Hot Dog Lore
Posted
Thu, 04/03/03
My intention was to keep plugging away on Swedish Koket all afternoon, but I became sidetracked while doing a bit of research about hot dogs this morning. The July feature at Food Fare is scheduled to include an essay about the history and "facts" of hot dogs. I only meant to gather a bit of material, but got carried away. I wrote half the essay, as well as finding some lovely wiener graphics to go with the piece.
July is National Hot Dog Month, so I decided the essay would be timely for the summer update at Food Fare. One of the "hot dog" sources I found claims seven billion hot dogs will be consumed by Americans between Memorial Day and Labor Day, and that one person will eat an average of sixty hot dogs each year. That's a lot of frankfurters...
Frankfurter content is regulated by law in the USA, using general guidelines:
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Beef (contains only beef with no soybean or dry milk fillers).
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Kosher (all-beef, seasoned with garlic).
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Meat (a mix of pork and beef, no fillers).
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Frankfurter (can contain a percent of fillers made from a combination of meats).
There are also many different ways to prepare hot dogs (I like mine plain and simple, no condiments), and various "types." Some of them are:
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Baltimore Frizzled (split and deep fried).
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Chicago Dogs (with yellow mustard, dark green relish, chopped raw onions, tomato slices, celery salt and a poppy-seed bun).
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Chili Dogs (cooked hot dogs smothered with chili and onions).
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Coney Island Dogs (topped with a spicy meat mixture).
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Corn Dogs (hot dogs on a stick dipped in corn batter and deep fried).
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Kansas City Dogs (with sauerkraut and melted Swiss cheese on a sesame seed bun).
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Lillies (cocktail-sized wieners served with a sauce).
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Montreal Hot Dogs (also known as Steamies; served with coleslaw, mustard & onions).
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New York City Dogs (with steamed onions and a pale yellow mustard sauce).
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Pigs-in-a-Blanket (wrapped in pastry and baked).
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Southern Slaw Dogs (with coleslaw).
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Tex-Mex Dogs (with salsa, Monterey Jack cheese and chopped jalapenos).
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Vienna Sausage (canned mini-hot dogs in a flavored juice).
I also gathered data about how hot dogs are actually processed. I plan on including hot dog trivia, recipes and links with the essay as well. Speaking of recipes, try the hot dog sauce below:
Hot Dog Sauce
1 TBS butter (or salad oil)
Cook the butter and grated onion in a pot until the onion is tender. Add the rest of the ingredients, mixing well. Simmer on low heat until hot; use on hot dogs. Store unused portions in a re-sealable container in the refrigerator. The sauce will keep for up to one month.
Enough about the big dogs! For more, read Hot Diggity Dog.
Tags: Dips, Dressings & Sauces; Food Articles
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