Hello everyone!  Welcome to this week’s edition of the Mid-Century Menu, where I cook terrible mid-century recipes and force Hubs…blah blah blah.  You know, I need to come up with a new intro, because frankly, Hubs is starting to enjoy this.  He gets a fiendish gleam in his eye on Tuesday when he asks what is for supper.

Ha ha. I said “frankly” and it is a post about hot dogs. Ahhh…well. I am easily amused.

Anyway, I have to say that for a shear kitsch aspect, this cookbook is one of my favorites.  It is the Big Boy Barbecue Book, and it is put out by Big Boy Manufacturing to accompany their charcoal grill line.  The book was published in 1956, and it was created by Tested Recipe Institute at Kitchen In The Clouds. By far the coolest name EVER for a test kitchen.

Just look at the cover of this book!  I love the BBQ chef’s hat and apron, the piles of produce and pumpkins, the slightly insane look on everyone’s face.  You can tell they are having a great time. And that the girl with the blond hair has red knee highs. Love ’em

Check out some of the great pictures in this book.  I love the dishes, especially the yellow splatter condiment jars. And look at the little asian plates the burgers are on! Gimmie, gimmie, gimmie!

Wait…is that milk in those mugs? It had better be.

Anyway, the recipe for this week is from the “Frankfurter Treats” section of the cookbook. Everything looks pretty good in this book as far as edible recipes, (that Kitchen in the Clouds knows what’s up), so I had to head to the mystery meat section to find the interesting flavor combination recipe. There is always at least one. Oh yeah. You can see which one I am going for right away.

The Dixie Dog. A peanut butter filled hot dog wrapped in bacon, then grilled. Bring it on.

The ingredients ready to go. Hot dogs, bacon and peanut butter. 

So, I should say that I realized two things were going to be an issue right away.  I was pretty sure that by the time the bacon was cooked, it was more than likely that all the peanut butter would melt and run out of the dog.  The second was that the dog needed to be held together somehow.  So, I decided to combat both problems by using pre-cooked bacon rather than the raw version, and then wrapping the bacon around the hot dog and I using toothpicks to skewer it closed to keep the peanut butter in. Yum.

Hot dogs filled with peanut butter. Bizarre.

Wrapped with bacon, skewered and waiting for the grill.

Cooking on the grill. As you can see there was still a bit of peanut butter seepage, but not as much as I had first feared.

A plate of Dixie Dogs. Ummm…yum?

Hubs eating his “treat”.

The verdict: Edible

While not as horrible as Tropical Meat Salad, there was something really off about these dogs that I couldn’t put my finger on. Oh wait, yes I can. It was the peanut butter!  It gave it a bizarre flavor, not bad, but not something I would like seconds of.

Hubs said, “I would never willingly make these again.” He ate the first one, and let the rest sit.  We had other items on the grill as well, so I am afraid the Dixie Dogs suffered.

The end of my Dixie Dog, abandoned on my plate.  I know there are some people out there who don’t think peanut butter and hot dogs is strange.  In fact, my internet research turned up a couple sites of people that love the combo. To those people I say: I’m sorry. It was just too weird. I couldn’t finish it!