Recently, Cindy McCain, wife of Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, submitted a recipe to Family Circle for her oatmeal-butterscotch cookies. Only it turns out, they weren't exactly her oatmeal-butterscotch cookies. Or if they were her oatmeal-butterscotch cookies, they happen to be made the same way as someone over at Hershey's makes them — because the same recipe appears on the company's website.
Forgetting for a moment that oatmeal-butterscotch cookies sound pretty gross, I have to say, this kind of shit happens in the culinary world.
For example, I grew up thinking that my mom's green bean casserole was hers. It was creamy on the inside, crunchy on top and just plain delicious. Of course my mother had created it! Except, she hadn't. Once I started making it myself, I learned it was the recipe from the Durkee onion can. Was I devastated when I learned this? Sure. But had I not been writing a casserole cookbook and actually had to investigate and pay close attention to these things, would I have gone on thinking that my mom had created the green been casserole I grew up on? Probably.
Unfortunately, as the Huffington Post reveals, the similarities are too close for comfort. McCain didn't even bother to change anything about the recipe, save taking the name Hershey's out of it. So unless her mother passed down this recipe without telling a young Cindy that it was ripped off from the company, it's possible Cindy ripped off Hershey's on her own.
Now considering this isn't the first time the McCain clan has come under fire for stolen recipes, she should have been more careful. A few months ago, Cindy got in trouble for posting a Rachael Ray recipe as her own on John's campaign site.
But can you blame her? With all the time she spends putting on her make-up do you think she really has the time to create recipes?
[Us: Cindy McCain, Bill Clinton Plagiarize Cookie Recipe, Website Reveals]
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