Cooking child-hood favorite the "right" way & top quality product - hot dogs! u'll b SURprized!

a reply to: RAY1990

Hey, look... Sometimes you just have to eat, I COMPLETELY get that.

I just think if someone is going out of their way to make a hot dog, they could do a damned sight better than buying anything which resembles a baseball park version. The Fenway Frank might be a tradition and an institution to our American friends, but its also a hellspawned monstrosity which has no place being referred to as edible!

Thing is, with regard to sourcing, kill methods and butchery, the food we eat here in this country, IS generally killed in a fashion which limits suffering, and butchered as efficiently as possible, if you get it from the right places. Even some store bought, fresh meat can be perfectly legit, as long as it is accredited by the correct associations and whatnot. Realistically speaking, I would happily hunt and kill my own, were it legal for a man to live on and from the land, without all that bumbling about with a house and council tax. I cannot, however, promise that my methods would always be less painful than those applied by slaughterhouse operatives.

I would still do it though. My being fed is more important at the end of the day.

originally posted by: TrueBrit
I just think if someone is going out of their way to make a hot dog, they could do a damned sight better than buying anything which resembles a baseball park version.

There are plenty of good German pork stores in my area that make their hotdogs homemade and they are fantastic.

a reply to: TrueBrit

Time is the biggest constraint these days, unless your financial situation is truly dire chances are you'll be able to source your food cheap and fresh.

Time and I guess wastage too. I mostly cook for myself, it isn't always ideal making a full roast for myself for instance, again it's why a butcher's is best. Getting enough mince or whatever for what I'm cooking, no need for cooking everything or repackaging and storing.

Sometimes people don't realise that 4-6 servings of say mince and dumplings will cost around £6 but a frozen ready meal will cost around £2. I guess it just takes away a lot of convenience.

I dunno, maybe we should put more emphasis on education regarding such things.

We're getting somewhat off-topic I guess but it's something I've considered a few times. I'm always weighing up cost, mainly out of interest. One thing that's fascinated me a lot these days is how cheap and effective it can be eating out.

Naturally you get more cooking from home, fresh or frozen. It comes with effort though. When comparing home made chow mein, curry or any other popular dish these days you'll start to find that the quality vs quantity issue isn't an issue at all... The effect on your wallet becomes ever more blurry too.

To answer your point though, I'd never go out of my way to eat hotdogs, kinda defies the point in my eyes

My favorite is an all beef weenier with grill marks on a toasted bun. With mustard, chili, Vadiallia onion, and sweet coleslaw. Add a cold beer and they are to die for.

We usually only buy Vollwerths hot dogs. Their natural casings dogs are mostly beef, about eighty five percent from what the guys working their say, and they taste great. When on sale they are about four bucks a pound, otherwise they are over six bucks. A boiled natural casing is really good too. A great hot dog does not need much condiments to cover up the weird taste many of the cheap dogs have. WE fluctuate between two and six pounds in our freezer usually, that way we flow through from sale to sale. The bun lengths are on sale this week, we need to get a couple of packages on wednesday or thursday when we go shopping. Sometimes they do not go on sale for over five months, and we no longer buy any other brand.

The only hot dog ill eat is Hebrew National. If i can't find that, i just use smoked sausage.

I can't stand that pink slime and oat filled mulecrap they call "sausage" from companies like Hillshire Farms and Eckridge. If i buy sausage i buy it from a local butcher. If i have to buy it in store, its Opas (made in Fredericksburg, TX).

But hot dogs...Hebrew National is it.

I have an uncle that makes his own, but i don't have an emulsifier so can't make hot dogs or bologna.

a reply to: AugustusMasonicus

For sausage, I like to save brisket fat trimmings to throw back int he fridge to make pellicle. That pellicle gets ground down into the beef.

And it makes all the difference between a good hamburger, and a hamburger people will talk about for weeks.

I am picky about hot dogs, in the UK we aren't exactly a hot dog nation, so it isn't easy to find a decent one! but they are out there, I have had plenty and get them every so often, never eat the supermarket ones, they aren't even 60% meat half the time, it's ridiculous!

Replacing a good hot dog with a sausage just ain't the same! if I want a sausage sandwich i'll eat sausage, if I want a hot dog, i'll grab a hot dog, just find a good one at the local butcher or market, there are even half decent brand ones i've had in the past, look at the ingredients list, anything below 95% meat cuts usually taste like #!

Same with sausage though, literally the only way I can find one not full of # and that tastes great, is from the local butcher, and they are not anymore expensive than the crap at a supermarket, they don't shrink either!

Now I want a hot dog!

originally posted by: bigfatfurrytexan
For sausage, I like to save brisket fat trimmings to throw back int he fridge to make pellicle. That pellicle gets ground down into the beef.

And it makes all the difference between a good hamburger, and a hamburger people will talk about for weeks.

See, that's what I'm talking about. Sausage/ground meat is good, homemade sausage/ground meat is absurdly good.

dbl

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus

originally posted by: TinySickTears
A bacon wrapped fried dog is called a ripper my friend. Any fried dog actually. Bacon and condiments optional

In New Jersey a fried hot dog is called a Texas Weiner and it has to be served with chili (no freakin beans), minced raw onion and mustard.

Sounds exactly like the Varsity, except the dog is not fried.

a reply to: DigginFoTroof

I had a hot dog last weekend at my nephew's 1st birthday, and it was the first I have eaten since I literally can't recall how many years. I thought I was gonna die. It was grilled, not sure what kind of dog it was, but now I know why I don't eat that nasty processed #.

First off, the hot dogs they sell at most grocery stores are absolute GARBAGE! I love a good hot dog, and grocery store fare is simply inedible (even Hebrew Nationals...and Nathan's make me wanna' barf!). If you want a good hot dog, then you have to start with a "good" hot dog. The first thing you need for a good hot dog is a natural casing. The natural casings keep the juices and flavors inside the dog. Skinless franks have all sorts of binders in them to keep them from falling apart. I don't want to eat that!

I've been on a quest to find the ultimate hot dog source. If you've ever had a real Coney Dog, those are usually made with some pretty good hot dogs. My search started there. What I found was there are a couple (likely more) really good sources for hot dogs. One of them is Kowalski (out of Michigan), and another is Dearborn brand (also out of Michigan). Vienna Beef is another and so is Kayem (out of Mass.). They don't sell these in most stores, you have to order them and you have to order them in some fairly large quantities (like 80-100 at a time). They freeze well, so no issue there (although I swear I could sit down and eat 80 really "good" hot dogs in one sitting...not gonna' try though).

The next thing to know is, the really good hot dog makers don't come from Germany at all (contrary to what the name Frankfurter might suggest). They come from Poland! The Polish nailed the hot dog market, and this is the source for most of the really good Coney places.

If it don't snap when you bite into it, it's not a real "hot dog".

Now for cooking. In my opinion, the correct way to cook a hot dog is to grill them (ideally on a griddle). A BBQ will sort o work, but for really good dogs you need to do them on a flat cooking surface like a pan or griddle. And, they need to be turned regularly so they get nice and golden on the outside, but not split.

Now, there are the hard core guys who say a 'real' hot dog never has catsup on it. In fact, they will say a 'real' hot dog can have everything BUT catsup on it. I'm not sure I agree, completely. I like ketchup now and again. But one of the real 'deal makers' on a good hot dog (again, in my opinion) is some good mayo (something like Dukes). And, it can be even better if you spread some on a bun and grill it briefly, then add a bit more on the dog itself (with the other condiments of choice of course).

That's my story on hot dogs...and I'm stickin' to it.