Treasure State Table: Spudnuts, Chicken Lickin' Muffins, and Pig and Whistle Cake

September 16, 2026

Not too long ago, the landscape of American food was very different. Not yet marked by the ready availability of fresh ingredients, herbs and spices, the national palate had to work much harder than it does now to come up with delicious recipes. Yet come up with them they did.

In those decades of yore, brave cooks combined what ingredients they had—mostly cans of cream of chicken soup, soft drinks, and oleo—and combined them in novel and remarkable ways. Then they gave them a punchily descriptive nickname like "spudnuts."

We salute these inventive home cooks by once again sharing a selection of their recipes, taken in this case from 'What's Cookin'?' by Maids of All Trades, published on behalf of the Maids of All Trades in Jordan, Montana, in the year of our lord 1979.

Chicken Lickin' Muffins
Ingredients:
3 c. flour
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
6 Tbsp. sugar
½ tsp. poultry seasoning
1 Tbsp. parsley flakes
1 egg, beaten
1 can cream of chicken soup
⅓ c. water
⅓ c. cooking oil
Instructions:
Sift together flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, poultry seasoning.
Stir in parsley.
Combine egg, soup, water, oil.
Add liquid ingredients to flour.
Stir only until flour is moistened.
Fill greased muffin pans ⅔ full.
Makes 16.
Bake 20 to 25 minutes in 425 degree oven.
Author: Eleanor Swanson

Spudnuts
Ingredients:
2 pkgs. yeast
½ c. warm water
½ c. warm milk
½ c. sugar
1 tsp. salt
½ tsp. mace
½ tsp. nutmeg
⅓ c. shortening (oil)
2 eggs
3 ½ c. flour
Instructions:
Combine yeast, water, milk.
Add sugar, salt, mace, nutmeg and stir.
Beat eggs in oil and add to all of above.
Beat in 3 ½ cups flour until smooth, at least 100 strokes.
Cover and let rise until double in bulk, about 30 minutes.
Stir down, put on floured board, roll ½ inch thick.
Cut with a large cutter.
Let stand while oil heats to 350 degrees.
Fry dough is really sticky.
Don't add flour.
Makes 18.
Author: Irene Hieken

Pig and Whistle Cake
Batter Ingredients:
4 eggs, beaten
2 c. sugar
2 c. flour
1 c. hot milk
1 tsp. vanilla
2 tsp. baking powder
pinch of salt
Instructions:
Beat real hard.
Bake 30-35 minutes at 350 degrees.
Melt:
1 c. brown sugar
1 c. butter
6 Tbsp. cream
1 c. nuts
1 c. coconut
Melt and pour over hot cake. Put under broiler until brown, about 5 minutes.
Author: Edla Billing

Seven Up Biscuits
Ingredients:
4 c. flour
2 Tbsp. oleo
1 can 7-Up
1 tsp. salt
2 ½ tsp. baking powder
Instructions:
Cut oleo into dry ingredients until it looks like meal.
Add the 7-Up all at one time.
Roll out to 1 inch thick.
Cut and bake at 400 degrees for 25 minutes.
Author: Jo R. Graham

Glorified Rice Salad
Ingredients:
2 c. cooked rice
2 Tbsp. sugar
1 sm. can crushed pineapple
1 can mandarin oranges
1 c. colored miniature marshmallows
½ sm. jar maraschino cherries (halved)
Instructions:
Mix with ½ pint whipped cream.
Chill in refrigerator for 1 ½ to 2 hours.
Author: Doris Barclay