Ketchup on a Hot Dog is an Abomination. Period.
Ask Clint Eastwood.
This is an oft overlooked and underrated condiment choice for hot dogs. One of the things I like about getting a hot dog at Five Guys is that I can get mayo on it without anyone treating me like a freak. To my face.
The bit I can’t understand: The region of the world where ketchup is considered such an abomination is also the same region where they habitually bury their dogs under so much salad that you can’t even find the meat. I mean, I could understand a hot dog purist, who liked them plain, or with only one or two specific condiments. But if you’re dumping the entire garden on it, what difference does one more topping make?
Chicagoan reporting in, and I am here to state that the entire “no ketchup on hot dogs” taboo is a running joke that got out of hand.
Growing up, I ate at dozens of Chicago hot dog stands, and had ordered hot dogs with just ketchup and mustard, and nobody batted an eye. It wasn’t until years later, sometime in the late eighties I think, that this culinary quirk sprang into being.
The now defunct Harry’s Hot Dogs on Franklin and Randolph was a Chicago institution for over fifty years, and a hot dog there with everything automatically included ketchup. If you didn’t want ketchup, you had to tell them to leave it off. They weren’t the only place in town doing that.
If you want ketchup, ask for it.
They don’t dump sugar on it.
Also, purist is not minimalist.
When I was little, I used to love hot dogs slathered with Cheez-Whiz and Kraft Sandwich spread. Then when I was eight or so, I had two for lunch with a bowl of cream of mushroom soup, and everything came back up in about ten minutes. I remember running out of the diner and puking my guts out in the parking lot. Don’t think I’ve had hot dogs like that since.
For plain (i.e., jumbo all-beef ball park) hot dogs, I like ketchup and green relish, though I can be persuaded to add a dash of mustard or two.
For chili cheese dogs, French’s mustard and chopped raw onion.
For pronto pups, just French’s mustard, please.
The best hot dogs in the world, IMHO, are Chicago-style, made with Vienna franks. Kosher dogs that snap when you bite them waaaay outclass your average supermarket variety. :o
I’ve had many a hot dog at the original Coney Island Nathan’s, where dogs are prepared with “da woiks.” This includes ketchup.
The dog itself is good, too. All beef, nice smoky flavor, has that snap when you bite into it. Much better than the Wienerschnitzel variety.
You know, this sounds about right to me. I lived in the Chicago area in the mid-80s, and don’t remember there being any issue with putting ketchup on hot dogs at the time.
I think my present antipathy to putting ketchup on hot dogs originates from Cecil’s 1991 column that I linked to above. It evidently made quite an impression on me. 
I like ketchup on MY hot dogs and I don’t give a shit who has a problem with it. Ketchup, mustard and onions, sometimes cheese.
Dammit, now I want a hot dog.
shudder
Why would anyone desecrate fries by putting anything other than salt on them?
You’ve never had cheese fries? (There’s a restaurant here in Pittsburgh that makes fries with cheddar, provolone and bacon bits. It’s so freaking bad for you, but so good)
I was never a fan of “old-fashioned” (with thick skin) hot dogs.
As for chili cheese dogs with mustard…so you’re the guy that talked Rally’s/Checkers into making them that way. In my mind (and Wienerschnitzel’s), a “chili cheese dog” is just that - a hot dog with just chili and cheese.
Hot dog snobs deserve to be laughed at by everybody.
Really good French fries are best with nothing but salt and optionally some malt vinegar. But typical French fries, such as one might get from most fast-food places, are best with ketchup. And chili cheese fries, poutine, etc. are in a category all their own.
When I lived in Czechoslovakia, Friday evenings were for going to The Black Stallion and having dark beer and French fries with tartar sauce. Yum-O! :o
I always thought that was the norm, in the US that is.
Oh, yeah! There are few foods that onions don’t improve.
Hot dogs with ketchup and finely diced onions. Yum!
Never mustard.
The hotdog is no sandwich, sir. How dare you.
I like ketchup on the cheap ones that taste like cheap bologna because that’s what I put on bologna. Folks what ain’t from 'round these parts, or other parts with a strong sausage-making tradition, may not know what a GOOD frankfurter tastes like and can be forgiven their tastes.