Relic Tray: Big Boy Barbecue Book
| Plan your teen party now! |
Everyone needs a vintage barbecue cookbook during the summer months. The art of grilling outdoor evokes those happy days when good ol’ Dad — not my dad, but I’m talking metaphorically here — put on an apron and oven mitts and a chef’s toque just like the good ol’ Dad on the cover of the spiral-bound Big Boy Barbecue Book, published in 1956 by the Big Boy Manufacturing Company (maker of barbecue grills) and Kingsford Chemical (producer of those easy-light charcoal briquets).
The cover is somewhat confusing: Dad has his sleeves rolled up and two young girls are wearing summer outfits as they watch him cooking steaks — at least three inches thick, so that you know this is the 1950s. But in the background are autumn mums and a festive display of pumpkins and gourds. At any rate, the book sold for $1 in 1956, back when a gallon of gas was 23 cents.
The book includes tips for throwing a Teen Age Party that will “keep kids in their own back yard” and instead of, presumably, off somewhere being juvenile delinquents. Among the cool refreshments: “Mugs of milk are welcome!”
For dessert? Get the teens together to make barbecued spiced bananas!
