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dragonlady7via http://ift.tt/1Xi7oXb:
copperbadge:
tehnakki:
copperbadge:
verdantnurse reblogged your photo:dorkilybeautiful:
railroadsoftware:
…
Curious as to how Americans do keep their hotdogs? Because mine are only ever in a can/jar of brine.
Tinned meat is considered extremely low-class in the US, like “barely a step above cat food” low class, culturally speaking (tuna is a possible exception but even then, tinned tuna has a not-great reputation). And while hot dogs are also considered a sort of low-class food, they’re also something everyone eats at barbecues and ballparks and such, they’re a very American Identity food, so they couldn’t possibly be sold in tins – nobody would buy a tinned hot dog if they had any other options.
In America usually hot dogs are sold in clear shrink-wrapped packages, so you can see what you’re getting (similar to why ketchup comes in clear bottles) but also because that puts them on a higher-class level, like deli meat. They are still packed in a bit of brine, just enough to keep them moist in the package, but it’s not a selling point.
My personal favourite hot dogs are Vienna Beef, made in Chicago (I’ve toured their factory):
But I also like Hebrew National because it makes me feel good to know a Rabbi has health-checked my hot dogs. But they’re kind of on the pricey side so I usually go with Vienna Beef.
The back side of the package is clear so you can see your hot dogs.
There’s also Ball Park hot dogs, which swell up when heated, leading them to use this as a selling point: their motto for years was “They plump when you cook ‘em!” You can see that they also have a printed logo on the front, clear packaging on the back:
Below the Ball Parks in that last image you can see Oscar Meyer hot dogs, which were the frank of choice in America from the 50s through the 80s, but which are now looked at as a bit low-tier, they’re what you buy if you can’t afford Ball Park or some other slightly higher-level brand. Or if you just like Oscar Meyer hot dogs. I’m not saying they ARE the worst, I’m just saying everyone THINKS they are.
(They definitely are the worst. Vienna Beef 4 lyfe.)
So basically to sum up, the American Hot Dog is deeply tied into the class system that nobody in America wants to admit exists, and frequently you can tell a person’s social status (if you’re into that) by what kind of hot dog they choose. But almost all hot dogs come in clear shrink-wrap packaging to prove that they’re attractive and edible and not low-class like tinned meat.
I love that you made this incredibly indepth hot dog post after our hot dog discussions last week =) Of course, you posted it while I was on an island without internet so I am now weighing in SHAMEFUL LATE.
I can’t believe you didn’t even MENTION the 4th of July and Baseball. I would say both of those culture events play a huge part in the hot dog being THE American meat.
And let’s be real, if we’re arguing best hotdog you can get in the states. Costco hotdog wins hands down every single time. But for off the shelf, no entrance fee hotdogs it’s all about the Ballpark baby!
(BALLPARKS 4 LYFE! I’m gonna bring so many back with me next week!!!!!)
Costco hot dogs ARE the best oh my god.
We have Costcos in Chicago and I’ve got a membership but it’s hard to get to so I don’t go often, I find driving a zipcar to be VERY STRESSFUL, and Mum was like “What do you want to do while we’re in Texas, are there any special foods you want” and I was like CAN WE GO TO COSTCO AND GET A COSTCO HOT DOG.
$1.50 for a giant hot dog that comes plain so you can put exactly the toppings you want on it PLUS a bottomless soda fountain beverage. And they have fancy mustard for them at the dispensers! They are The Best.
I mentioned baseball! I said we eat them at ballparks! I did not mention holidays though, that’s true. They are cheap and thus plentiful and easy to cook over a fire, just what Americans want.
Oh man though, the pinnacle of hot dogs in the US is, I believe in Western NY. I used to work at the airport and the TSA screeners there are so used to small-scale exports of only-regionally-available hot dogs that they can tell on the baggage scans whether that weird giant suspicious lump is Sahlen’s or Zweigel’s. (And, from that, whether the owner of the luggage is from Buffalo or Rochester.)
Sahlen’s reigns supreme in Buffalo, and is offered at most of the local restaurants– there are no less than four major local hog dog chains by my count (Ted’s, Louie’s Texas Red Hots, the unrelated Louie’s Original [putative inventor of the footlong], and oh never mind, Theodore’s is gone, with tax issues and a fascinating public Facebook meltdown), not including seasonally-open standbys like Old Man River (right on the Niagara River near where the Erie Canal comes in) and smaller one-off joints left and right– but if you go sixty miles east, Rochester has its holdouts including the odd prevalence of “white hots” vs “red hots”. (The local reigning champ of weird hot dog joints, the famous Nick Tahou’s Hots, inventor of the Garbage Plate, has suffered a family split and now is no longer a chain but two competing outlets; however, a gourmet garbage plate joint called Dogtown has settled into the resurgent Monroe Ave artsy district and offers phenomenally-complicated garbage plates featuring pretty high-quality ingredients.)
These are all excellent hot dogs, with firm casings and pleasant textures; Sahlen’s especially tend to char beautifully if you cook them on the grill. I have not had an Oscar Meyer weiner since I moved out here a decade ago, and I don’t miss them.
(What’s really bizarre is the cultural artifact of the restaurants frequently referring to them as “Texas Hots”, which seems to have no actual relationship to the state of Texas in any incarnation and remains a mystery.)
I’m sort of ruined for hot dogs everywhere else, though. I had a hot dog in Chicago and it was okay but you know, Old Man River does them Chicago-style and they’re pretty great!
I briefly considered doing, like, a round-the-US tour of hot dog joints, but then I realized that all the good ones are within an hour’s drive of my house so there’s no point.
I grew up eating hot dogs boiled on the stove, so the idea of a restaurant with a real honest-to-god charcoal grill right inside it still kind of blows my mind.
Oh, also, every single greek diner has excellent hot dogs. (And, similarly to Chicago, a Greek diner doesn’t mean it serves Greek food, though surely it’ll have dolmades on the menu; it’s just that it was opened up by Greeks. Including Tahou’s.)
copperbadge:
tehnakki:
copperbadge:
verdantnurse reblogged your photo:dorkilybeautiful:
railroadsoftware:
…
Curious as to how Americans do keep their hotdogs? Because mine are only ever in a can/jar of brine.
Tinned meat is considered extremely low-class in the US, like “barely a step above cat food” low class, culturally speaking (tuna is a possible exception but even then, tinned tuna has a not-great reputation). And while hot dogs are also considered a sort of low-class food, they’re also something everyone eats at barbecues and ballparks and such, they’re a very American Identity food, so they couldn’t possibly be sold in tins – nobody would buy a tinned hot dog if they had any other options.
In America usually hot dogs are sold in clear shrink-wrapped packages, so you can see what you’re getting (similar to why ketchup comes in clear bottles) but also because that puts them on a higher-class level, like deli meat. They are still packed in a bit of brine, just enough to keep them moist in the package, but it’s not a selling point.
My personal favourite hot dogs are Vienna Beef, made in Chicago (I’ve toured their factory):
But I also like Hebrew National because it makes me feel good to know a Rabbi has health-checked my hot dogs. But they’re kind of on the pricey side so I usually go with Vienna Beef.
The back side of the package is clear so you can see your hot dogs.
There’s also Ball Park hot dogs, which swell up when heated, leading them to use this as a selling point: their motto for years was “They plump when you cook ‘em!” You can see that they also have a printed logo on the front, clear packaging on the back:
Below the Ball Parks in that last image you can see Oscar Meyer hot dogs, which were the frank of choice in America from the 50s through the 80s, but which are now looked at as a bit low-tier, they’re what you buy if you can’t afford Ball Park or some other slightly higher-level brand. Or if you just like Oscar Meyer hot dogs. I’m not saying they ARE the worst, I’m just saying everyone THINKS they are.
(They definitely are the worst. Vienna Beef 4 lyfe.)
So basically to sum up, the American Hot Dog is deeply tied into the class system that nobody in America wants to admit exists, and frequently you can tell a person’s social status (if you’re into that) by what kind of hot dog they choose. But almost all hot dogs come in clear shrink-wrap packaging to prove that they’re attractive and edible and not low-class like tinned meat.
I love that you made this incredibly indepth hot dog post after our hot dog discussions last week =) Of course, you posted it while I was on an island without internet so I am now weighing in SHAMEFUL LATE.
I can’t believe you didn’t even MENTION the 4th of July and Baseball. I would say both of those culture events play a huge part in the hot dog being THE American meat.
And let’s be real, if we’re arguing best hotdog you can get in the states. Costco hotdog wins hands down every single time. But for off the shelf, no entrance fee hotdogs it’s all about the Ballpark baby!
(BALLPARKS 4 LYFE! I’m gonna bring so many back with me next week!!!!!)
Costco hot dogs ARE the best oh my god.
We have Costcos in Chicago and I’ve got a membership but it’s hard to get to so I don’t go often, I find driving a zipcar to be VERY STRESSFUL, and Mum was like “What do you want to do while we’re in Texas, are there any special foods you want” and I was like CAN WE GO TO COSTCO AND GET A COSTCO HOT DOG.
$1.50 for a giant hot dog that comes plain so you can put exactly the toppings you want on it PLUS a bottomless soda fountain beverage. And they have fancy mustard for them at the dispensers! They are The Best.
I mentioned baseball! I said we eat them at ballparks! I did not mention holidays though, that’s true. They are cheap and thus plentiful and easy to cook over a fire, just what Americans want.
Oh man though, the pinnacle of hot dogs in the US is, I believe in Western NY. I used to work at the airport and the TSA screeners there are so used to small-scale exports of only-regionally-available hot dogs that they can tell on the baggage scans whether that weird giant suspicious lump is Sahlen’s or Zweigel’s. (And, from that, whether the owner of the luggage is from Buffalo or Rochester.)
Sahlen’s reigns supreme in Buffalo, and is offered at most of the local restaurants– there are no less than four major local hog dog chains by my count (Ted’s, Louie’s Texas Red Hots, the unrelated Louie’s Original [putative inventor of the footlong], and oh never mind, Theodore’s is gone, with tax issues and a fascinating public Facebook meltdown), not including seasonally-open standbys like Old Man River (right on the Niagara River near where the Erie Canal comes in) and smaller one-off joints left and right– but if you go sixty miles east, Rochester has its holdouts including the odd prevalence of “white hots” vs “red hots”. (The local reigning champ of weird hot dog joints, the famous Nick Tahou’s Hots, inventor of the Garbage Plate, has suffered a family split and now is no longer a chain but two competing outlets; however, a gourmet garbage plate joint called Dogtown has settled into the resurgent Monroe Ave artsy district and offers phenomenally-complicated garbage plates featuring pretty high-quality ingredients.)
These are all excellent hot dogs, with firm casings and pleasant textures; Sahlen’s especially tend to char beautifully if you cook them on the grill. I have not had an Oscar Meyer weiner since I moved out here a decade ago, and I don’t miss them.
(What’s really bizarre is the cultural artifact of the restaurants frequently referring to them as “Texas Hots”, which seems to have no actual relationship to the state of Texas in any incarnation and remains a mystery.)
I’m sort of ruined for hot dogs everywhere else, though. I had a hot dog in Chicago and it was okay but you know, Old Man River does them Chicago-style and they’re pretty great!
I briefly considered doing, like, a round-the-US tour of hot dog joints, but then I realized that all the good ones are within an hour’s drive of my house so there’s no point.
I grew up eating hot dogs boiled on the stove, so the idea of a restaurant with a real honest-to-god charcoal grill right inside it still kind of blows my mind.
Oh, also, every single greek diner has excellent hot dogs. (And, similarly to Chicago, a Greek diner doesn’t mean it serves Greek food, though surely it’ll have dolmades on the menu; it’s just that it was opened up by Greeks. Including Tahou’s.)
no subject
Date: 2016-06-02 12:09 am (UTC)