Mildenhall Burgers

[aviodromefriend]

Iain - if I can get it to work can I have your permission to post as a video the first 20 seconds of the Mildenhall Airshows 88-93 video? It has these burger stands all cooking which will have those on here all reminicissing even more!!

Fully inappropriate to not have a taste or smell version of the internet.

[Iain PlanesTV]

Iain - if I can get it to work can I have your permission to post as a video the first 20 seconds of the Mildenhall Airshows 88-93 video? It has these burger stands all cooking which will have those on here all reminicissing even more!!

Fully inappropriate to not have a taste or smell version of the internet.

I know the scene well - makes me hungry just thinking about it! I'll pop it on YouTube for you Traveller.

(By the way its my mum in the shot you were describing and if memory serves me my Dad also has a staring role stuffing a burger in his mouth!)

[Dragon Rapide]

Share the link, please - I'm getting peckish!

[fire3]

Thankyou so much for all the replies. I only attended air fetes from 1994 - 1998. One of these i attended with the air training corps, we spent 3 nights billeted in the basketball court with hundreds of other cadets, some of the base staff set up a naff type arrangement selling american foods i think they sold out every day.
I was treated to breakfast in the nco's mess every morning (waiter service!) and we were all allowed onto the base cinema, bowling ally and px.

I will see if i can dig out some photos later.

Ad

[Iain PlanesTV]

This is the full intro that Traveller was describing to Best of Mildenhall: http://www.planestv.com/shop/products/m ... l-dvd-1995.

Look at that sauce!

[Dragon Rapide]

Great memories!! Thank you! Love that F16 take-off!

[pbeardmore]

As someone very much in the middle of middle aged, I am determined to keep looking forward rather than back. But those burgers and the time they represent will never happen again. Interesting to think, in 30 years time, will the middle aged airshow fans of 2040 look back at the present shows with such fond memories? certainly not the food, thats for sure.

[Dragon Rapide]

I know we are accused of wearing rose-tinted spectacles but I really don't think todays' shows match those of 20 years ago and in many ways not those of 50 years ago, simply because of the diversity of types on show. But there was certainly something special about the USAF shows - certainly those at Alconbury and Mildenhall, which I remember best. I wonder what shows and which aircraft they will be watching in 2040. B52 and F15 probably...!

[81TFW]

"Brats, burgers and beer! Beer, right here!" Just how I remember it!

Thanks so much for that. Happy days!

[Trident 3B]

right... the sr-71 is very nice and all. BUT the burger sauce, i was once told it was something called A1 burger sauce, ive had people in the US try to get it but no luck. Does anyone know what the hell the burger suace was called and how to get it in the uk. IF SOMEONE KNOWS it would change my life...

[Traveller]

I've never heard of A1 burger sauce just the A1 steak sauce. That is similar to HP brown sauce and nothing like the stuff at Mildenhall in 1990. I'm in Florida in July and will be buying 3 bottles of different sauces to bring back to see which I recall is the most similar.

[Fumbles]

I can for 100% sure say.... "A1 is not the sauce." A1 is almost like HP sauce. But A1 is a little more watery. On a side note.... A pic from the Iphone last year at RIAT.

mmmmm

[RJC1878]

right... the sr-71 is very nice and all. BUT the burger sauce, i was once told it was something called A1 burger sauce, ive had people in the US try to get it but no luck. Does anyone know what the hell the burger suace was called and how to get it in the uk. IF SOMEONE KNOWS it would change my life...

[Traveller]

Have we concluded then that the sauce could have been Hunts original and if not, then it was likely a made up version which in itself was different at the different stands? In which case we'll never replicate it again?!

[stonesfan]

I should be able to answer this because one of the servicemen kindly let us have a huge tub of their BBQ sauce underhand for a tenner. It was almost 20 years ago but I seem to remember the 'Kraft' label being present.

[Trident 3B]

thanks all for the info so far. Ive kind of discounted the A1 idea as mis information...

please keep up the trail of the sauce, some one must know ! (hope it wasnt made up on base !)

[Vodka]

i'll check when im at P&V RIAT Friday (hunts)

[tankbuster]

I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned Schlitz. Absolutely essential at Mildenhall and all US base's shows in the 70s and 80s to wash down the burgers. The burgers were brilliant annd the beer was dire, what we in the UK colloquially know as Gnats P.

Extract from Wikipedia

The Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company was an American brewery based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and was once the largest producer of beer in the world. Its namesake beer, Schlitz, was known as "The beer that made Milwaukee famous" and was famously advertised with the slogan "When you're out of Schlitz, you're out of beer".[1] Schlitz first became the world's top beer producer in 1902 and enjoyed that status at several points during the first half of the twentieth century, exchanging the claim with Anheuser-Busch multiple times during the 1950s.[2]

The company was founded by August Krug in 1849 but acquired by Joseph Schlitz in 1858.[3] Schlitz was bought by Stroh Brewery Company in 1982 and subsequently sold along with the rest of Stroh's assets to the Pabst Brewing Company in 1999.

[BMrider]

I'm surprised that nobody has mentioned Schlitz. Absolutely essential at Mildenhall and all US base's shows in the 70s and 80s to wash down the burgers. T

You havent read the whole thread have you (Page 1)

As far as I remember and I attended most early Mildenhalls on a media pass, the sauce was home made and kept warm in alloy tins at the back of the BBQ, Squadrons had there own recipies, and would try and out do each other saying there's was better cans of beer were occasionally added to loosen it up when it got a bit to sticky, later airshows in the 90's may have used commercial sauce, I dont know, I missed them

View my Mildenhall Airshow collection here (Growing as I scan more slides)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/65081372@N ... 831186347/

[Traveller]

Two more to add in. I'm just back from a few beers with a serving USAF guy and mentioned this forum. Although too young to have been at Mildenhall in the early 90s he instantly said KC Special and Bullseye as two possibles. Checking this out it now seems that Bullseye the make has KC (Kansas City) as the type. So just one. But to be honest as was said before, does anyone really know and even if they did, do we care when there are so many now on the market that must taste identical? Not that anyone on here really honestly could remember!

[Traveller]

Both of these remind of Mildenhall. The Jack Daniels sugar one also is excellent. Just out of sight to the left is tonights bbq and Tony Roma's baby back ribs. See ya!!!!

[RobY]

Ah the memories. Many a time spent in the Bird in Hand and Mickey's. Must revisit although I suspect the KC-97L won't be there this time!

[LancLady]

Hi Everyone.

I saw this thread concerning Air Fete burgers and the sauce 'brew' used, I can offer advice straight from the horse's mouth so to speak. My Husband used to help run SAC Donalds often during the Air Fete era and I also used to help out and cook, make the sauce etc. I can tell you that yes, various squadrons had their own ' recipes' for the barbecue sauce but for SAC Donalds I remember it was usually made from any brand of American barbecue sauce such as Hunt's in a huge pan, sometimes brown sugar was added but a very important ingredient was beer. Plain old Bud or Coors or other cheap beer was added to thin the sauce down and it would continue thus- add a bottle of sauce as the pan contents grew lower and a tin of beer so it was the right consistency, a little like gravy. But the sauces might vary slightly depending on who was in charge and the available supplies of barbecue sauce and preference of the particular cook, which was always changing! But normally the basics were just barbecue sauce and beer. The sauce would have been made for a few hours prior to any burgers being served as we used to start very early before the crowds were admitted, so making the sauce in advance can help the flavour. The burgers used were the basic hamburgers, plain burger buns and american cheese.

Those were happy days and I miss Air Fete still. I think a huge part of the reason that the burgers tasted so good were because they were a bit different to what the average Brit was used to at that time, plus the atmosphere of Air Fete was always fantastic. I used to come home exhausted and reeking of smoke with red swollen eyes and filthy hair, but it used to be such fun cooking at SAC's. But apart from the beer, the best way to recreate the sauce is to keep the sauce hot with your sauce/ beer mix and make it in advance so the flavours blend and the sauce almost caramelizes around the edges.

At Air Fete, with SAC's anyway there wasn't any particular or special brand of barbecue sauce used, it was normally something like Hunt's. The trick was adding the beer and letting the beer/sauce mix cook slowly and keeping it hot, most barbecue sauces would work.

Editing to add an important point I mentioned on the next page, once the burgers were cooked on the grill, they were added to the sauce before serving, they would sit in the sauce to keep hot then put into a foil tray and taken to the servers as needed. This helped to tenderize the burgers as well as adding flavour.

I hope this helps some of you to recreate a little of the Air Fete food experience!

[Russ]

Thank you, that will certainly please a large number of people on the board.

[pbeardmore]

Lanclady, thank you so much for that post. Nice to hear an accurate account of what has become a legend. Oh for a time machine, take me back to the 80s!! Happy days