Saturday, July 20, 2013

I'll have the corn chip sandwich

When I was a kid, my mom sent me to camp one summer. I was NOT HAPPY the day they served sloppy joes. Most kids are at least okay with joes, but I have never been able to stand sweetened meat, so I ended up stuffing corn chips inside a bun and hoping no one would notice. (For once, my luck held and I did not have to spend the rest of the week being called "Corn Chip Sandwich" or some other stupid nickname that would have seemed terrible at the time and that I could pretend to laugh at now...)


This is the long way of acknowledging that today's recipe from Better Homes and Gardens Barbecue Book (1967) never had a chance of appealing to me anyway. It's basically hot dogs served in a sloppy joe-style sauce.


I'm not sure what makes sassy franks sassy. Anytime I see "sassy" in an old recipe name, I expect the concoction to include 1/4 teaspoon of chili powder or 2-3 drops of Tabasco sauce since minute quantities of seasoning seemed to have a much greater effect in the '60s. Neither of those make an appearance, so I suspect the vinegar or Worcestershire sauce makes the recipe sassy. (The writers must have been part of the faction that reserved "zippy" for titles of recipes containing microscopic quantities of chilies.)

Even people who like sloppy joes might wonder about the garnish. I am not a sloppy joe aficionado, but I have never seen anyone put lemon slices in one.


And why can't I get over the feeling that the salt and pepper shakers are vaguely racist?

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