# Just What is so Disgusting about Hot Dogs? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** food-cooking\ **Created:** [November 27, 2023, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-what-is-so-disgusting-about-hot-dogs/993781 "2023-11-27T18:40:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2023, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-what-is-so-disgusting-about-hot-dogs/993781/101 "2023-11-29T02:56:32Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Old style ketchup from 50 years ago that wasn’t nearly so sweet would be far superior. If you could find such. @Chefguy in the thread I linked indicated a fondness for this option: > **[Portland Organic Ketchup](https://portlandiafoods.com/products/portlandia-ketchup)** > > Classic ketchup, reimagined! Our signature Organic Ketchup is delectably smooth, packed with real tomato flavor and made with only the finest ingredients. Low on salt/sugar and with no high-fructose corn syrup or other additives.... As a good option in stark contrast to most commercial ketchup options. And if you can’t accept a recommendation from someone called **Chefguy** , well, there is no pleasing you. 🤣 ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2023, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-what-is-so-disgusting-about-hot-dogs/993781/102 "2023-11-29T04:27:04Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > The truth is simple: our taste buds and yours are different. It’s the defining the difference as one of right v. wrong that’s the problem. Just like it is on race, or sexual orientation, or gender identity. Sure. Most of this is said just in fun and I think you’re taking it a bit too seriously. The semi-serious part is that I do indeed avoid ketchup with hot dogs, but always have it with cheeseburgers. Also that, until recently, the anti-ketchup brigade was the only one providing any real reasons for their choice. > [@LSLGuy](#): > > Mayo must never touch hot food or it too becomes inedible boring on nauseating. Although we disagree on some points, obviously great minds agree on the important ones like this one. Mayo is meant to be served refrigerator-cold, and if I said anything to make you think otherwise, it was sloppy wording on my part. I said “_I would no more put ketchup on a hot dog than on a cold cut sub or sandwich. Lettuce, tomato, and mayo, absolutely. For certain sliced meats, maybe a light touch of Dijon. Ketchup? Never!_” Which was meant to say that I would put lettuce, tomato, and mayo on most subs or sandwiches, but certainly not on a hot dog. And as you say, mayo never goes on anything warm. I believe the last part of your quote there was probably supposed to be “… becomes inedible **bordering** on nauseating”. Indeed. Even much tangier tartar sauce should be kept in a separate serving container or at least away from the fish when serving fish & chips; you want it kept cold because of the mayonnaise base. . ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2023, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-what-is-so-disgusting-about-hot-dogs/993781/103 "2023-11-29T04:57:35Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > And as you say, mayo never goes on anything warm. … [Snip.] In most cases, I’d agree with you. Mayo should never go on a burger, or be used as a dip for fries, both of which are served hot. Rather, mayo belongs on a cold cut deli sandwich, or a cold veggie platter, or something similar, as long as it’s cold. But I’ll make an exception for a BLT sandwich. The hot bacon and toast, and the cold lettuce and tomato work together, and they work even better with mayo. Preferably on the tomato side of the sandwich, but beggars cannot always be choosers. No matter how my BLT is served at the diner, it had better have mayo somewhere in it. ---
**Author:** ![Kron](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kron/32/12444_2.png) [@Kron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kron)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2023, 4:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-what-is-so-disgusting-about-hot-dogs/993781/104 "2023-11-29T04:58:51Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > My complaint is that raw onions overpower all the other flavors. > > Drop a few onion chips into a mixed green salad and the whole thing, and the rest of your meal, tastes like raw onions and nearly nothing else. As does the next hour until you get home & brush your teeth. > > Drop a few raw onion chips into insanely cayenned, melt-your-spoon spicy chili (you know, the _good_ kind), and the whole shebang tastes of onions, not chili or cayenne, until you brush your teeth, etc. > > Grilled onions are great on burgers or steaks or pizza. Cooked onions as an ingredient in stews & soups, etc., are mandatory. A smidgen of scallions or green / garden onions in a salad are OK. > > But your basic raw white, or worse yet, red onions means the dish goes back to the chef to try again. Quoted for truth. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2023, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-what-is-so-disgusting-about-hot-dogs/993781/105 "2023-11-29T05:04:12Z")
I hate mayo. It’s greasy and cloying and boring. But…i agree that a smidgen of mayo improves a BLT. As for hot dog condiments. Gee, that’s really a matter of taste. Yellow mustard is disgusting and ruins anything it touches, so of course i don’t put it on my food. But i don’t judge other people who choose to use the stuff. I like the contrast of sweet pickle relish with hot dogs, personally, even though i don’t like sweet pickle relish with anything else. And i recently tried sliding some dill pickle chips into the bun, since i couldn’t get relish, and it worked pretty well. But if the only options are mustard and ketchup, I’ll either eat the dog dry, or add ketchup. Depends on the flavor of the plain hotdog which I’ll do. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2023, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-what-is-so-disgusting-about-hot-dogs/993781/106 "2023-11-29T05:07:20Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > In most cases, I’d agree with you. Mayo should never go on a burger, or be used as a dip for fries, both of which are served hot. Rather, mayo belongs on a cold cut deli sandwich, or a cold veggie platter, or something similar, as long as it’s cold. > > But I’ll make an exception for a BLT sandwich. We agree on the BLT It is the only thing I use mayo for now. But I love BLTs, and i often skip the L. Mayo is not good for anything else. True, I like 1000 island, which does have mayo , but that’s different. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2023, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-what-is-so-disgusting-about-hot-dogs/993781/107 "2023-11-29T05:32:30Z")
Some years back, slaughterhouse expert Temple Grandin, who is also autistic, spoke in my town, and I went to this event. At the time, “pink slime” was a big thing in the news, and someone in the Q&A asked her about it. She replied that the process leads to about 15 pounds of usable product (not necessarily edible) being extracted from each beef carcass, and she’s all for it just for that reason. I mix a fish oil capsule in a jar of chicken baby food, and give about a teaspoonful of this to my cat every day as a treat/hairball preventive. That stuff is smoother than any hot dog. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2023, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-what-is-so-disgusting-about-hot-dogs/993781/108 "2023-11-29T07:25:36Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > But I’ll make an exception for a BLT sandwich. The hot bacon and toast, and the cold lettuce and tomato work together, and they work even better with mayo. Absolutely. My general rule of thumb is that if a sandwich would benefit from lettuce and tomato, then it would benefit from mayo, a BLT being a prime example. I’ve never noticed the mayo getting warm. Another example would be one of my specialties, sliced grilled chicken breast on a toasted bun with bacon, lettuce, and tomato. For that particular one Caesar salad dressing is an option, but I usually use mayo. But pup, I hear you saying, didn’t you say you put lettuce and tomato on burgers? Doesn’t that invite mayo there, too? No, I did not say that. I said I put tomato on burgers, along with chopped white onion, cheese, ketchup, and one or two slices of Strub’s full-sour dill pickle. No lettuce. No mayo. No mustard. Made on the grill with premium fresh patties and premium jumbo buns, I wouldn’t change my burger recipe for the world! I hope folks aren’t taking these strictures too seriously. It’s all in fun, although those are indeed my preferences. I always have mayo at the ready when coming home with those nice sandwiches from the local supermarket deli – turkey sub, assorted sub, tuna salad on white, club sandwich, or whatever else. They sometimes add a little but it’s never enough. The sandwiches always have lettuce and usually tomato, but if not, I’ll add a few slices. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2023, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-what-is-so-disgusting-about-hot-dogs/993781/109 "2023-11-29T07:43:34Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > Absolutely. My general rule of thumb is that if a sandwich would benefit from lettuce and tomato, then it would benefit from mayo, a BLT being a prime example. I’ve never noticed the mayo getting warm. Eat it fast enough, and the mayo will never get warm. I love BLTs! Breakfast of champions. > [@wolfpup](#): > > But pup, I hear you saying, didn’t you say you put lettuce and tomato on burgers? Doesn’t that invite mayo there, too? No, I did not say that. I said I put tomato on burgers, along with chopped white onion, cheese, ketchup, and one or two slices of Strub’s full-sour dill pickle. No lettuce. No mayo. No mustard. Made on the grill with premium fresh patties and premium jumbo buns, I wouldn’t change my burger recipe for the world! You did not say such a thing, but Strub’s full-sour pickles! Oh my gosh, the only pickles that can compare are the ones I had in a NYC Jewish deli back 40+ years ago. In third place are the ones that Harvey’s (you know the place I’m talking about) uses. Keep us informed as to when you’re hosting a backyard cookout next summer. You might get a lot of SDMB guests. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2023, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-what-is-so-disgusting-about-hot-dogs/993781/110 "2023-11-29T07:53:11Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > My complaint is that raw onions overpower all the other flavors. > > Drop a few onion chips into a mixed green salad and the whole thing, and the rest of your meal, tastes like raw onions and nearly nothing else. As does the next hour until you get home & brush your teeth. > > Drop a few raw onion chips into insanely cayenned, melt-your-spoon spicy chili (you know, the _good_ kind), and the whole shebang tastes of onions, not chili or cayenne, until you brush your teeth, etc. I could say the same thing… except about pickles. I like pickles a lot, but put them into anything and they’ll make it taste like pickles and nothing else. If someone gives me a hamburger with pickles, I’ll take them out, eat them, then take a long drink to wash my mouth thoroughly and eat the burger. Raw onion, OTOH, I’m cool with. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2023, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-what-is-so-disgusting-about-hot-dogs/993781/111 "2023-11-29T13:29:56Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > and if I said anything to make you think otherwise, it was sloppy wording on my part. Nothing of the kind, dear pup. Worry not your majestic and furry head. I was merely rattling off the list of common condiments and offering my humorously (?) over-the-top opinions of each. > [@silenus](#): > > But _ketchup_? At least up your game to a decent BBQ sauce. Being diabetic, anything with tastable sweetness is Off My List. BBQ sauce is something I can now only admire from afar. But back in the day it was a nice addition to hotdogs. > [@ParallelLines](#): > > As a good option in stark contrast to most commercial ketchup options. > > And if you can’t accept a recommendation from someone called **Chefguy** , well, there is no pleasing you. I have indeed ordered and enjoyed Portlandia off @Chefguy’s recommendation. They only sell it in a 3-pack, which is a LOT of ketchup for my consumption rate. My go-to ketchup is Trader Joe’s “Organic Ketchup”. It’s 90% as good as Portlandia and far more convenient to buy. I don’t much care about the “organic” part, but it has barely a third the sweetness of your standard Hunts / Heinz, HFCS-encrusted glop. I can actually eat a useful serving of it without blowing my blood sugar all to hell. ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2023, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-what-is-so-disgusting-about-hot-dogs/993781/112 "2023-11-29T13:54:20Z")
I think it was nothing more than a meme that began decades ago that took on a life of its own. It may have even been a comedian who started it off, along the lines of, _“they put every part of a pig into hotdogs, including the squeal.”_ Hotdogs being cheap and ubiquitous in society, the meme gained traction and false legitimacy. If the meme was about a less common food, like pate foie gras, it would have been forgotten. ---
**Author:** ![Two\_Many\_Cats2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/779978/32.png) [@Two\_Many\_Cats2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_Many_Cats2)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2023, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-what-is-so-disgusting-about-hot-dogs/993781/113 "2023-11-29T14:42:27Z")
In another thread long ago, I described my theory that no ketchup on hot dogs in Chicago was a pop culture joke that somehow took on a life of its own as a kitschy fact people could argue pleasantly about. I grew up in the Seventies in Chicago, and I ate plenty of hot dogs in plenty of places with just ketchup and mustard, and it never raised so much as an eyebrow back then. Really, it was never a thing. A throwaway line in a Clint Eastwood movie started it in a scene where Clint berates someone about putting ketchup on a hot dog. That shoved the no ketchup rule into the mainstream consciousness. I don’t know if it was _Dirty Harry_, or if the movie was set in Chicago or what. I don’t follow Clint Eastwood. But anyway, that’s when the whole ketchup controversy began. ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2023, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-what-is-so-disgusting-about-hot-dogs/993781/114 "2023-11-29T15:14:43Z")
I relish all types of hotdogs, including Chicago-style, Coney Island-style, Boston-style, Seattle-style, Kansas City-style, Atlanta-style, Detroit-style, Texas-style, and doggone it, even Hawaiian-style. I eat them with gusto with my head held high. And sometimes I just want a simple hotdog with ketchup. But, those I eat secretly, in shame—afraid the wiener police will arrest me and throw me in the dog pound. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2023, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-what-is-so-disgusting-about-hot-dogs/993781/115 "2023-11-29T16:10:51Z")
Sudden Impact. Ketchup on a hotdog is one of the only things that can disgust Harry. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/i2NydPZ1DVk/maxresdefault.jpg "Dirty Harry: Sudden Impact - Hot Dog Scene (1080p)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2NydPZ1DVk) ---
**Author:** ![Cardigan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardigan/32/187_2.png) [@Cardigan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardigan)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2023, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-what-is-so-disgusting-about-hot-dogs/993781/116 "2023-11-29T16:20:03Z")
I wonder if any of hot dogs’ bad rep goes back over a century to Upton Sinclair’s novel ‘The Jungle’ where he wrote about the appalling sanitation and labor practices in the meat packing industry. Stories about workers falling into vats of meat that end up getting ground into hot dogs or sausages sold to consumers may continue to influence our attitudes even today towards ground meat products. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2023, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-what-is-so-disgusting-about-hot-dogs/993781/117 "2023-11-29T16:29:09Z")
There used to be a dedicated hotdog shop in town, and they had all the traditional varieties and toppings. They had one weird one though called the Elvis dog, with banana slices, peanut butter, whipped cream and a chocolate drizzle. The owner told me once he put it on the menu as a gag, never expecting people to actually order it. After a while he said he couldn’t afford to run out of bananas. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2023, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-what-is-so-disgusting-about-hot-dogs/993781/118 "2023-11-29T17:31:44Z")
I’ll put in a pitch once again for the following: grilled hot dog topped with chunky peanut butter and sriracha. Smoky, fatty, sweet, crunchy and spicy all in one. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2023, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-what-is-so-disgusting-about-hot-dogs/993781/119 "2023-11-30T01:27:44Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > Also that, until recently, the anti-ketchup brigade was the only one providing any real reasons for their choice. What _reasons_ do you need to like a particular food combination? There’s normally no need to justify that. You just _like_ something, that’s all. It’s you folks that realized you need to come up with reasons, otherwise it just comes across as dumping on someone else’s taste for no reason at all. Which is what it is anyway. Saying umami on a hot dog is a wrong flavor combination is like claiming that some color clashes with beige. Just complete bullshit. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2023, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-what-is-so-disgusting-about-hot-dogs/993781/120 "2023-12-01T02:13:32Z")
I’m happy to put ketchup on a hot dog, and Chicago hot dogs suck as much as an overloaded pizza. There’s just so much shit on a Chicago dog that you don’t taste the meat. To paraphrase the great Alton Brown, “toppings do not a great hot dog make.” Yeah, that German word order is his, not mine. Except… I won’t put ketchup on a Coney. A real Coney, from a Coney Island. A Michigan Coney from a Michigan Coney Island, Detroit style, not that fake shit from the so-called “Coney Island” in Brooklyn. People don’t stop to consider it, but Coney sauce is made from beef heart. It’s just muscle meat, so you can make your own at home with supermarket ingredients, but if you’re eating an authentic Coney, you’re eating heart. And it’s wonderful. Diced white onion – never yellow – and a thin line of yellow mustard – not Dijon etc. – and you’re in heaven. Well, if you’re okay with heaven being Detroit. God forbid people start question what “natural casing” means on a hot dog. Hint: it’s not from a hot dog casing tree. All y’all have Nathans, but we have Michigan laws that limit some of the things you can put into a wiener sold in Michigan. Our most awesome brands are Dearborn, Alex and Hornung, Koegel, and Kowalski. Not sure of availability outside Michigan. * * * You know where I’m afraid of buying hot dogs? Freaking Mexico. I can’t seem to find 100% beef, and the package ingredients always say “ave” which generically just means “bird” – not chicken, not turkey, not pheasant – for all I know Mexican hot dogs are why I don’t see a lot of pigeons in the Zocalo. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-what-is-so-disgusting-about-hot-dogs/993781.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/just-what-is-so-disgusting-about-hot-dogs/993781.md?page=7)