As promised, we are going to take a look at Nuts and Bolts today.
Nuts and Bolts is a very special recipe to me, in fact, I have never shared it before. Frankly, this will only be the second year I have successfully made it.
Nuts and Bolts is a party mix recipe, and for those of you who have grown accustomed to such mixes as Chex or Chereos where you simply place it all in the bag, add seasoning and shake, damn are you in for a rude awakening both in preparation and taste.
First, a bit of history. I began toying with cooking at the age of 10, by 13, I was cooking full meals for the family once a week. I was always allowed to experiment whenever I had a new recipe as well. As such, I was always seeking said new recipes.
One fateful night on a visit to my grandmother's, I walked over to place something in the garbage and much to my shock and surprise found well over 100 recipes lying right on top. Rescued from their most certain demise, I have taken it as a personal mission to restore these great recipes, for they had been thrown away for a reason, most have next to impossible items to find on today's market. So it was with Nuts and Bolts, a recipe from my Great-Great Grandmother's time.
In the state I found it, I was faced with this daunting task:
1 box daizes (Uh....What?)
1 box whistles (Sure...)
1 box bugles (Surprisingly they still made these)
2 pkg pretzles
1 can peanuts
1 can cashews
1 can mixed nuts
3/4 lb butter.
Ok...2 mystery items...not bad I suppose, but the seasoning was just as difficult:
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 TBL Beau Monde (RIIIIGHT)
1 TBL Hickory Smoked Salt
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp marjoram
1 tsp Savory (Surprisingly difficult to locate)
Now, from there the recipe calls for putting this all into a roaster pan, dotting it with the butter (breaking into small chunks and skattering it about) then baking at 250 F (121 C) for 45 minutes or until the butter is melted, stirring and sprinkling the seasoning every 5 minutes.
As long as I was restoring the recipe, I figured I may as well update it to today's technology as well, though.
First, I needed to find Beau Monde. And, it is out there, but fairly rare. In fact, it is a special mix of the
Spice Islands Brand. Playing on a hunch, I was not surprised to find that both Hickory smoked Salt and Savory are readily available where you can find the Spice Islands Brand being sold as well. All three are fairly difficult to find and I have just begun a habit of buying them when I see them.
Now to figure out what Daizes and Whistles were.
Unfortunately my grandmother could not remember...at first. With no leads, I decided to study mixes in general and saw a pattern. Party mixes will most often combine 3 grains, 1 'flavor item' (I have seen it all from M&M's to raisins, to some special seasoned chip). Now, Above I had 2 grains in the Wheat of the Pretzles and the Corn of the Bugles. This left me with one more grain and a flavor to find. Taking this info to my grandmother, she remembered that Whistles were a rice puff type of product shaped similar to the bugles you could actually blow in to make whistle, and daizes were a cheese flavored cracker.
For 8 years I tried every thing I could come up with that could be a cheese cracker, and it never worked to my satisfaction. They would burn or become soggy with the butter, or just not be 'right'. Last year, I hit it big. Brushing off the concept that it had to be a 'cracker' I went to town with the Cheetos. After the second batch, I also had a revelation in the whole process.
Therefore, I present for the first time the new and improved, updated, and 100% guaranteed Nuts and Bolts Recipe:
1 LARGE bag of Cheetos PUFFS (the crunchy wont work!)
2! bags of Bugles (need two to make it all even)
1 LARGE box of ORIGINAL Chex
2 pkg of Pretzles, I prefer the asthetics of sticks myself...
1 can of peanuts
1 can of cashew halves
1 can of mixed nuts **as long as we're adding the peanuts and cashews, spend a bit more and get the mixed nuts that are not full of peanuts and cashews, eh?
3/4 lbs Butter. AGAIN, people, this is the tabejin, REAL BUTTER, NO SUBSTITUTES!
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp marjoram
1 tsp Savory
1 TBL Beau Monde (If you absolutely cannot find, celery salt works as an adequate substitute)
1 TBL Hickory Smoked Salt
*UnO special* I don't find this is enough seasoning for my taste, so I have taken to using the highly scientific method of using heaping measuring spoons of the above instead of level.
You are going to need a MINIMUM of an 18qt roaster pan. I am going out to purchase a 20 qt this afternoon that was just put on sale.
Add the following, IN THIS ORDER.
1 bag pretzles, 1/2 the chex, 1 bag bugles, 1/2 the cheetos, repeat, place nuts on TOP.
In a seperate dish, toss that butter in the microwave and melt it.
Now drizzle a little butter over the top, be sure to get the nuts, then srinkle the seasoning, stir and repeat until all butter and seasoning is gone. Toss in the oven at lowest setting for about 30 mins or until everything is nice and warm/hot but before burning the cheetos (they will burn first)
Now, I would say this is likely capable of feeding most teams alone quite nicely, however, being the Tabejin, I am making 5 of these...hence, I am only out shopping for it all tonight. Chances are the local stores aren't prepared for someone out looking for 10 bags of pretzles or bugles, and it will take more than one stop and a few odd looks from shoppers as I fill the back of my pickup with all this junk/snack food...
Tomorrow: Dipping Pretzles.
