National Hot Dog Day

Mike Stafford

Member
Messages
2,298
Location
Coastal plain of North Carolina
Today is one of the most venerated food celebration days of the year. At least it is at the Stafford household.
Hot dogs are a delicacy and it is important to prepare them properly. And the proper way is to sue a steamed bun, an all beef bun length hotdog that has been carefully seared so that some of the skin is charred, heavily slathered with mustard, dressed with grated coleslaw and topped with Stafford recipe chili. My mouth waters as I type.

We make our own hot dog chili.

There is not exactly a set recipe but it goes like this.

Take one medium onion and finely chop it. Add the onion to a 2 1/2 quart sauce pan containing roughly one inch of water. Bring the onion and the water to a boil and then simmer.

In a skillet break apart and brown one pound of hot breakfast sausage. We use a local brand. It should be thoroughly browned and broken up. Add the browned sausage grease and all to the simmering onion water. Stir thoroughly.

In the same pan that was used for the sausage break apart and brown 1 1/2 pounds of lean ground beef. Like the sausage it should be broken down as much as possible. When the meat is browned use a slotted spoon to remove the meat from the grease and add it to the sausage and onion mixture. Obviously the point is to not add too much hamburger grease.

To the mixture add 5 or 6 healthy dashes of paprika for flavor and color. Add black pepper if desired but the addition of more pepper is dependent on how hot your sausage is. This is one of these "to suit your own taste" recipes.

Use a hand blender to further break up and mix the meats and onions together. You can use a potato masher if you don't have a hand blender. The objective is to get a fairly fine grind of the meat and onions that can easily be spooned onto the hotdog.

Simmer for at least a couple of hours stirring frequently.

Here is how we assemble our hot dogs Spread open a freshly steamed bun. Insert a browned bun length hot dog. Lay a heavy bead of mustard along both sides of the dog. Add enough grated coleslaw to cover the dog. Top with a generous portion of the chili hot from the pan.

You can thank me later.
 
Bobbie and I agree on one thing about hot dogs: Nathan's!

She sautes the franks in a stainless steel skillet with a little butter.

She places hers on a warmed bun with nothing else.

I'm more adventurous and like mine with mustard and relish; or mustard and sauerkraut; or mustard and chili (my own homemade regular chili); or any other way that suits me at a particular time.

Our greatest hot dog disappointment? The pool room in downtown Thomasville, GA. When we moved here, everyone talked about the place, so we had to try it. We've never been back!!! Problem number one is the franks are boiled (yech); the buns were ho-hum; the chili was bland; other than that, the people were nice. :)
 
Bobbie and I agree on one thing about hot dogs: Nathan's!

She sautes the franks in a stainless steel skillet with a little butter.

She places hers on a warmed bun with nothing else.

I'm more adventurous and like mine with mustard and relish; or mustard and sauerkraut; or mustard and chili (my own homemade regular chili); or any other way that suits me at a particular time.

Our greatest hot dog disappointment? The pool room in downtown Thomasville, GA. When we moved here, everyone talked about the place, so we had to try it. We've never been back!!! Problem number one is the franks are boiled (yech); the buns were ho-hum; the chili was bland; other than that, the people were nice. :)
We have a place in town that has been in business for over 50 years and specializes in hot dogs. I went there shortly after I moved here. And Bill, they had boiled pink hot dogs, crappy slaw and brown gravy that they called chili. The people were nice but in my book they knew nothing about hot dogs. But I found out later that there were lots of people in this area who knew nothing about the proper use of condiments. Some people put mayonnaise on a hot dog. :sick: And even worse some put mayo on a fried bologna sandwich. That is enough to gag a maggot.

Trust me when I say my hot dogs are good enough to eat again and again.
 
and then there's the Sonoran Hotdog....1658354051314.png

The Sonoran hot dog is a style of hot dog that originated in Hermosillo, the capital of the Mexican state of Sonora, in the late 1980s.[1][2] It is popular in Tucson,[3][4][5][6] Phoenix,[7] and elsewhere in southern Arizona.[8] It consists of a hot dog that is wrapped in bacon and grilled, served on a bolillo-style hot dog bun, and topped with pinto beans, onions, tomatoes, and a variety of additional condiments, often including mayonnaise, mustard, and jalapeño
 
And even worse some put mayo on a fried bologna sandwich. That is enough to gag a maggot.

Trust me when I say my hot dogs are good enough to eat again and again.
Not a fan of hot dogs -- too many as a kid growing up... if I do eat one I like lots of spicy chili with a little mustard.
Also not a fan of bologna, fried or otherwise.... 4 years in the navy and midnight meal was always white bread, mustard, a round of bologna and a dill pickle.
Don't know if I've eaten bologna since. and not a real fan of dills either.

LOML and I would rather have Brats grilled on the grill with Mustard, Onions on a good Brat bun. I also like a little sweet relish on mine... LOML won't eat sweet relish.... she prefers Dill.
 
Bobbie and I agree on one thing about hot dogs: Nathan's!...
My favorite is Vienna Beef. There used to be a Chicago-style hot dog joint here in town. I don't really like the classic Chicago dog with tomato slices and onions, but my standard order there was a dog with kraut and cheese sauce on a poppyseed bun, with a side of shoestring cheese fries.
 
The only hot dog allowed in New England is a new England style bun lightly buttered on both sides and grilled to a lightly toasted color. Hot dogs should be Fenway franks or Maple Leaf franks. Mustard and relish. (unless you are from Rhode Island or Connecticut where they eat such anti Yankee things like weiners, Coney Island style, or Nathans franks)
Saturday night growing up was franks and baked beans (either B&M or Friends) and brown bread.
Still do it from time to time. Wonderful memory !!!!!
 
My dad loved hot dogs and he liked them in almost any form. He loved the ones mom made because of her chili and slaw.

But I will always remember the hot dogs we used to get from the Eckerd's drug store at the strip mall a few miles away. This store had a grill and did a booming business. Fairly frequently they would run an ad with a special for hot dogs at 10 cents each. Well, when that ad came out it was time to go and get a sack full of hot dogs all the way. There was 6 of us and dad and I would go to that Eckerd drug store and buy 16 hot dogs for the family.

Then there was the Hot Dog Stand. It was a little restaurant downtown across the street from the court house. This was a narrow little restaurant that had one row of tables along the right wall as you came in. There was a long counter on the left with stools. Behind the counter was the grill. As you walked in you told the man at the cash register what you wanted. The choices were hot dogs, hamburgers, cheeseburgers and hot dogs. :D You could also get a soft drink and a bag of chips. By the time you found a seat your order was ready. You were expected to wolf down your food and get the heck out of there so someone else could take your seat.

I used to think that the skit on SNL about the place where you could get anything you wanted as long as it was a cheeseburger, Pepsi and chips was based on the Hot Dog Stand.

 
Top