Review: Great Nostalgia!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 10, 2012
Joyce Middleton brought back many good memories with her latest,American Classic Digest - Hamburger and Hot Dog BBQ (In the Pantry Classics). The Fifties and early Sixties were a wonderful time to grow up in America.  Grandma lived on the East Coast, where things were a little bit different than Joyce's West Coast upbringing.  We always got snacks after school, Grandma always had cookies in the cookie jar and almost nobody in New England thought to bother with a swimming pool in the yard.  We did, however, barbecue hamburgs and hot dogs - often at one of the many picnic spots that dotted New England's highways and byways. The Sunday Afternoon thing to do in much of New England was to pile into the car and go for a ride!  Barbecuing hot dogs, or Wienie Roasts as they were known in the South, has a long tradition "back East".  My mother used to say quite often that she had been to a hundred Wienie Roasts and never once eaten one!Joyce shares some wonderful stories along with a bit of food history, though I am not at all sure Wikipedia is correct about the source of the name "hot dog" - I've always heard that it came from the hot dog's resemblance to a dachshund and eating dog meat in time of war certainly was not unique to Germans among the people of Europe.Back in the fifties "something quick, with a mix" was becoming the goal of every housewife. I can remember my mother complaining to either Betty Crocker or General Mills about the quality of one such mix and not only receiving a reply, but also a huge carton filled with one of every mix the company put out!  Joyce maintains that "quick and easy" fifties flavor by calling for things like bagged, shredded cole slaw (wouldn't my mother's generation have thought that was just the cat's meow!) or a package of pre-rolled pie crusts.Grandma must take big exception to one of Joyce's recipes - but she thinks it may be a typo.  Ideally, says the granddaughter of a man who grew some of the finest eating corn to be had, you put the water on and then go out to the field to get the corn.  The sugars in corn start to turn to starch within an hour or so of the time it is picked.  People add sugar to the water they cook "old" corn in to overcome this and bring back some of that just picked flavor - but they use a teaspoon or two, not an entire cup!  That is enough sugar to make candied corn and Grandma is sure that wasn't Joyce's intent.The book contains 10 recipes for an indulgent Fifties-style back yard Sunday afternoon barbecue.  Each is listed in a Table of Contents, that does interface correctly with the Kindle Navigation Menu, for which Joyce gets an extra star.Great nostalgia!