What is the best Hot Dog you ever had?

[Dawgluver]

All-beef, natural-casing dogs from Steve's Meat Market. We usually try to stop there on our way back from MN. Nice “snap” and good seasoning, grilled, boiled, or panfried on a toasted bun, with mustard and relish.

 

[caseydog]

Has anyone else noticed that Ball Park franks don't plump when you cook them any more?

Hmmmm, they do for me.

Di Reston, for adults in the US, hot dogs are a popular "event food," like going to a baseball game, or a backyard cookout. The environment makes the dogs taste better.

I like Hebrew National, which I can get here, and Vienna Beef dogs, which I can't get here. My go-to toppings are yellow mustard, and sauerkraut. No ketchup. I've had one fully decked out Vienna Beef "Chicago Dog," and I gotta' say it was pretty good.

I also used to love a James" Coney Island from the original location in Downtown Houston. A couple of Coneys, with chili, cheese and onions, and an ice cold beer was a perfect lunch. They are all over Houston, now, and just aren't the same.

CD

 

[caseydog]

Here is a little trip down memory lane...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fQwJdXFQlU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNddW2xmZp8

CD

 

[Whiskadoodle]

I forget if I prefer Nathan's or Hebrew National kosher dogs. I think it's Nathan's, and I think I remember which store I last bought them at. I'm not much help am I ?, not even to myself. Grilled if possible and slightly charred. After that, I'm easy-- plain ball park yellow mustard and some chopped raw onion. But if I want to get fancy, chili and grated cheese is good to add.

Now the buns, if making at home, split, lay the buns on top of the toaster, insides facing the heat. Yes they toast and are brown and crispy.

 

[GotGarlic]

Now the buns, if making at home, split, lay the buns on top of the toaster, insides facing the heat. Yes they toast and are brown and crispy.

Oh yes, the buns. They have to be toasted. At home, I broil hot dogs in the toaster oven, take them out when they're good and browned, then toast the buns. Yummy

 

[Cooking Goddess]

...grilled, boiled, or panfried...

No steamed in beer? Lum's Hot Dog restaurants used to be in a lot of places in the U.S. They would steam theirs with beer. Yummy, especially to someone under-age. If we can't grill outside, I'll put some beer in the bottom of a pot, use my veggie steamer basket, and cook the hot dogs until they split. Really tasty on a cold winter's day.

 

[RPCookin]

I guess I have to add that my truest favorite is any wiener impaled on a willow twig that I cut myself along a creek, then cooked over a campfire. We had family weeny roasts like that often when I was a kid - do your hot dog, then use the same stick for a couple of marshmallows for s'mores. Great memories!

 

[salt and pepper]

A "ripper" from Rutt's Hut !! In Clifton, New Jersey

Jersey has a bunch, Rutts hut, Callihans, The Hot Grill and Jonny & Hanges,

 

[salt and pepper]

Has anyone else noticed that Ball Park franks don't plump when you cook them any more?

Cooked meat is suposed to shrink not plump when cooked. I never liked the idea of the plump when cooked. LOL

 

[di reston]

Wow! As we sometimes say over here, by the time I'd read and seen everything, OH told me I had 'eyes like shilling dinners - and more!' I can understand why theyre so popular. Here, it's wurstel, hot mustard, in a baguette. I can see that OH would really enjoy them if I learned how to so a good one as you all make!

Great thread, great eye-opener!

GotGarlic, many thanks for putting me right on the matter of categories!


di reston


Enough is never as good as a feast Oscar Wilde

 

[CakePoet]

Sweden do make good hot dogs too, we used to have that as fast food before burgers came around.

Most store sell hot dog with bread and most are ok. However Hot dogs here is a specific mild flavour sausage for frying or grilling.

So if you get outside this, you have weiner sausages for boiling, which is the cheapest way of getting a meal here, it like 60 cents.

Then you have all the rest of frying sausages, most of them lightly smoked for some reason. Rishultare, a local sausage with rice and coarse meat, Isterband a slightly sour sausage with barley and coarse meat ( comes smokes, unsmoked and raw/ not matured) and the spices sausages and bratwurst. There is a lot of good sausage here that isnt a hot dog.

 

[Just Cooking]

I love hot dogs... Fried, boiled, broiled or steamed..

My favorite commercial dogs, back in Cali were Costco's Polish Dog, Lovers Point Grill at the beach and just about any dog from a lower end diner..

I search out taste in a hot dog.. I don't look for quality of product..

My favorite overall are those I make at home, by whatever method I choose at the time..

I will be on a quest to find good dogs here in MO..

Ross

 

[RPCookin]

Sweden do make good hot dogs too, we used to have that as fast food before burgers came around.

Most store sell hot dog with bread and most are ok. However Hot dogs here is a specific mild flavour sausage for frying or grilling.

So if you get outside this, you have weiner sausages for boiling, which is the cheapest way of getting a meal here, it like 60 cents.

Then you have all the rest of frying sausages, most of them lightly smoked for some reason. Rishultare, a local sausage with rice and coarse meat, Isterband a slightly sour sausage with barley and coarse meat ( comes smokes, unsmoked and raw/ not matured) and the spices sausages and bratwurst. There is a lot of good sausage here that isnt a hot dog.

That's true here too. If I have a choice between a hot dog or a bratwurst, I'll usually take the brat. My home golf course has a snack bar that always has both on the roller. The brat is $1 more than the dog, but to me it's worth it. I dress it up the same as I do a hot dog with yellow mustard, sweet relish and chopped onions... sometimes I'll add pickled hot jalapeños.

 

[CakePoet]

If I can get hold of fresh bratwurst, i'm in heaven, none smoke heaven.
There are cheap hotdogs that are horrible, sure there is but most use Lindvalls or Lithells.

We have hotdogs and grillkorv, grillkorv is like the fancier , tastier form of hotdogs. I prefer that over hotdogs.

 

[roadfix]

My daughter has one of these rotisserie hot dog machines she sets up whenever she hosts a kids' get together or party for her kids. Load it up with Hebrew Nationals and I can easily consume up to 6 hotdogs myself... plus the nachos from the nachos machine.

 

[Uncle Bob]

I eat very few hot dogs. The absolute best would have to be one made from andouille...cut in half or quartered. Toppings range from A to Z. ~~ Onion, bell pepper, a little celery... Sometimes sliced thin and served raw... other times cooked a little. Jalapenos are a favorite, cheese will be available for those that want it. Available at times at various festivals I attend....always available here at Twin Oaks. ~~~ On rare occasions for a quick mid-day meal on the run...Oscar Mayer's nuked until they explode...a little mustard, lots of raw onion, home made chili sauce. I enjoy those too. A couple of hours later I ask myself why did I eat that???

 

[Caslon]

As a kid in Denmark, I remember liking reddish looking hot dogs that tasted good in a bun, nothing else on it.

Copenhagen Street Dog - It's Not a Hot Dog. It's a Pølse.

Oh..ya, that's what they were called

 

[blissful]

No steamed in beer? Lum's Hot Dog restaurants used to be in a lot of places in the U.S. They would steam theirs with beer. Yummy, especially to someone under-age. If we can't grill outside, I'll put some beer in the bottom of a pot, use my veggie steamer basket, and cook the hot dogs until they split. Really tasty on a cold winter's day.

One of my first jobs was working at Lum's in 1978. I don't recall the hotdogs but I recognize the logo's and advertising. We served a lot of rotisseried chickens, beer, coffee, dinners, salads. I remember prepping the ice burg lettuce, dozens of heads, breaking them down by hand. Washing the chickens and getting them ready to put in the rotisserie. Our uniforms where knit navy blue with a white apron and name tag. I still have a menu around here in my nostalgia box of stuff.

There are minimarts around here, gas station food stuffs with grills open to the air and public, with hotdogs and sausages. If we get really hungry on the road we might grab one. I wouldn't advise it, I've gotten sick about 30% of the time and that's too often and I'm sure it is food poisoning. I really think food should be protected from the public, and wrapped, anything on an open grill can be suspect. I just don't buy open air cooking food anymore.

 

[caseydog]

I love hot dogs... Fried, boiled, broiled or steamed..

My favorite commercial dogs, back in Cali were Costco's Polish Dog, Lovers Point Grill at the beach and just about any dog from a lower end diner..

I search out taste in a hot dog.. I don't look for quality of product..

My favorite overall are those I make at home, by whatever method I choose at the time..

I will be on a quest to find good dogs here in MO..

Ross

I ate a ton of hot dogs as a kid. Now, I still love a good hot dog, but I'm a lot more picky. It needs to be an above average (or better) dog for me to get anything more than a full belly from it.

Nobody has mentioned the NYC famous/infamous "dirty water dog." The ones they sell on the streets from carts. When I am in NYC, and I have the opportunity, I grab a couple of dogs with mustard and kraut, and a cream soda.

Is it gourmet? No. It is piece of Americana. Here in Texas, it would be a Whataburger. In Cali, an In-and-Out burger.

So, for di Reston, the hot dog is that kind of thing in America. It is the low-class, unhealthy, working-man's food that you just have to have from time to get back to your roots.

Out of curiosity, and since my family came to America from Torino, what is the low-rent food from your area that everyone eats when they need a "fix?"

CD

 

[buckytom]

I know very few people in NYC, except for tourists, who eat dirty water dogs. Well, unless you're hungry and only have 2 bucks left in your pocket for a dog and a soda.

I still would go for the pretzel with mustard, though.


One of my favorite David Letterman jokes about NYC is that you can always tell it's Spring because all of the hot dog vendors change the water in their carts.


As far as making dogs at home, Hebrew National and Sabretts are what we buy. Nathan's on occasion.

And if you can find it, Batampte new sauerkraut is fantastic.