Saturday, May 27, 2006

Dirty Water Hot Dog Debate

Baseball, hotdogs, apple pie and blogging? Why not. I can’t think of a better way to spend the holiday weekend. My son, the sports fan, set off the great hot dog debate when he asked for hot dogs made the way you get them at the ballpark. I said “you’re asking for a dirty water dog my son”. Thinking that I had finally gone off the deep end he said “what?”

I don’t really know where the term dirty water dog came from. I reckon New York. All those hot dog carts in the city basically float the dogs in hot water which takes on a dirty look after a bit. I decided to make hot dogs on the grill like normal, then some dirty water dogs to compare.

Sabrett Hot Dogs appear to be the New York staple and can be ordered on line. For our test we chose natural casing Caspers Famous Hot Dog made in San Leandro,Ca. and skinless Sinai 48 Kosher of Chicago. Both brands purchased at Costco.

The results of the debate were mixed. About half the testers liked the grilled and half the dirty water. Natural or skinless came back with a 50/50 result as well. My preference is the grilled Caspers with Dijon mustard, onions, and relish. My son loves the skinless with chili and cheese. I believe the end result is that’s nice to have a choice. Have a great weekend.

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Dirty water dogs

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Grillin and chillin

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

If you're interested in a recipe for the sauce that Sabrett uses, let me know. I have one! I miss those dirty water dogs. Nothing cooked at home ever tastes the same (even with the sauce).

Thanks for the memories!

Anonymous said...

PS I'll send you an email with my address.

Anonymous said...

Oh my goodness ... that looks so good! Even at 9:40 a.m.!!!

Mona said...

those look awesome. and funny enough i've never heard the dirty water dog phrase before but i like it. and of course there's truth to it. have you had the dogs at pac bell ? i can't remember if i've had them, but i swear i've had several martinis there. that's for sure, we don't get martinis at yanks games...steinbrenner would die first.
oh btw, are you a fan of bonds ? can't believe he just broke the homerun record.

Guy said...

I ain't heard the dirty water thing either, but I'm hip.
I've always been a grilled dog fan. But ever since I drove to Mt. View to Dittmer's, I say boil the suckers. The employees at Dittmer's got all washy eyed when they talked about dropping a real German Garlic Sausage in to a pot of boiling water for only 5 minutes! Then serving with 'fine German mustard'. One of the best things I've eaten in a while. MmmMm.

Biggles

Anonymous said...

Yes, a dirty water dog is a NY/NJ thing. We have hot dog carts on every corner. Thus the name(the water the dogs are heated in looks dirty)Sabretts, thin casings are the must. Side split buns are a must too for all the toppings but I like mine with just mustard and "kraut". Another staple is a big pretzel, nice and steamy.
Come and visit us in the Big Apple one day.