It seems like Chex Party Mix has been around forever but annually celebrates a resurgence in the fall around football tailgate gatherings and family holidays. Have you ever wondered about its history?

Chex Party Mix was introduced as a holiday treat with all its spicy seasoning and satisfying crunchy glory in 1952. It became an immediate hit after the recipe was printed on the back of the boxes of wheat, corn, and rice Chex cereal. The name came from the resemblance of the “checks” pattern of indentations on each cereal bite to a “checkered” red and white table cloth, and thus the acronym “Chex” was born.

 Do you remember how we used to cut out recipes from box tops, sides, and backs of ingredients? We would then glue them into our favorite spiral notebook cum cookbook or on our recipe index cards, ready to file away in cute little recipe boxes? How many favorite family recipes have been excavated from these treasure chests? You always knew which recipes were the tastiest creations by how many food splatter stains decorated the notated instructions!

Here’s the original recipe for Chex Party Mix.

 Preheat your oven to 350. Melt the butter in a large 15x10x2 baking dish. Remove the pan with the melted butter from the oven. Stir into the butter: salt, Worcestershire, cereals, and nuts. Coat well using a rubber spatula to get all ingredients evenly covered. Bake about 1 hour stirring every 15 minutes. Spread on paper towels to cool. Serve at room temperature and store in an airtight container if there is any Party Mix left!

Can you eat just one bite?!?!