A Hebrew National is a nice dog, but give me a Nathan’s if possible. I’m a former New Yorker so I’m not as familiar with Chicago dogs, are there any packaged brands I could get in LA that might be good? Dodger Dogs, by the way, are bad.
I’m surprised there’s so little mention of mustard. If I’m going to go for a condiment, it’s always mustard, then sometimes chopped onions, and I’ll do chopped jalapenos too; the mustard MUST be yellow, not dijon or anything like that, not for a hot dog anyway. I am curious about “stadium” mustard though, which I’ve never gotten around to trying.
However, I do agree that a good dog should not need condiments, though the condiments can enhance the pleasure.
Finally, how come menudo, tongue, fried water bugs, blood pudding and even sushi are delightful foreign delicacies but cow anus is gross? Think of it as American haggis. or something.
I like Heinz ketchup on my Nathan’s hot dogs, and I don’t care if it’s ‘wrong’. The Kiddo likes ketchup on his dogs too, and I’m not going to try and stop him. If at some point he decides to take after his mom and switch to mustard, that’s fine by me too.
Interestingly, when I’m at the ballpark I put mustard *and *ketchup on my hot dogs, but never at home. And no ketchup on and non-hotdog sausages; I eat those with mustard, or plain if they have enough flavor of their own.
I’ve never cared for ketchup on hot dogs myself, but i’ve never cared much for ketchup in general.
I was “converted” to the Chicago way of dressing hot dogs after reading about it on this board years ago. I’ve gone so far as to hunt down a local wholesaler that sells neon relish so I could make my own at home.
First let me praise Hebrew National, the only good hot dog in the supermarket - except that, in keeping with a trend to deny me that which I love, the supermarkets in California have mostly discontinued the Bockwurst, which was by far the best.
Now, in re: Ketchup. I was a ketchup cook for Heinz in The Before Time, and its true that ketchup has a surprising amount of sugar in it – as Cecil says, to take the edge off the acidic tomato. (The tomato is so acidic that if you dropped a sugar knife into the boiling ketchup, it would turn up later as just a wooden handle, the steel having been distintegrated by the acid.)
Anyway, each pot would start with 80 gallons of tomato pulp, into which we would put 10 gallons of what we were told was ‘90%’ vinegar (it would burn the skin off your hands), a 100-pound bag of sugar (regular granulated sugar, like you buy in the store), five pounds of ground red peppers, and 100ccs of oil-of-cloves concentrate (so strong it was delivered by a gloved worker using a horse syringe). We’d boil that down to 60 gallons of ketchup.
So that’s a LOT of vinegar and a LOT of sugar. I now realize ketchup is America’s sweet-and-sour sauce.
Me, I never cared for it, and cared much less after a summer of 12-hour days, 7 days a week, reeking of ketchup. This was in the oldest Heinz plant in the country, in Salem NJ, and I tell you it was one of those hell jobs…
The proper pigsicle must have a thick coat of hot chili, smothered in finely chopped onions with cheese on top. It must be too messy to be eaten without a fork.
My current favorite is from a food cart in my neighborhood called “Meaner Wiener”. It’s a dog made with jalapenos, the bun is lightly toasted, and the condiment is pico de gallo with chopped avocado, and sour cream mixed with chipotle. It’s outstanding.
And ketchup, by the way, is only fit for light use on meatloaf or possibly a burger. Unless you like sugary tomatoes on your potatoes.
Nonsense. Street foods are some of the most essential components of local flavor. Can one really say one has been to Chicago if one never had a hot dog from a street vendor (or, heck, a deep dish pizza)?
Powers &8^]
Speaking of mustard, I find Grey Poupon to be so salty as to be inedible. Does an ‘authentic’ (realizing the American GP is rather far removed from it’s French roots) Dijon style mustard have to be so salty?
I note Emeril’s version is quite palatable, but I also hold no illusion regarding Emeril himself making it in a saucepan in small batches in his third floor walk-up kitchen in NYC)
True confession:
I suspect the sugar content of honey mustard would preclude it’s legitimate use on an authentic Hebrew National dog, but I must confess, I feel tempted . . .
