Today's Case:
Banquet Tuna Pot Pie
Re: Tuna Pot Pie
From: Judy
To: Phaedrus
Date: 4/4/2025, 6:34 AM
On 4/3/2025 8:47 PM, Judy wrote:
Hi,
When I was a kid, someone (Banquet/Swanson?) sold a tuna pot pie.
It was me and my older sister's favorite. This would have been in the
early 1960s. I've searched and can't find a picture or even much mention
of it.
There are a few of us who do remember it, but everyone else tells us
we're crazy, lol. I'd love it if you could find anything on it. It wouldn't
be a recipe exactly, but a picture and ingredient list would be a great
start. Thanks so much!
Hello Judy,
Gosh, lots of people remember both of them. If you go to Google and do a search on "Banquet Tuna Pot Pie" and then "Swanson Tuna Pot Pie," you will find multiple mentions of them, mostly folks complaining because they were discontinued. I did not, however, have any success finding the actual recipe for either or a photo of the box for either, or a list of ingredients from the boxes. It would be problematic, anyhow, to try to re-create commercial pot pies like these from the list of ingredients on the box. Commercial products often use commercial ingredients that you can't obtain easily, if at all Also, box lists of ingredients are not very detailed as to what exactly is used and in what proportion. Box ingredients will say "spices" and "flavoring" and won't say what specific spices are used or what specific flavorings are used and they don't give amounts of the ingredients.
That leaves "copycat recipes." These are attempts to make something that "tastes-like" the original. They may begin with a basic recipe for "tuna pot pie, " but they are developed by comparing the taste to one's memory of the taste of the original and then adjusting amounts of ingredients or adding ingredients until the result is close to the original. It's not rocket science, but sometimes it's just as difficult.
There are quite a few recipes for "tuna pot pie" on the web. You can find them with Google. I can't recommend one, because I have not tried them and I never had the Banquet or Swanson tuna pies. You would have to make them each in turn and determine for yourself whether they taste like the Banquet or Swanson versions.
I did not find any recipe that claimed any similarity to the Swanson pie, but I did find two tuna pot pie recipes that claim to be the Banquet recipe or to taste like the Banquet pie. See these sites:
Tasty Dive
Blind Guy Cooks
You will have to try them yourself and decide how close they are to the Banquet version. Good luck!
Phaed
