I forgot to mention earlier that I don’t prepare all meat the same. I like my hamburgers medium-rare, and it really pisses me off when I go into a restaurant and they say, “sorry, health code requires us to cook meat at least medium.” On the flip side, I don’t like rare prime rib, which is the way everyone tells me it’s supposed to be eaten. I want the end cuts–medium well is fine.
It always bothers me when people say that, too. For two reasons:
Don’t tell me how to salt my food. I’ll give it a taste and make my own decision about whether to add salt.
I’d prefer you don’t add salt during cooking at all. Most food has plenty of salt in the raw ingredients, and in my humble opinion, there’s no need to add salt to it.
There’s no such thing as “objectively bad” when it comes to food. You name it, and there’s somebody out there that likes it.
What raw ingredients do you mean? Are you talking about sodium naturally present in beef, vegetables, and the like? I can’t think of a single dish I make that would have enough salt on its own. Most important is salting something like water for dumplings or pasta–you want to get that saltiness in the food you’re cooking. It’s not the same when it’s sprinkled on afterwards. I always err on the side of not salty enough, but if I added no salt whatsoever during cooking, the food would be awfully bland.
I’m very fond of Dr. Pepper, although most Aussies hate it because it apparently tastes like cough syrup.
Yes, yes I would. It’s very nice. try it some time!
Truth be told, I actually prefer Barbeque sauce on my hotdogs to tomato sauce.
Also, if you’re in a hurry, you can try the “Sausage Sizzle” hotdog, which is a grilled sausage served on a piece of buttered white bread, and topped either barbeque or tomato sauce (and maybe mustard), and maybe accompanied by some grilled onions. It’s an Aussie Summer Backyard Barbeque Classic.
Slightly green bananas are better than ripe bananas. Slightly green mangoes are better than ripe mangoes. Very green mangoes are better than slightly green mangoes.
If your steak or burger is too “disgustingly” raw and pink for you, I’ll eat it. Om nom nom nom rare meat. The hell with that “medium rare” compromise shit.
And while I generally prefer scrambled and poached eggs on the dry and firm side, this thread is somehow making me hungry for the slightly moist and runny kind. Mmm, moist scrambled eggs or oozy egg yolk on slightly soggy dense rye toast.
Some nutballs say that about it here, too. I have heard, third or fourth hand, that it’s secret ingredient is raspberry flavoring. Since you’ve had it, do you feel the urge to add raspberry cordial to it?
I always thought the wang to it came from prune juice.:dubious:
I once took a gourmet cooking class, and when it was time to learn desserts, we made cherries jubilee and bananas foster. Our instructor was rather deep in his cups throughout the lessons earlier in the week, but this final night was a doozy. He used 151 dark rum with the cherries, and didn’t burn very much of the alcohol off; I much prefer a milder Jamaican type of rum in mine, and definitely don’t need all that ethanol in sweets. The bananas foster’s secret ingredient was applejack or concentrated hard cider. Somehow booze and sweets just don’t seem to be the combination I like to indulge in.
I can still remember a vending machine cup of Dr. Pepper I had about 9 years ago, because I thought, “THAT’S what it’s really supposed to be like.” You could really taste the plum and vanilla. I don’t know what this machine was doing differently, but it was the last time I’ve seen a “squirt into a paper cup” vending machine.
But…but now you’ve eaten three crackers with subpar cheese to cracker ratios. Sure, you get one cracker with extra cheese, but to do that, you’ve suffered through THREE crackers with less cheese. Madness, I tell you. Now if you have some poor schlep who was eating those three crackers and passing on the fourth to you, then I can see your point. Otherwise it’s just self deprevation.
tomato sauce is ketchup right? Just wondering in case it’s something new and different for me to try.
This is just my two cents, but I feel that context is very important in understanding the hatred for ketchup on hot dogs. Obviously Chicago is historically the epicenter of the anti-ketchup mantra, and in my opinion this is because ketchup has absolutely no place on a Chicago-style hot dog. I personally believe that Cecil has slightly missed the mark on this one; it isn’t about ketchup overwhelming the flavor of the hot dog itself – rather we must understand that the hot dog --the actual frankfurter, that is --is merely a small player in a larger ensemble. A proper Chicago hot dog is topped with mustard, onions, pickle relish, sport peppers, sliced tomatoes, celery salt, and an entire dill pickle spear. Each of these components is equally important as the last. So it’s not that ketchup (its vile taste aside) clashes with the Vienna frank, but rather that its strong flavor interrupts the delicate balance inherent in the sandwich, like an overeager bit-part actor ruining a play by hamming it up and waving to his parents in the audience.
Incidentally, this is also why proper mustard doesn’t belong on a hot dog. The cheap yellow stuff is essential because it knows its place, and doesn’t take over the flavor.
To summarize, a Chicago hot dog is a delicate and balanced ecosystem, and when you add ketchup, you’re killing the rainforest.
As Chicagoans recognize their hot dog as the apex of hot dog preparation, it’s only natural that they would object to ketchup on any other sort of hot dog reflexively.
For the record, the Dr. Pepper website states explicitly that it does not contain plum/prune juice, although they won’t commit to what is in it. www.drpepper.com, look under “FAQ”.
Well, I wouldn’t have 4 of those things on almost anything I eat, and some never ever. So I guess we’ll all have to live with the idea that I’m not making a proper Chicago hot dog.
It’s not quite the same… Ketchup is thicker and isn’t as sweet as tomato sauce but for all intents and purposes it’s near enough to the same thing.
I can’t say I’ve tried that, but Dr. Pepper is only available in cans here (and usually from imported confectionery places) so it’s not usually decanted into a glass (allowing for the addition of raspberry cordial) before being drunk. I’ll try it next time I get some Dr. Pepper, though… could be an interesting combination.
And those are the only four that are really standard from hot dog stands you get in Chicago and its environs (although sport peppers are always optional.) In my neighborhood and nearby neighborhoods, for instance, tomatoes are pretty much never seen. Celery salt is usually omitted. A pickle spear is pretty common, although I eat it on separately. Poppy seed buns are in the minority.
The simplest reason for ketchup not going on hot dogs is the Old World immigrants who were serving up these sausages never had a tradition of putting ketchup on hot dogs. Mustard has pretty much always been the condiment of choice for wurst. While Chicagoans are perhaps best known for the “no ketchup on hot dogs” rule, I don’t think it’s limited to our area. Even the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council says: “Don’t…
Use ketchup on your hot dog after the age of 18. Mustard, relish, onions, cheese and chili are acceptable.” They obviously are not run by Chicagoans, as the last two would be frowned upon by local traditionalists.
