Get the pitchforks! There he goes! GET HIM!
Not if they’re kosher.
http://www.hebrewnational.com/pages/kosher/index.jsp
I have to say that, while I’m not a big hot dog fan (as with many anglo type foods I’m at a loss as to why its so popular…sweet Italian sausage now. THATS good IMHO!), a bit of ketchup and spicy mustard does me fine. If its not ‘proper’…well, I’M the one eating it after all. 
I’m a ‘to each his own’ kind of guy…and after seeing how some folks butcher mexican food, I’m not particularly picky about what THEY eat…as long as I can get stuff as I like it.
Folks who have to define whats ‘proper’ about food preparation either have too much time on their hands or are snobs. I’ll let you eat your butchered mexican food as you like it as long as you don’t mess with my ketchup and mustard smeared hot dog!
(BTW, the ONLY good way to have a hot dog is grilled over a mesquite fire…and get the all beef hot dogs from the local carniceria. 
).
-XT
The only way to eat a hot dog is grilled on a bun with cheese, peanut butter, and ketchup, all of which helps disguise the inherent blandness. The only way to eat a good sausage is with a nice spicy mustard. The only way to eat a sausage onna stick is to remove it from the stick and drop it in front of the scruffy mongrel sitting nearby saying “Bark, bark, woof!”.
Well, nobody should put down your tastes in food or beer or fashion or whatever, but there is certainly a difference between a mushy Oscar Meyer (as in, I can’t eat it for pleasure), and a natural casing Vienna Beef (or other) hot dog that has a crisp snap to it. If you don’t mind or notice the difference, well, good for you. Some of us do, and get great pleasure when we do discover that perfect hot dog.
I agree. Let me have sour cream on my tacos, and y’all can have ketchup on your hot dogs.
It’s good fun to “play” at being a food snob (as I was in the frozen pizza thread) but really as long as I can eat what I want, I don’t care what you like.
There is a fine distinction between foodie and food snob, though. A foodie doesn’t put down the taste of others, while a food snob does. At any rate, ketchup doesn’t belong on hot dogs in Chicago. It’s simply a matter of tradition (and it tastes gross, too ;)). It’s fun to rib Chicagoans who put ketchup on their hot dogs, because that’s simply not done in our neck of the woods. I don’t care what you fancy New Yorkers or weirdo Los Angeleans do to your dogs, but if you’re from here, I had better not see that sickly sweet red glop on a hot dog in our fair city.
(Hey, I’m a lifelong Cubs fan from the South Side, so I get a lot of shit for that, too. I think this playful teasing is part of the fun of living in the city.)
What does disturb me, though, is occassionally (maybe 5% of the time) I’ll go to a hot dog stand in Chicago and they’ll give me ketchup on an “everything” dog. Now that’s simply unacceptable. It is understood that “everything on it” does not include ketchup in this town. It doesn’t need to be explicitly stated, and “everything, hold the ketchup” sounds just as absurd like “everything, hold the chocolate syrup” or, perhaps a little less hyperbolically, “everything, hold the mayo.”
Real ketchup is not “sickly sweet red glop”. Homemade from farm fresh tomatoes it’s thinner, spicy, and clean-tasting, not cloying. And it’s great on hot dogs.
According to some hot dog “connoisseurs”, you shouldn’t put ketchup on any hot dog.
That actually does sound good.
My, my…looks like somebody’s been teased about this. 
Personally, I wouldn’t put any sort of commercial ketchup on any sausage product, but that’s just me. Then again, I’ve been to Germany and have seen…gasp…some adult Germans put ketchup on their bratwurst, which to me is more of an offense than ketchup on a hot dog. You know, it takes all types, and all that…
Not really, but people who say this can never tell me the reason. I’m sorry, but “You just don’t do it”, is not an acceptable answer. I blame Clint Eastwood in the first Dirty Harry movie.
Well, the real reason is that ketchup is kiddie food, that’s why.
No, ketchup certainly has a long and glorious history with pork and beef products (look at all the BBQ sauces that are based on it.) There obviously is no real reason not to put ketchup on hot dogs other than tradition. (And, for me and many others, taste. Don’t tell anyone this, but I don’t mind ketchup on a hot dog as long as there’s also mustard there to counterbalance the sweetness.)
I also suspect ketchup wasn’t a popular condiment in the Old Country and hence the sausage condiment traditions were heavily borrowed from there.
It’ll be interesting to note that there are plenty of stands in Chicago where “everything on it” does not mean the entire ship of condiments that a traditional Chicago hot dog carries. Where I grew up, and in many fine hot dog establishments around here, the basic condiments are simply yellow mustard, chopped onion, and relish.
Read here for a lively discussion of hot dogs, Polishes, Italian Beefs, and Chicago pizza.
This summarizes it:
There is such a thing as a good hot dog and a bad hot dog. I love my sausages, and I’m happy I’m in a city where so much variety in encased meats abounds.
Which is why a Chicago dog does have tomato - in slices or diced - on it.
You want to put ketchup on a dog, I’ll just look the other way. But I’m telling you, you’re masking a glorious symphony of flavors working together on a dog prepared the Chicago way.
My goodness! The level of passion triggered by the simple weiner and a mild, sweet tomato sauce is remarkable.
I don’t have any documentation for this, but it seems to me that some folks’ prejudice against hot dogs and ketchup (or catsup or katchup) is ethnic. Sinclair Lewis’s The Jungle forever linked sausage and Polish immigrants, and processed tomato products got tacked onto the Mexican migrant workers who pick the lovely red tomatoes. There’s a RedGold plant near here, and they make an excellent line of salsas, ketchups, and diced tomatoes. Sadly, some folks I have met can’t talk about tomato products without some snide reference to the Mexican pickers.
I find it interesting how fans of so many “low end” foods try to build an “aura” about them in order to make them look less like stuff other people would rather throw out. (E.g., hot dogs, grits, chicken wings, etc.)
It’s all baloney (if you’ll pardon the expression). Ketchup is edible, hot dogs aren’t. You’re doing the dogs a favor putting ketchup on them.
(And don’t get me started on “natural” casings. Egad.)
Baloney.
If you want a sweet symphony of flavors, simply eat the dog. Plain. Maybe with a little mustard. TASTE the meat, for goodness sake!
You’re quite correct. A good hot dog should be able to stand up by itself. Even though I do come from the Chicago-style tradition, if it’s a good frank, I’ll only take mustard and perhaps onions on it. And no matter what you think, ftg, there are very good hot dogs out there. Natural casings are great; all sausages should come in natural casings.
Chicago…wind and wieners. Um, what a city. Eat your wieners however you like I guess. As for the wind, it just blows.
Mmmmmm… Zombie dogs!
As for the topic at hand, as long as you don’t smother it, a little ketchup is fine. I put a smear each of ketchup and mustard and leave it at that.
I’m from Chicago, but I’ve never subscribed to the so-called “Chicago Hot Dog” recipe (per Cecil): “mustard, relish, chopped onion, sliced tomato, kosher pickle spear, optional peppers, and celery salt.” How the hell can you even taste the dog under all that crap?