Top Chefs Reveal: One Little-Known Trick that Will Make All Your Dishes Company-Worthy

Maybe the homey-looking bowls of tapioca pudding on the cover garnished with miscellaneous bits of whatever happened to be in the kitchen will make you see this as an old-fashioned recipe booklet. The bright colors, bold star, and eye-catching title Miracles with Minute Tapioca (General Foods Corp., 1948) hint that the recipes inside are precursors of today's clickbait headlines.

Yes, minute tapioca is simply miraculous-- not just for creamy desserts (and I'm hoping to write a whole post on the dessert bowls adorning the front AND back cover someday), but for just about anything.

Do you need a miracle cheese soufflé for guests?

Yes, a miracle that "Puffs up high-- stays up"?

That one funny trick all the best homemakers know is, of course, throwing in a bit of Minute Tapioca.

Need a handsome dinner companion that will never sit down before the company?

One with "the oh-so-fluffy, moist, and wonderful texture that stays up for serving"?

One with an exciting chef's secret to be revealed only on page 19?

If you guessed the chef's secret was tapioca, you're catching on to the game quite well.

And if you didn't, well, I've got another miracle to tell you about.

What will make your meat loaf so juicy and tender that you'll shout "Hallelujah"?

And what will give it those weird little green flecks all throughout?

Okay, tapioca is the miracle ingredient for tender juiciness. Cooked peas are the weird green lumps.

Some miracles are a bit harder to pin down.

Apparently, Salmon Casserole is another tapioca miracle.

I'm kind of hazy as to what makes tapioca in a canned salmon casserole topped with baking powder biscuits so miraculous, but General Mills assumes I will figure it out.

So maybe this casserole won't get overexcited and pee on the guests?

Look, the point is TAPIOCA. It's the secret of all the top chefs in the General Mills Minute Tapioca kitchen.

So throw some in the chop suey too, for no apparent reason, and call it a day.

See-- this cookbook really was anticipating the internet! It's not just Chop Suey, it's #chopsuey!