By Rose Korabek
Fall is here and the leaves are starting to change. The sounds of a nearby preschool and elementary school ring through our neighborhood. The high school marching band will resume practices and high school football games will be heard on Friday nights. School is back in session and that means school cafeterias are bustling on weekdays to feed hungry students and staff.
Growing up in southeast Minnesota, we had the standard mid-1970s public school menu which relied heavily on USDA commodity staples items like surplus meats, cheeses and grains.
There was a recognizable rotation of rectangular cafeteria pizza, sloppy joes on white buns, Salisbury steak with brown gravy, chili with oyster crackers, chow mein, fish sticks on Fridays, Toastie dogs, creamed tuna on toast or tuna noodle casserole. [Pro tip: My friend’s mom made the best tuna noodle casserole, and she used up the crumbs at the bottom of potato chip bags on the top for extra crunch. “Waste not, want not” was a popular saying and cooks didn’t throw much away.]
Sides in the school cafeteria consisted of tator tots, mashed potatoes with an indented well of gravy, buttered corn or green beans, crinkle-cut carrots, salad with dressing, a piece of fruit or a small cup of applesauce. A slice of white bread or a yeast roll with a pat of butter was served nearly every meal. There were peanut butter sandwiches for picky eaters. The lunch ladies made our meals from scratch and always made sure everyone got fed.
Dessert might have been peanut butter bars, gelatin cubes topped with a dollop of whipped cream, or cowpies (unbaked fudge cookies), various baked cookies or bars, or chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting. Beverage options were limited to a carton of whole milk or chocolate milk.
While recently discussing our food choices back in the day with friends and family, the top two favorites were pizza and pizzaburgers. When those were on the weekly menu, more kids ate hot lunches.
A quick search reveals that pizzaburgers were invented by two veterans in Wisconsin in 1945 at their drive-in restaurant before becoming a school cafeteria phenomenon from the 1960s to the 1980s.
One version showed school lunch cooks browned ground beef with onions, ketchup, tomato paste, mustard and vinegar (basically a sloppy joe), spooned the mixture onto hamburger buns, topped it with government cheese and baked it open-faced till nicely toasted.
Today recipes abound for pizzaburgers and can be found in church fundraising cookbooks, online Facebook vintage high school groups sharing nostalgic recipes, and recipe websites, such as cooks.com. Some added minced onion, pasteurized USDA American cheese, oregano or garlic salt. One substituted ham ground in a meat grinder for the Spam. You could also swap Italian sausage. Using canned or bottled spaghetti sauce incorporates seasonings for more flavor.
The recipe that I am sharing was found on a cut out, aged, yellowed newspaper clipping tucked in a cookbook from my husband’s late grandma, Norma Tollefson, who hailed from Starbuck, Minnesota.
Pizzaburgers
Makes 6 servings.
1 pound ground beef, browned and drained
1 can (12 oz) Spam
8 oz mozzarella cheese, shredded
1 can (12 oz) pizza sauce
6 day-old hamburger buns, split
Preheat oven to 350º F. In food processor, mix ground beef and Spam until thoroughly combined. Mix in cheese and pizza sauce. On a cookie sheet, scoop spoonfuls of mixture onto the top of bun halves. Bake open-faced for 15-20 minutes or until hot and cheese is melted.
Leave a Reply