The Good Stuff

Hot dogs and American history

July 4th is Better with Hot Dogs, Preferably Chicago-Style

I realize that many of you view hot dogs as roughly equivalent to rat poison. I have to acknowledge that hot dogs are one of my guilty pleasures. My associations have nothing to do with food quality – they’re rooted in family cookouts when I was a boy, and with going to baseball games with my dad. July 4^th was Dad’s birthday.

I didn’t learn about Chicago-style hot dogs until I lived there for a few years in the early 90s. I’ve had a taste for them ever since.

Purists adhere to a rigid recipe:

- All-beef hot dog (Hebrew National is my preferred brand)

- Poppy-seed bun (not sure why poppy seeds are essential, but who am I to question tribal wisdom?)

- Chopped white onions

- Yellow mustard (ketchup is prohibited – indeed, unthinkable)

- Tomato slices

- Dill pickle spear

Other standard ingredients include sweet pickle relish and sport peppers; I don’t like pickle relish and can’t be bothered to buy sport peppers, so I don’t include them. I’ve seen recipes that call for a pinch of celery salt; I don’t even know what celery salt is or why it exists.

Happy birthday, America. Take a walk on the culinary wild side.

- Jack Jr.

By Emanuel Leutze - The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9520770

American History

I read a good amount of history and it feels appropriate today to recommend some of my favorite American histories/biographies. This is nowhere near an exhaustive list, even of my favorites, but these five feel like a good cross-section of my own interests and our country’s history.

Washington’s Crossing by David Hackett Fischer. Fischer is a rare combination: a historian of very high quality, and a very good writer. He is an exhaustive researcher who knows how to turn that research into a book that is comprehensive without being dull. This book has a narrow focus for its size, but it’s one of the best Revolutionary era books I’ve read.

Lincoln’s Virtues by William Lee Miller. The book describes itself as an “ethical biography” and that’s an important distinction. Miller’s argument is that Lincoln’s true genius was not political (though he had that) but ethical. He saw farther than others at the time and pulled the country along in his direction, when there was no other choice.

The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris. Morris’s trilogy on TR is good, but the first volume is the best. Roosevelt is one of those figures for whom the phrase “larger than life” seems inadequate. A biography that could equally be considered an adventure book.

The Path to Power by Robert Caro. In the running for the best biographies of the last 100 years (or longer), Caro’s series on LBJ is extraordinary. A fascinating study of a man who feels both simple and complicated at the same time.

An Army at Dawn by Rick Atkinson. The first volume of his World War II trilogy, An Army at Dawn is, in my opinion, the best of the series. It covers the Operation Torch, America’s North African campaign. I enjoyed it because I knew so little about that part of the war, and Atkinson’s excellent writing enhanced the experience a great deal.

- Jack III