1968 Meets 2012

Tonight, I cooked and served a recipe from a 1968 Pillsbury Cook-off Main Dish Cookbook that I have had for over 30 years.  Inside, I found a recipe I remember making back in the early 1980s for Butthead the Ex-husband.  I will try it again, soon. This night, I made a different one that went over very well.  It was simple to make, gave complicated looking results and was quite tasty.  I give you:

Baked-in Beefburger

2 C AP flour

1 tbsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

½ tsp sage

½ tsp marjoram

1/3 cup water

1/3 cup olive oil

1/3 c tomato sauce

Milk

Celery salt

Filling

1 lb. ground beef, as lean as possible

1 tsp salt

½ cup saltine crackers, crushed to crumbs

2 tbsp instant (dried) minced onion

1 egg

2/3 cup tomato sauce

Combine flour, baking powder, salt, sage, and marjoram.   Combine water, oil and sauce.  Add to dry ingredients all at once, stir until batter comes together.  Turn out onto floured surface and knead 8 times.  Roll out to a 15 x 8 rectangle.  To facilitate rolling, do this on wax paper or patchment paper. 

Mix filling ingredients.  Spread filling on dough even with the 15 sides and within ½” of 8” sides.  Starting with 8” side, roll up jelly roll style.  Pinch seam.  Place seam side down in 9 x 5 greased bread pan.  Make 7 slashes 1/3 way through whole loaf.  Brush with milk and sprinkle with celery seeds or poppy seeds or sesame seeds, whatever you like.

 

 

Bake at 375 degrees for 55 to 60 minutes.  Turn out onto cutting board and cut into slices through slashes.  Serves 4 to 8. 

This sounds way more complicated than it was to do.  And the results were fantastic!  We both really liked it.  I served it with some buttered corn for the veg but you could use anything your family likes or maybe a salad. 

Almost every recipe has some sort of biscuit and meat.  Lots and lots of Pillsbury flour! 

As I was making this, it occurred to me that there were things I was using to make this that weren’t available in 1968:

Pam.  As far as I know, Pam is a recent development.  Spray on grease is a wonderful thing.

An instant-read thermometer.  Also not something found in your typical kitchen in 1968.  I personally didn’t get one until this century.

Food processor.   I guess in 1968, they would have used a blender to smash up the crackers. 

I originally included my big Kitchenaide mixer on this list but my hubby says that had similar things in the late 60s.  I don’t know.  I was a kid.