that you shake to mix.
A while back when I was rummaging through my pantry I came upon several bottles of flavored Yoo-hoo that I had picked up from Wal-Mart and tucked away for over a year. Each of the bottles was covered with a little dust and needed a pretty fierce shaking, but the contents were well-preserved and still tasty. After some Web browsing of a few unofficial Yoo-hoo Web sites, I discovered these worshipped "Mix-ups" variety of the famous chocolate drink had since been discontinued and I was holding onto a few rare bottles. I immeditely got to work on some hacks, and soon figured out how to resurect these Dead Foods with some delicious and simple home clones.
At only 10 1/2 ounces per serving you might think this drink a bit wee. But I assure you, one of these packs a wallop, and two will get you speaking in haiku. This delicious raspberry margarita, along with an incredible southwestern cuisine, is making this small chain a big success story.
This clones Starbucks "Low-fat Creamy Blend of Coffee and Milk" that you find in the 9 1/2-ounce bottles in most stores. Those little suckers will set you back at least a buck, but this Top Secret Recipes version costs a mere fraction of that. The recipe requires espresso, but don't worry if you don't have an espresso machine. Check out the Tidbits below for a way to clone espresso with a standard drip machine and ground coffee.
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A good coffee house will have good coffee cake, and Starbucks is no exception. The world's biggest coffee chain offers cake that is moist and buttery, with a perfect cinnamon streusel crumb topping and a strip of cinnamon sugar through the middle. You may find slight variations of the cake at different Starbucks locations. Sometimes the cake is topped with chopped pecans and some may be dusted on top with a little powdered sugar. The recipe below clones the basic recipe, and if you want nuts on top, mix 1/2 cup of chopped pecans into the streusel topping before adding it.
A fork is no longer necessary to eat cake with this clone of Starbucks new portable pastry creation on a stick. The emerging trend of cake pops on blogs and at specialty bake shops caught the attention of the world’s largest coffee house chain. Starbucks research and development chefs figured out how to produce three different flavors for the large coffee chain: tiramisu, rocky road and the most popular flavor cloned here, birthday cake, which celebrates Starbucks’ 40th anniversary. The pops are each made by hand for the chain just as you will now create this delicious clone.
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Soda and citrus flavors were combined in 1938 to create a grapefruit-lemon soft drink that would later inspire Coke to make Fresca. Fresca was popular when it was introduced in the 60s since it was artificially sweetened and contained no calories. That was back when diet drinks were just catching on. Nowadays just about every soda comes in a diet version, and Fresca sales have slipped, despite a tweaking of the formula in the early 90s.
Squirt continues to hold on to a loyal cult following, with many who claim the soda is the only true cure for a hangover. To clone it, just add real bottled white grapefruit juice, along with a little Kool-aid mix for a lemony zing, to the simple syrup recipe. Chill the syrup and soda water until cold and get ready to make a dozen cups worth of citrus soda at home.
Since the Spatini Italian Foods Company discontinued production and sale of its spaghetti sauce mix in December 2006, Internet discussion groups have organized petitions pleading to bring the product back. For more than forty years generations of families have enjoyed spaghetti made by mixing a packet of top secret powder with canned tomato sauce. But after Spatini disappeared from grocery store shelves, the only way to get that same flavor on spaghetti required locating leftover stock on the Internet, and paying dearly for it. On eBay, 10-box lots of Spatini sold for up to ten times what they originally cost in stores. Now you can save your hard-earned lira and still get real Spatini flavor, because after analyzing a packet of the mix, I've discovered a great way to clone this "Dead Food" at less cost than the product's retail price. The secret ingredient is a crushed-up beef bouillon cube, which contains the precise quantity of salt and natural flavors, plus autolyzed yeast extract—a flavor enhancer—to mirror the original blend. Add a couple ground herbs, onion, garlic, powdered sugar, and cornstarch, and you'll have the exact amount of mix you need to recreate the spaghetti sauce you grew up with.
New Yorkers would line up around the block at the 55th Street location to get a hot cup of Al Yeganeh's delicious soup at Soup Kitchen International. And everyone was familiar with the demands posted near the order window: "Pick the soup you want!" "Have your money ready!" and "Move to the extreme left after ordering!" Violate any of these rules and Al sent you to the back of the line, even if you had waited for as long as two hours to get to the front. This is precisely how Yeganeh was portrayed by actor Larry Thomas in Seinfeld episode number 115, when he forever became known as "The Soup Nazi." After that episode aired a new rule was posted: "Do not mention the N Word (Nazi)!" In 2006 the original location closed and Al went into the business of franchising his concept under the new name "The Original Soup Man." Today there are more than 50 franchises throughout the U.S. and Canada, including six in Manhattan. But the recipes are still a secret, even from franchisees, since the soups are delivered premade to each location in 8-pound bags. Among the favorites to this day is the crab bisque, which is the soup Jerry orders on the show.
Troy Smith isn't the one who came up with the idea to use an intercom system in the parking lot so that customers could pull up to order, and then eat while still in their cars. He was inspired by another hamburger stand he saw while driving through Louisiana, and had the same system designed for his place. Today Sonic is the only major fast food chain still incorporating the nearly 50-year old service concept. And just as in the '50s, roller-skating carhops still bring the food right to the car window so diners can stay comfortably seated behind the wheel.
This is a flavor variation of Sonic's signature Cherry Limeade.
The cool thing about this Top Secret Recipe is that many of the ingredients come in a kit designed for making strawberry cheesecake. Find Jell-O No Bake Strawberry Cheesecake Mix near the puddings in your supermarket and you have half of the ingredients locked up. Inside the box are three separate packets: strawberries in syrup, the cheesecake mix powder, and graham cracker crumbs. You'll also need vanilla ice cream, a cup of milk, and some canned whipped cream. Toss the first four ingredients below in a blender until smooth, fill 2 glasses, and then top off the shakes with whipped cream and graham cracker crumbs from the kit. Everyone will freak out when they suck strawberry cheesecake through a straw. The recipe below makes 2 regular size shakes, but you can make another 2 shakes using up the remaining strawberries from the cheesecake kit. If you get some additional strawberries in syrup, you can make as many as 8 more shake clones with the remaining cheesecake mix powder and graham cracker crumbs.
Source: Top Secret Recipes Unlocked by Todd Wilbur.
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These easy-to-make milkshake clones from Sonic's fountain are no longer available at the 3,342-unit drive-in burger chain, but we'll always have a clone. The straight peanut butter version is crazy delicious if you're into peanut butter. And when you add a little fudge to the recipe for the second hack here, you've got what tastes like a creamy Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. Good stuff, man.
Source: Top Secret Recipes Unlocked by Todd Wilbur.
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The Sonic story starts back in 1953, when Troy Smith traded in his failing fried chicken stand in Shawnee, Oklahoma, for a parcel of land that had a steakhouse and a root beer stand on it. Troy thought he'd make the steakhouse his primary operation, but as it turned out, patrons preferred the hot dogs and cold drinks at the root beer stand. Troy dumped the steakhouse and focused on offering additional items at the stand such as hamburgers. Those hamburgers became the big seller at this revised restaurant, which Troy had dubbed the Top Hat. But that name would soon change when the Top Hat sign was replaced by one that read Sonic Drive-In.
This is a lower-fat clone of that first hamburger, which has been on the menu since the beginning. We'll substitute lean ground beef and fat-free mayonnaise to shear off more than sixteen grams of fat.
One day in 1958, when Top Hat restaurants were operating in several Oklahoma cities, lawyers informed founder Troy Smith that Top Hatwas already a copyrighted name and that he would have to make some hasty changes. The chain's partners searched for a name that summed up the company motto: "Service at the Speed of Sound." They agreed that the name Sonic had a nice ring to it.
Sonic is now the country's fifth-largest hamburger chain and boasts some amazing statistics. For example, if you were to take all of the hamburger patties Sonic served last year and stack them up, they would be as tall as 2,576 Empire State Buildings stacked one on top of the other.
If you like your burgers with a spicy kick and dig mustard, try this reduced-fat clone for one of Sonic's tastiest creations.
Nutrition Facts Serving size–1 sandwich Total servings–1 Calories per serving–400 (Original–380) Fat per serving–10.5g (Original–16g)
Driving through Louisiana in 1953, Troy Smith happened upon a cozy hamburger stand that had installed an intercom system to speed up ordering. Troy adapted the idea for his small chain of burger joints and hired nimble servers to bring the food out to customers quickly. The concept was a smash, with revenues for the chain doubling during the first week. Sonic was cashing in on the growing popularity of the automobile. Customers parked their cars in a stall, rolled down the window, and ordered from a speaker. The food was then brought to the car on a tray by a roller-skating carhop with extraordinary balance.
Today, Sonic has rejuvenated the carhop concept by serving customers the same way as in the '50s: with individual car stalls, speakers, and waitresses on wheels. The company is America's largest drive-in hamburger chain with more than two thousand units rolling in 1999.
Nutrition Facts Serving size–1 sandwich Total servings–1 Calories per serving–400 (Original–314) Fat per serving–10.5g (Original–15.7g)
These awesome shakes are unique—the graham cracker crumbs in the mix make them taste like a creamy chilled pie, crust and all. Delicious. You can either crumble up your own graham crackers or use the already ground stuff in a box that's often used to make graham cracker pie crusts.
Here's the signature drink from the chain that revived the old-school drive-up burger joint. In 1953 Troy Smith obtained the parcel of land in Shawnee, Oklahoma that was big enough to fit the new steakhouse and root beer stand he had always dreamed about. Troy thought he'd make the steakhouse his primary operation, but as it turned out folks preferred the hot dogs and cold drinks over at the root beer stand. Troy did the smart thing and ditched the steakhouse to focus all his efforts on the other restaurant. At first he called the root beer stand "Top Hat," but when Troy found out later that name was already being used, he came up with "Sonic" to signify "service at the speed of sound." Today the chain is the sixth largest hamburger outlet in the country.
This recipe makes a simple, old-fashioned drink by combining Sprite with cherry juice and some lime wedges. Use cherry juice made by Libby under the brand-name Juicy Juice for the best home hack.
In 1995 when I cloned Snapple iced teas in More Top Secret Recipes, I picked several varieties of the tea and used either concentrated juices or extracts for the fruity essence. Since that time, Snapple was sold to Quaker and the less popular flavors were retired to the land of the dead foods. But a clone for one of the most popular flavors of ice tea eluded me back then, since there was no common extract or juice concentrate to turn to for that flavor. Bummer too, since Snapple's raspberry iced tea is a top seller. Today, thanks to the popularity of flavored coffee drinks, flavored syrups can be found in supermarkets. The most common brand is Torani. Get some of the raspberry flavor and you can clone this secret recipe for a fraction of the cost of the real thing.
Snapple was selling juices for five years, since 1982, before the fruity line of teas was rolled out. Just five years after that, Snapple was selling more tea in the U.S. than Lipton or Nestea. Today, even though Snapple sells over 50 different bottle beverages, the iced teas are still the most successful products in the line. But not all the fruity flavors of tea were hits. Cranberry, strawberry, and orange are now extinct, so those flavors can only be enjoyed by making versions of your own at home with these simple formulas.
Here's a quick and easy recipe for the brand of ice tea that blew away competitors Lipton and Nestea. Between 1988 and 1992 Snapple tea sales increased a whopping 1,300 percent. If you're a big Snapple ice tea drinker, this recipe will save you some cash. A 16-ounce bottle of Snapple tea costs around $1.50, but the same amount using this top secret hack will only cost you 15 cents to make. Here now is the improved version of the recipe that first appeared in More Top Secret Recipes.
In 1972, brothers-in-law Leonard Marsh and Hyman Golden had become tired of running a window-washing business. They contacted their friend Arnold Greenberg and told him they wanted to start selling bottle fruit juices. Greenberg had a health-food store and thought their idea for all-natural beverages was a good one, so together they started selling pure fruit juices under the name Unadulterated Food Products. It took the trio about a decade to acquire the name they really wanted, Snapple, for $500 from a guy in Texas who has used it on an apple soda that bombed. Snapple's big break came in 1988, when the company started bottling ready-to-drink iced teas. It took only five years for Snapple to become the leader in the iced tea market, blowing away giants Lipton and Nestea. The Snapple iced tea phenomenon helped the company increase sales between 1988 and 1992 by nearly 1,300 percent.
To make your own version of the syrup for this orange soda that comes to us from the Pepsi-Cola Company, you need to combine a simple syrup recipe with two popular versions of dry orange mix: Kool-Aid orange unsweetened drink mix and Tang. But unlike the real thing that contains no juice, your homemade version includes a bit of real orange juice solids that come powdered into every scoop of Tang mix. After you make the syrup, be sure to let it cool in the refrigerator before you combine it with cold soda water.
In 2008 Chef Kerry Simon packed up his knives at the Hard Rock Casino and Hotel and moved across the Las Vegas Strip into the Palms Place tower at the Palms. The new restaurant features some of the same comfort food favorites as the old joint, such as truffled & cheese and cotton candy for dessert, but Kerry has now added a sushi bar and a broader menu which includes breakfast, lunch and a must-try Sunday brunch where you may be eating alongside the likes of Avril Lavigne or Hugh Hefner and his girlfriends. When you're noodling over which appetizers to try you must check out this delicious addicting edamame starter: A pile of soybeans are cooked over high heat in a wok until their pods are blackened in spots, then they're tossed in fresh lime juice and a Japanese 7-spice seasoning called shichimi togarashi. Togarashi is a spicy blend of orange peel, sesame seeds, seaweed and chili that you can purchase in most Asian markets or online. The blend usually doesn't include salt, so you'll have to add some of that as well before you dig in. Or, you can use Szechwan seasoning such as one made by Sun-Bird that's found in most grocery stores where the Asian foods are parked. These blends will usually have salt in them, so you probably don't need to add additional salt if you use the Szechwan seasoning. You'll want to cook these in a wok that's been preheated over a flame on a gas stove, or you can use a cast-iron skillet that's been preheated for at least 10 minutes - you should see a lot of smoke when you drop those beans in the pan! Turn on the vent over your stove before you start cooking unless you need to test your smoke detectors.
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If you've ever laid your fork into one of these, you know how tough it is to take just one bite. Now you don't worry about stopping there. TSR drastically reduces the fat in this clone of the Shoney's creation with the help of reduced-fat devil's food cake mix and fat-free ice cream. Just be sure to get the type of ice cream that comes in a rectangular container, so that slicing and arranging the ice cream on the cake is make easier. Breyer's makes excellent fat-free vanilla ice cream and the container works well for this recipe. You may have some ice cream left over, which you can eat with the small cake or cupcakes you can bake with the cup of leftover cake batter. Nutrition Facts Serving size–1 slice Total servings–12 Calories per serving–328 (Original–522) Fat per serving–9.5g (Original–20g)
Source: Top Secret Recipes Lite by Todd Wilbur.
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Menu Description: "Vanilla ice cream between two pieces of devil's food cake. Served with hot fudge, creamy topping and a cherry."
One of Shoney's signature dessert items is this Hot Fudge Cake, a dessert worshipped by all who taste it. To make construction of this treat simple, the recipe calls for a prepackaged devil's food cake mix found in any supermarket baking aisle. Try to find vanilla ice cream in a box, so that the ice cream can be more easily sliced to fit on the cake. Leftovers can be frozen and served up to several weeks later.
Source: Top Secret Restaurant Recipes by Todd Wilbur.
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Despite the name this TSR reduced-fat version of one of Shoney's most popular country-style items is not fried. If it were, it surely wouldn't have nearly one-fourth the fat of the original, which you can order at any of the 900 restaurants in this mostly Southern U.S. chain. But you'll swear this version tastes like the original, because we still bread the steak, and then spray it with a light coating of cooking spray. Once it's baked, then broiled to a golden brown, the steak is smothered with low-fat gravy. Use these low-fat cooking tricks to make a country steak that's just as good as the fried version. Nutrition Facts Serving size–1 steak Total servings–4 Calories per serving–260 (Original–563) Fat per serving–10g (Original–37g)
Source: Top Secret Recipes Lite by Todd Wilbur.
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Menu Description: "Tender steak, lightly breaded and golden fried. Smothered with country milk gravy."
Alex Schoenbaum opened the doors to his first restaurant, Parkette, a drive-in in Charleston, West Virginia, in 1947, at the start of a boom in popularity of the classic American drive-in restaurants many of us know only from reruns of Happy Days. Schoenbaum's restaurant did very well and he decided, in 1951, to purchase a Big Boy franchise, the fastest growing chain at the time. In 1953, Parkette changed its name to Shoney's Big Boy.
Today Shoney's is no longer affiliated with Big Boy, but maintains a menu that features the Southern homestyle favorites that have made it so successful for so long. One of the old-time favorites is the Country Fried Steak smothered in peppered milk gravy. The technique here is to freeze the steaks after they have been breaded with flour. This way the coating won't wash off when the steaks are fried—the same technique the restaurants use.
Seven Seas dressings were first introduced by Anderson Clayton Foods back in 1964, when the trend toward fat-free foods was in its infancy. Kraft Foods later picked up the brand, and Seven Seas today ranks number four in sales of salad dressings in the United States. Here's my hack for creating a delicious clone of Seven Seas spice-filled fat-free Italian dressing using a secret combination of water, cornstarch and gelatin where the fat used to be.
Nutrition Facts Serving size–2 tablespoons Total servings–12 Calories per serving–10 Fat per serving–0g
Source: Low-Fat Top Secret Recipes by Todd Wilbur.
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The original version of this bright red dressing is made with a generous amount of oil and is filled with gobs of greasy fat grams. The trend toward fat-free foods was in its infancy when Seven Seas went to work on a nonfat variety of the Red Wine Vinegar Dressing that would taste as good as the original. They did a pretty darn good job, too. Just by tasting the Seven Seas version of this clone, it's hard to believe there's not a speck of fat in the bottle.
We can replace the oil by thickening the dressing with a top secret combination of water, cornstarch, and a little gelatin. A couple drops of food coloring with give your clone the bright, beet-red hue of the original. You can leave the coloring out of the recipe if you like, but when you see the color without the red in it, you'll understand why it's in there.
Nutrition Facts Serving size–2 tablespoons Total servings–12 Calories per serving–15 Fat per serving–0g
The first See's Candy shop was opened in Los Angeles in 1921 by Charles A. See. He used his mother's candy recipes, and a picture of her at the age of seventy-one embellished every black-and-white box of chocolates. Mary See died in 1939 at the age of eighty-five, but her picture went on to become a symbol of quality and continuity. See's manufacturing plants are still located in California, but because the company will ship anywhere in the United States, See's has become a known and respected old-fashioned-style chocolatier all across the country.
In an age of automation, many companies that manufacture chocolate have resorted to automated enrobing machines to coat their chocolates. But See's workers still hand-dip much of their candy.
One of the company's most popular sweets isn't dipped at all. It's a hard, rectangular lollipop that comes in chocolate, peanut butter and butterscotch flavors. The latter, which tastes like caramel, is the most popular flavor of the three, and this recipe will enable you to clone the original, invented more than fifty years ago.
You will need twelve shot glasses, espresso cups, or sake cups for molds, and twelve lollipop sticks or popsicle sticks.
Source: Top Secret Recipes by Todd Wilbur.
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This oddly name popcorn confection gets its yellow color from the butter-flavored popcorn beneath the nearly clear candy coating. We'll use microwave popcorn for this low-fat version, and we'll throw in some real butter and butter flavoring for just the right touch. With this secret formula, we can duplicate the taste of the original with only half the fat.
Nutrition Facts Serving size–1 cup Total servings–12 Calories per serving–107 (Original–140) Fat per serving–2g (Original–4g)
Source: Low-Fat Top Secret Recipes by Todd Wilbur.
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Menu Description: "Tender, crispy shrimp with a sweet and spicy chili sauce that's got just the right kick."
This was another job for the micro-screen sieve. Rinsing away the mayo from a spoonful of this delicious chili sauce reveals just what I expected: sambal chunks. The minced chili peppers that sat there, now naked, in the bottom of the sieve, looked just like the type of red pepper used in sambal chili sauce. And since there were bits of garlic in there too, it was clear that the bright red chili garlic sauce you find near the Asian foods in your market is the perfect secret ingredient for the fiery mixture that's used on this popular dish from Ruby Tuesday's appetizer menu. Once you make the sauce, whip up some of the secret breading for the shrimp and get on with the frying. You can use shortening or oil here, but I think shortening works best, and it doesn't stink up the house. The no trans-fat stuff is da bomb. Once all of your shrimps are fried to a nice golden brown, carefully coat the little suckers with about half of the sauce, and then serve the rest of the sauce on the side for dipping, just like they do at the restaurant.
