What LHoD said.
You’d think the smiley and obviously over-the-top post would have given things away, but I knew someone would rise to the bait.
Well, personally I would side with the sentiments of the hero. But, if you choose to side with those of the villain, that’s your boggle.
And, we are getting off-topic.
Really? My mom always taught me to make it up with just ketchup and grated horseradish. I could see how the other stuff would be tasty in it, but I tend to make it in very small quantities (I pretty much only eat it on the very rare fish stick or fake chicken nugget), and I use about equal quantities of ketchup and horseradish to get an extremely radishy mixture. The ketchup is there to slightly soften the horseradish.
Still, next time I’ll try fun stuff like lemon juice, Worcestershire, etc. in it.
Daniel
On subjects this weighty, I sometimes do, because I am always serious and can never imagine anyone discussing these grave matters with even a hint of levity. Mwahahahaha! That’s me siding with the villain with an evil cackle. Totally seriously.
Daniel
So, you are against us then (the Ketchup-Doggers)?
Skybird, Skybird this is Dropkick with a Red-Alpha message in two parts…
Around here, impromptu cocktail sauce starts with chili sauce. Add a bunch of horseradish, a squeeze of lemon or lime juice, a few dashes of pepper sauce and call it good.
I had to look up my cocktail sauce recipe because I couldn’t remember. My base is ketchup :(, but I’ll look at the chili sauce ingredients to see what’s in it (so I don’t duplicate seasoning) and maybe try it.
Alternately, if I’m feeling really froggy, I can make my own ketchup so that it will be less sweet and have bolder flavors.
In a pinch, I’ll make a cocktail sauce out of ketchup and horseradish, but I usually cut it with a some lemon juice and just a dash of Worcestershire sauce. I’d rather start with tomato sauce than ketchup, though. That way I can cut down on the sugar.
Mmmm. Love those sweet pickles. Have you grokked yet that taste is subjective, by the way?
You see, I wasn’t talking about putting ketchup on “fine, expensive ingredients.” I was talking about (a) putting it on an Oscar Meyer-type hotdog, and (b) doing so only if there was no spicy brown mustard available. I’m sorry, Shagnasty, but if you’re serving hotdogs at your house, and the only mustard you have available is that vile yellow stuff, you ain’t a gourmet and I will feel no qualms about using ketchup.
Invite me over and make some proper sausages, and I promise to not only enjoy them without extra condiments, but bring along some proper beer to serve with them. I haven’t brewed any lately, but we have a local brewer that makes some awesome porter. If you’re serving German sausages, I’ll make it a dopplebock.
Because I just can’t get through to the heathens at my son’s high school to get them to serve a real sausage at school events. Maybe you could work on them for me.
Gotta agree with the OP. I had no idea there were hotdog “purists”. It’s a friggin’ hot dog for crying out loud. So apropos of nothing, you know what’s awesome? They have these hotdog carts in L.A. where they serve it with grilled onions, mayo, bacon, and jalapenos. That’s good eatin’.
Only if they’re Chiltecpin jalapenos.
Otherwise, you must never be allowed to see the light of day again.
Or so might sayeth the snobbies.
There seems to be a little bit of Lunch-Identification going on in this thread. (Check out the chart at the bottom of the page.)
Personally I can’t eat spicy, and I love sweet, so ketchup on a hotdog is just right for me, especially at the movies (it’s dark, so you can’t tell what you’re eating anyway).
No offense intended, but such a gourmet might know how to spell “ingredients” correctly. 
And a polite host wouldn’t take offense to the condiments that the guests choose for their hot dogs, nor would they brag about the cost of the meal. Honestly, you think ketchup as a condiment choice involves “lifestyle issues”, or “upbringing”? Sheesh.
It’s just food. Eat it, or don’t. But don’t insult your guests by demanding that they eat what your palate prefers. They’re not you, and they might have different tastes.
Yes, it’s a friggin’ hot dog, but there’s good hot dogs, and there’s bad hot dogs. For me, eating food is a great source of enjoyment and entertainment. Some folks treat food merely as feeding the body machine. Others really enjoy and savor it. Food is how I discover cultures, meet people, explore new parts of town, etc. It all depends on what your relationship to food is.
For me, a good hot dog is usually all beef, always natural casing, needs to be cooked to the point it has a good “snap” from the casing, but not overcooked, is gently spiced but still mainly tastes of meat. I’m not going to complain if I’m served an Oscar Meyer–I don’t like them, but I’ll eat them. It’s just that I will go out of my way for a hot dog I know fulfills all my requirements for a good hot dog. Frankly (heh, heh), I don’t give a shit what anybody puts on their dogs or what they like. But I do have opinions on what belongs on a Chicago hot dog, and ketchup, factually, is absolutely verboten.
I will occasionally rib Chicagoans (espeically suburbanites) for putting ketchup on hot dogs, but it’s all in jest. Nobody really gives a damn. It’s just razzing. I get ribbed all the time for being a Cubs fan because I’m a born-and-raised South Sider. However, I will get pissed if an establishment here puts ketchup on a hot dog with everything, because, here, it has generally been understood “everything” does not include ketchup anymore than it includes chocolate syrup.
I can understand the sentiment where putting ketchup on a broiled fish filet or a grilled steak could been seen as an insult to your fine cooking, but this thread is about hot dogs. Now of course there are good hot dogs and bad hot dogs, but they’re all pretty much the lower end of the gourmet food chain. Hot dogs are things you get at a gaudy diner or a street cart, not something at a fancy restaurant. Getting pretentious about hot dogs is like getting pretentious about potato chips or bubble gum. In the end, it’s all junk food. Putting junk condiments on junk food is perfectly valid, whether you like it or not.
Now when I call hot dogs junk food I don’t put them down. I love hot dogs, with or without ketchup. But I’m always baffled at the ire that putting ketchup on a hot dog brings. What about ketchup on a hamburger? On french fries? Why is it okay on these things, but not a hot dog?
By hot dogs I very specifically mean hot dogs. If we’re talking italian sausage or schnitzel, that’s a completely different story…
Why? Italian sausage is just as much “junk” as a proper all-beef hot dog.
Ah, the Worcestershire! How could I forget that? I was going from memory - we made our own cocktail sauce at a restaurant where I cooked 16 or 17 years ago. We made our 1000 Island dressing with chili sauce as well.
If ketchup on a hot dog is a sin, I’m driving the bus to Hell. As I said in the steak thread, I grew up on Heinz ketchup, and at 50, I’m no kid. I put ketchup, spicy mustard, and sweet relish on mine. Onions also, if I’m not too lazy to chop them. And oh, yeah. I microwave my hot dogs. Yeah, I’m not picky. The point is, I’m fine with what you eat and how you eat it (actually, I don’t give much of a rat’s keister) and I expect the same consideration.
Presumably prospective dinner guests at Chez Shag know of your wife’s and your gourmand background and can predict the type of meal and condiments to be found therein. You need only be as choosy about your guests as you are about your food to prevent the epicurean/hospitality crisis you’re describing.
That is an excellent point. I don’t have to worry about this type of crisis much in real life because because most guests are pre-screened and cordial invitations aren’t handed out lightly. There is one big exception to this. My wife has a much older half sister that is very large and somehow turned retarded even though people swear their weren’t any problems in early childhood development. We once went out to a very nice restaraunt in Cambridge with my wife’s family inclucing the watermelon chest in question. Everyone chose among the ample varierty of fusion cuisine and SIL was clearly struggling with the choices among those offered. Every one seemed to have one or more prohibitive flaws. Finally, she spied pizza on the menu and all was well. The lovely dishes arrived and we all marveled over them, that is, until SIL got her pizza. “What is this?” she asked the waiter and he carefully explained the beautiful meddley that made up her dish. “THIS ISN"T PIZZA” she exclaimed and sent it back. Alas, there were no standard menu options left for her and her son. She was forced to order plain pasta with butter on it as her meal. Poor dear. She isn’t allowed to go to fancy restaurants with us anyone although I haven’t found a good way to keep her away from my house when she is in town. Other than that, pre-screening does take care of the problem and only a few would be so bold and crass anyway.
I swear, some people wouldn’t know a nine piece place setting if you hit them over the head with a water goblet.
Unless I missed something somewhere, Shagnasty never claimed to be a gourmand, and I don’t get the impression that he is. He said he was a gourmet. Those two words mean very different things.
(sorry - mixing those up is a pet peeve of mine)