Vintage Summer Cookout Recipes

Oh, summer! The air is warm, the days are long, and there's nothing quite like the sizzle of the barbeque grill and the laughter of loved ones filling up the backyard. While modern cookouts often feature gourmet burgers and artisanal sides, sometimes our hearts (and our appetites!) yearn for the simple, comforting flavors of summers past. You know, the kind of dishes your grandma used to whip up that just felt like sunshine and good times.

This year, why not take a delicious trip down memory lane? Dust off those old recipe cards and cookbooks. Let's bring back some vintage summer cookout classics that are as easy to make as they are delightful to devour. Forget the fuss, embrace the flavor, and get ready to create new memories with a dash of old-fashioned charm!

Three Timeless Cookout Treasures

These recipes are cherished for several reasons: they're crowd-pleasers, they travel well, and they embody the spirit of carefree summer days.

1. A quintessential Potato Salad

No summer cookout is complete without a creamy, tangy potato salad. This isn't your fancy, herb-laden version—this is the comforting, classic kind that tastes like childhood.

Ingredients:

3 lbs russet or red potatoes, peeled and cubed

4 hard-boiled eggs, chopped

1 cup mayonnaise (full-fat for that authentic richness!)

1/4 cup yellow mustard

1/4 cup finely chopped celery

1/4 cup finely chopped red onion

2 tablespoons sweet pickle relish

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

Salt and black pepper to taste

Paprika for garnish (optional)

2. Old-Fashioned Baked Beans

Step aside, canned beans! These homemade baked beans are sweet, smoky, and simmered to perfection. They're the ultimate companion to grilled hot dogs and hamburgers.

Ingredients:

2 (15-ounce) cans great northern or cannellini beans, rinsed and drained

1/2 cup ketchup

1/4 cup brown sugar, packed

2 tablespoons molasses

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

1 teaspoon dry mustard

1/2 teaspoon onion powder

4-5 slices of bacon, cooked and crumbled (reserve a little of the drippings!)

1/2 medium onion, finely chopped

3. Summertime Ambrosia Salad

For a touch of retro sweetness, ambrosia salad is a vibrant, fruity dessert that’s light and refreshing. It’s like a party in a bowl!

Ingredients:

1 (15-ounce) can mandarin oranges, drained

1 (20-ounce) can crushed pineapple, well-drained

1 cup shredded coconut (sweetened or unsweetened, to your preference)

1 cup mini marshmallows

1/2 cup maraschino cherries, halved

1 cup sour cream or plain Greek yogurt (for a tangier twist)

1/2 cup whipped topping (like Cool Whip) or freshly whipped cream

Optional: 1/4 cup chopped pecans or walnuts for crunch

There you have it! Three simple yet sensational vintage recipes to get your summer cookout started. These dishes are more than just food; they're an invitation to slow down, savor the moment, and connect with the timeless joy of good company and great cooking.

What are your favorite vintage cookout memories? 

Share them in the comments below!

New Cookbook Day! Cutco Meat and Poultry Cookery

It's time for a new cookbook!

Declan found this little beauty for my birthday, and I can't begin to tell you how much joy it gave me.

Best $1.50 she ever spent.

It's a promotional piece produced for the cutlery division of Wear-Ever Aluminum, Inc. in 1961.

Here's what it looks like on the inside front cover:

All the meat you could ever hope for in one place!

The best thing about this book is the illustrations. Oh, the illustrations!

The drawings are done by one Frank Marcello. Unfortunately, I can't find much about him.

He's got quite a sense of humor. I'm surprised that Wear-Ever let him get away with half the stuff he put in. Here are a few classic examples:

You'll be hearing more about the illustrations in coming posts, so for now I'll just comment on this last one.

What the heck is going on in this kitchen? Look at the position of mom's feet. Is she pigeon toed, or is there more to the story? They both seem to be happy about it, though the girl's smile looks just the tiniest bit more genuine to me.

Hmmm.... Let me know what YOU think.

Stay tuned for more meat and illustrated hilarity, 1960s style!

Cheesy Tuna to Tame that Man-Child Brute

Here's the last entry I'll be posting from Who Says We Can't Cook!, this one filled with savvy advice for today's modern miss and would-be fascinator.

"It is wisdom as old as the hills that the way to get along with a man-child is to feed the brute," Mary Haworth advises readers of our WNPC cook book. "Lots of famous fascinators can't cook but I am convinced that nothing gives a woman greater self-confidence as a woman than the ability to cook well."

Analyzing females and foods, she believes "The womanly woman has a congenital urge to cook well. She cooks to please her man almost as instinctively as the vamp powders her nose."

And, as a final warning, Mary points out, "The lovable woman is a nurturing woman and men don't leave them because 'you can't hardly get them kind no more'."

Her preferred Lenten dish, good any Friday, and heavy enough to please the most masculine appetite is:

Tuna and Mushrooms with Cheese Sauce

Wash and slice 1 3/4 pounds fresh mushrooms and saute in butter or margarine 5 minutes. (Or use canned button mushrooms instead--4 or 5 small cans well drained.) Get approximately 3 pounds white canned tuna, drain off oil and break or cut into fairly large bite-size pieces.

To make the sauce, melt 1/4 pound butter or margarine, blend in 10 tablespoons flour and cook two minutes, stirring constantly. Add to 5 cups heated milk, tablespoon Ac'cent, 1/4 teaspoon saffron, and 2/3 pound very sharp cheese cut into small pieces. If you like, substitute 2/3 cup of sherry for 2/3 cup mil. Cook, stirring constantly, until cheese has melted and the sauce begins to bubble.

Add tuna and mushrooms to sauce. Now season to taste with salt and freshly ground pepper. Serve in chafing dish or casserole. This serves 13, so reduce ingredients proportionately for smaller number. Incidentally, the saffron makes the dish.

Oh, butter...

"Butter rocks. It is the mayonnaise of the cow world."

1. 
   
2. “Bigger. Better. Butter.”

1. 
   
2. “We’re butter together!”

1. 
   
2. “Spread love and butter.”

1. “With enough butter, everything gets better.”

Moxie. Wicked Good Stuff

I'm drinking my first Moxie, even as I type.

It is reputedly the oldest soft drink in America, having been brewed since 1884. I haven't done the research to either confirm or deny this factlet.

All I know is that it definitely is different. No doubt about that. Just take it from this guy:

Moxie. Try it if you can find it in your neck of the woods.

One more reason to make a muffin

A friend from my writing group brought homemade chocolate chip cookies to our meeting last night, saying they were a coping mechanism for managing the stress of egg prices, airplane crashes, and global unrest. In truth, we all looked a bit puffier than we did a few months ago. Food is so often a source of solace.

I'm not much of a baker, but there's something deeply satisfying about mixing up a dough or a batter, popping it in the oven, smelling the smells, and then biting into the warm rewards of those efforts. Our home is currently low-carb for health reasons, so defaulting to an afternoon of baking is more challenging now. 

As an alternative, I went on a hunt for vintage political cookbooks, but the results were disappointing. I did however stumble down a rabbit hole which I'll now invite you to enter: an explanation for why baking is such a comfort.

There are a ton of these little guys wafting around the internet. Most follow this model; a vintage kitchen with a female in period garb looking varyingly happy or deranged. Here are a few more examples.

But a few took a different spin, featuring gadgets, hedgehogs, sloths, and an unsurprising clutter of cats.

I didn't find the cookbooks I was looking for today, but I did discover these treasures, proving the paraphrased wisdom of the prophet McJagger:

One can't always get what one wants (like eating the rich), but one often finds that one does receive what one needs.

Ta-ta for now, I'm off to buy some flour.

Night Night Little Piggies

I started a new writing project this week, and I'm tired tired tired.

So before this little piggy trots off to bed, here are a few creepy vintage pork images found around the interwebs for your twisted viewing pleasure:

Last but not what in the weirdness is this?

Kitchen Snark Coloring book

Do you love cookbooks? Need a distraction from the cares of the world? The Kitchen Snark Coloring Book is here to help! You'll find 50 pages filled with humor, wisdom, memories, and a touch of snark, all waiting for your creative flair. Color the stress away with this timeless book of vintage fun.

Amazon LINK -  https://amzn.to/37JNptD

to create something fun connected to one of my other loves: vintage cookbooks!

Homemade biscuit and homemade chocolate gravy with butter

Melissa Underwood Hodge Gravy:: 1-cup sugar -1-tablespoons butter -1-1/2 cup milk - 2 tablespoons flour -3 -tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder mix together and boil and take a whisper until Thick .. Biscuit::; 2-cups self -rising flour -1-1/3 cup shortening -3/4 cup milk --- shortening into flour add milk and form dough into balls. Place dough onto lightly floured and knead 4-5 times . Roll out to 1/2 inch thick. Cut with biscuit cutter or cup .place on ungreased bake sheet .bake at 425 deg for 15 minutes

Canning as art?

Canning as art form! And I can't manage to make a batch of refrigerator pickles.

Heart Shaped Fish Croquettes

There's no time like RIGHT NOW to start thinking about VD goodies! Especially all you wives out there.

Apparently Pet Milk agreed that the fastest way to a man's heart was through his stomach, and so they published this booklet in the 1940s.

It was FREE if you can believe such a thing, and apparently contained recipes like this one:

"Love it? Of course he will! It's a man's idea of really good eating."

Check back soon for more Valentines Day meal ideas!

French Onion Casserole

Ronda Meadows

This dish is similar to French Onion Soup, without the soup. 

It is a quick and easy side.

Cheesy Onion Bake
2-3 Tablespoons butter
3 large sweet onions, sliced thin
2 cups shredded Swiss cheese
1 can cream of chicken soup
2/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon soy sauce
8 or so slices of French bread
Melt butter in a pan over medium heat, and add onions. Saute onions until translucent. In a shallow 2 quart casserole pan, layer onions, 2/3 of cheese and pepper to taste.
In a sauce pan, heat soup, milk, and soy sauce, stirring to blend. Pour soup mixture in a casserole and stir gently to mix. Top with bread slices. Bake at 350 degrees, uncovered, for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, top of bread should be nice and toasted.
Push bread slices under the sauce and top with the remaining cheese. Place casserole back in oven and finish baking for 15 more minutes.

Mother's Day was yesterday, in case you forgot

In the world of Mother's Day advertising, including a date reminder seems crucial. Because, as this sweet example points out:

THERE'S NO HURT LIKE FORGETTING

Whitman's chocolates just weren't afraid to bring the guilt vibe.

The hubs and I have been chatting about whether norms have shifted, and if Young People are no longer slaves to the cultural expectations we grew up with about holidays like this one. Let's take a stroll through some ads which underscored our enculturation that celebratory action was required, and which included the date to help reinforce preparation timelines.

Colgate chose a kindler, gentler version of this message, if a bit braggadocios. 

Dairy products even got in on it, though this poor queen looks like she's warding off an attack.

Usually the ads focused on presents, which were frequently candy. But of course chocolates aren't the only gift option. Who wouldn't want a "rubber tyred shopping jeep"?

The gifts below might have come from the heart, but mom herself appears half-hearted.

Maybe she's just tired from dreaming up new casserole recipes to bake in those dishes.

Some gifts are both practical AND appreciated. I'd go bonkers for a mid-century Lane cedar chest if we didn't already have one.

Or maybe mom would just like some... meat. 

So she can cook it. 

For you.

But let's get back to Whitman's, whose marketing department eventually gave up on the guilt tripping, but still focused on the tangible, this time offering a how-to guide.

Last but not least, I'm still trying to figure out the message in the ad below, and the text is a bit too small for these tired motherly eyes to read:

If you have an idea about the scenario in play here, please post it in the comments. I'd love to read it.

Meanwhile, happy Mother's Day to all who should be celebrated!