Budget-Friendly, Mid-Century Tuna Burgers for a Winter Supper

A trip down the memory lane that passes through my mind.

My daughter made tuna burgers for us for dinner tonight. These hot sandwiches were served at Disneyland's Chicken of the Sea Pirate Ship restaurant/Captain Hook's Galley from 1955 through 1982. 

image source: 
davelandweb.com

There are two recipes online for Disneyland's tuna burger. The first was printed on the paper placemat/tray liner when the restaurant was sponsored by Chicken of the Sea. 

The Chicken of the Sea Pirate Ship Restaurant Recipe

This recipe calls for 6.5 oz can tuna, drained, 2 tablespoons mayonnaise, 1/4 cup finely chopped celery, salt/pepper to taste, 4 sesame seed hamburger buns, Thousand Island salad dressing, sweet pickle slices. 

The directions are to mix together the tuna, celery, and seasonings. Spread the bottom bun halves with the Thousand Island dressing. Add tuna salad to each bun half and top with a few sweet pickle slices. Top with the other bun half. Wrap in individual squares of foil. Bake in a 350 degree F oven for 20 minutes. Serves 4. 

This version was served at the restaurant until 1969, when the Chicken of the Sea sponsorship left Disneyland.

"mermaids" from the early years at Disneyland

The Captain Hook's Galley Recipe

Captain Hook's Galley tuna burger
image source:
Disney Parks Media

When Disneyland took over the operations of this restaurant, they renamed it Captain Hook's Galley. Disney 's website has provided a recipe for the tuna burger that is like what was served from 1969 on. This is the version my daughter made for us tonight, with a couple of minor modifications. 

For one, we had 2 hamburger buns, 1 hot dog bun, and 2 soft (and flattish) drop biscuits to use for buns. In addition, my daughter used two 5-oz cans of tuna (in place of a 9-oz can) and sweet pickle relish (in place of sweet pickle slices). 

Also, our sandwiches were not double decker. Otherwise, she made the sandwiches as directed. And, we passed the mayo-chup at the table for those who wanted more dressing.

I said at the top that this took me down memory lane. I lived in Southern California for most of my childhood. When I was in middle school (6th, 7th, & 8th grades), if a student made honor roll for the first 3 quarters of the year, during the 4th quarter he/she could go with a school group to Disneyland for the day. I was fortunate to go each year. On one of those days, my mother gave me money to buy myself lunch. What do you think I ordered? I ordered the tuna burger from Captain Hook's Galley, aka the pirate ship. My daughter's tuna burgers were every bit as good as the one I remembered from my youth.

Like all kids, mine have asked me about some of my childhood memories. Several months ago, I mentioned the pirate ship restaurant that is no longer in Disneyland. I also recalled a hot tuna fish sandwich that I had for lunch one time. One daughter especially likes to recreate restaurant dishes. So she went on a quest to find this hot tuna sandwich from my childhood. The internet makes finding such things a breeze. Tonight was my daughter's night to cook dinner for us, and she asked to make the tuna burgers. How could I turn her down?! A memory and a meal wrapped up in a square of foil.

While canned tuna isn't as cheap as it was 5 years ago, it's still a decent budget "meat". Both WinCo and Walmart carry canned tuna fish (5-oz) for 88 cents per can in my area. Two cans feed the four of us adults. So under $2 for the tuna portion of a family meal. That's a pretty good value.

Do You Ever Hang Clothing to Dry?

an umbrella clothesline -- what I remember
from my own childhood

When my parents married (in the 1950s), my father made a couple of vows in addition to a lifetime of faithfulness. He vowed that my mother would never have to keep a vegetable garden and he would buy her a tumble clothes dryer as soon as they could afford it. My father grew up feeling poor. My grandmother was raising 5 children as a single mother. My father and his older sister were put in charge of the housekeeping and vegetable gardening (as well as tending the 3 younger siblings) during the summer months while my grandmother went to work. Both a large vegetable garden and a clothesline were reminders to my father of feeling poor. 

My mother did need to hang dry the laundry for the first several years of their marriage. But when I was about six years old, they moved into a house with a spot for both a washer and a dryer, and they had the means to afford both. My mother would continue to hang or lay flat some clothing items to preserve their shape and lessen wear, however.

When my kids were young, I hung the laundry to dry as a matter of necessity, even after my in-laws purchased a washer and dryer for us when we bought our house. I hung it all -- baby diapers, towels, sheets, and all of the clothing for 5 people. I once calculated the monthly savings by hanging everything to dry each week. I think it was about $18 per month savings. When you have just a tiny amount of wiggle room in the household budget, $18 is a significant amount.

Although we can afford to tumble dry all of our laundry now, we continue to hang some clothing each week. While we do this to save money, it's not the savings on our electric bill that we have in mind. It's keeping our favorite clothing for as long as possible that motivates us. (Washing also puts wear on your clothes. But  so far, I haven't found a way to keep my clothes clean and odor-free without washing.) All of that lint you pull out of the lint trap? That's part of the fabric of your clothing and other textiles! Both heat and rubbing of fabrics against each other is hard of fibers.

In a 1999 study reported by Science Daily, high heat drying can reduce cotton fabric strength (and lead to tears) by about 25%. In addition, tumble drying wet cotton fabric resulted in more wear than tumble drying partially dry cotton fabric. 

I didn't know about this study when I was hanging our laundry to dry all of those years ago. But for many years, I sort of intuitively knew this through my own experience. I just didn't know how much line-drying prolonged the life of our clothing. If it seems that pieces of your clothing hold up longer when exclusively line-dried for it's life, it's not your imagination.

Here's my math. If I can extend the length of a shirt's useful wear an additional 25%, that's like buying one fewer shirt every four years. My favorite, around-the-house shirt right now is on the rack shown in the photo. I always, always hang this one to dry. It's developing tiny holes near some top-stitching in different areas. I'll be sad to relegate this one to the rag bag, as it's so comfortable and soft. I bought this shirt in 2015, ten years ago. I've worn it once per week, almost year round, for those 10 years. If the Science Daily estimates apply to this shirt, I imagine it would have worn out about 2 years ago.

I have 3 portable indoor racks for laundry-drying. In nice weather, we move them out onto the deck. They're collapsible. So when we have guests over, I can fold them up and stand them against a wall of the laundry room. While these three are very practical, what I'd really like to have is something like this:

Isn't that a beautiful clothesline? Practical tools don't need to look boring. I have just the spot in the garden for one like it. Perhaps someday I'll get some help building a set-up like that. 

How do you feel about hanging laundry to dry? Does it call to mind feelings of economic disadvantage? Would/do you line dry specific clothing items so they would/will last longer?