As a hot dog aficionado my heart leapt when I read all the headlines about the rising interest in the New York Weiner. All I can say is, it's about time that the rest of the country comes face to face with the charms of this liberally condimented showpiece clad in a tidy white bun.
Although I live in Chicago, and the rivalry between the two cities rages from the sports arena to the pizza parlors, when it comes to disgraceful political twits and wieners, the rest of the nation must take a back seat. This week, we'll expose the secrets of the New York Wiener, and next week, we'll Rahm down a Chicago Dog.
Historians think the first sausages of any kind were made about 5,000 years ago in what is now Iraq, and they are mentioned in Homer's Odyssey, written around 800 B.C. Chopped meat in a thin condom-like jacket of intestines was a necessary invention when meat was hard to come by and none of it was wasted. Some sausages are ground coarsely, but wieners are pulverized into a smooth paste, seasoned, smoked, and precooked.
The story of how a wiener becomes a hot dog starts at Ellis Island in New York with immigrants in the late 1800s and early 1900s and moves to Manhattan where European sausage makers, especially Germans, Austrians, Poles, and especially Jews from all over Europe, brought their skills and recipes and started life on a shoestring selling Frankfurt and Vienna sausages on street corners and in butcher shops. And yes, that is why we call them frankfurters and wieners (with the "i" before the "e").
Waves of Greek and Macedonian immigrants also appeared on our shores. They found backbreaking work in construction and other hard labor building the growing metropolis, and on rare days off they took their families on the trolley to Coney Island, the great seaside amusement park about 15 miles southeast of Midtown. There they tasted the Coney Island version of the hot dog, loved it, migrated west where they set up shop on street corners, developed their signature recipe, and with hard work and ingenuity opened a restaurant, then a small chain, and made a good living for themselves and their families. For them, especially Jews and Greeks, the American Hot Dog became The American Dream.
Today, Nathan's Famous, founded in 1916 by Polish immigrant Nathan Handwerker, reigns over Coney Island and sets the standard for the New York Deli Dog: An all-beef frank wrapped with a snappy natural casing, cooked on a flatiron griddle, dressed with spicy brown mustard, sauerkraut, and griddled onions. That's all. No relish, chili, onions. Nuttin' else. Tourists may order chili or ketchup or relish, but not purists.
One expert, Professor Bruce Kraig, author of Hot Dog, A Global History, says there may be as many as 5,000 pushcarts in Manhattan, most of them selling hot dogs. A few serve Nathan's or Hebrew National, but chances are, even the places that claim they have their own franks custom made, it's a Sabrett. In Manhattan, Sabrett is the iconographic pushcart food with it's yellow and blue umbrellas and it is also ubiquitous.
Sabretts are a garlicy all-beef frank in natural casing (they are available skinless, but I like the snap of the skin). In a blind taste test in Chicago, I ranked Sabrett's #1. They are served with mustard and warm sauerkraut, like the Coney Island Hot Dog, but Sabretts have a rich orange colored sweet-tart onion sauce. By itself, the onion sauce is nothing special. But with the mustard and kraut, it is the perfect balancer. If you've had a hot dog in Manhattan with onion sauce, chances are you've had Sabrett's Prepared Onions invented by Alan S. Geisler, an MIT-trained food technologist who died January 6, 2009 at the age of 78. They are made at the factory in New Jersey and warmed in the carts.
The exact recipe is a secret, so I have attempted to reverse engineer it and, of course I couldn't help but fiddle with it (I'm sure the original doesn't have balsamic vinegar in it). If you prefer you can order the real thing online. But frankly (sorry), I like my recipe (below) better.
Amazingly, Papaya juice goes remarkably well with the Sabrett prep, accounting in part for the amazing popularity of Papaya King and Gray's Papaya, both hot dog stands, not health food emporia, and both griddling Sabretts.
Onion Sauce Ingredients
1/2 cup water
1 teaspoon cornstarch or arrowroot
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 tablespoon inexpensive balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon Dijon-style mustard
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon hot pepper sauce
1 pinch of cinnamon
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 large red onions, peeled thoroughly and sliced thin
1/4 teapoon table salt
2 cloves of pressed or minced garlic
About the onions. Red onions often have an extra layer of tough paper under the outer layer. Make sure you remove it.
About the tomato paste. If you want, you can substitute a 2 tablespoons of ketchup or a sweet tomato based Kansas City style barbecue sauce for the tomato paste.
The hot dog
4 all-beef frankfurters, preferably Sabretts
4 buns
Sauerkraut from the refrigerator section, not the can
Spicy brown Dijon-style mustard
Do this
A memo to my vegetarian friends and to other health nagsThose of us who love hot dogs know they are not health food. Most of us don't eat them every day, or even every week. Perhaps a few misguided people eat them too often, but for most of us they are occasional treats that bring us back to our youth, generate memories of baseball games with Dad, Fourth of July, picnics on the beach, and vacations in New York. Hot dogs are an important part of American cultural heritage, and the wonderful eccentric regional styles make traveling just a bit more fun. We know they are high fat, high salt, and contain preservatives, and if you want to harp about nitrites and nitrates, click the link and read the latest info on them and how they appear naturally in lettuce, spinach, and carrots before you start preaching in the comments below. If you really must know, click here to learn how a wiener is made. Go to the HuffPost homepage is you want to see how laws are made. If you want to take me to task about writing about the very real death risk of eating raw sprouts that I wrote about last week and the negligible health risk of an occasional hot dog treat, have at it. But the only people who have ever died from a hot dog died of choking, not kidney failure from E. coli poisoning. |
2) Warm the oil in a large skillet, not a non-stick, over medium high heat. Add the onions and sprinkle with the salt. This helps pull the moisture out. Move them around occasionally with a wooden spoon so they don't burn. Cook until the edges start to brown. Whatever you do, do not let them burn. Add the garlic and cook for another minute.
3) Add the liquid, stir, and rub the pan with the wooden spoon to scrape up all the flavorful fond, the brown bits on the bottom. Turn the stove to low and simmer with the lid on for 1 hour. Check frequently to make sure it is not burning and the water has not evaporated. Add water if needed. The final result should be thick, not runny, but not pasty. After an hour, taste and adjust salt and other flavors as you wish.
4) While the onions are simmering, warm the kraut in a pan or for 15 seconds in the microwave, cook the franks, and prepare the buns. The franks can be cooked on a griddle, on a grill, but most pushcarts make "dirty water dogs" by simmering them in water that has become a rich flavorful soup after holding scores of franks over the course of a day. And don't worry, the franks are precooked so they are pasteurized, and the dirty water is hot enough that nothing can survive. As for the buns, some are toasted on a griddle, but most pushcarts store them in a bin where the steam from the dirty water keeps them warm and moist.
5) Lovingly place the frank on the bun, squirt on the mustard, add the onions, and then the kraut. Hum quietly, I'll take Manhattan...
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I have made "AmazingRibs.com's Onion Sauce" at least 4 or 5 times since last year (haha -- I didn't realise that was your blog and I thought the recipe was similar. Thanks Meathead!), but prefer to make it with Walla Wallas rather than red onions and I use apple cider vinegar instead of balsamic. Amazing stuff... great on omelettes, too!
I'm interested to hear your take on store-bought dogs. I'm still a Hebrew National-er but now that they're part of a big conglomerate (ConAgra???), they're different somehow...
I do my dogs with ketchup and onion sauce only (sadly, I'm allergic to mustard but can cook with it). Enjoy!
http://amazingribs.com/recipes/my_ingredients/zen_of_balsamic_vinegar.html
....well the rolls are called "pizza rolls" so I guess that makes sense... There's different styles of Italian Dogs too. I prefer Jimmy Buff's which has soft fried potatoes. Other people prefer the style with crispy fried potatoes. And it's not really an Italian Dog unless the grease soaks through the roll, through the wrapping paper and into the bag.
Next time you are in North Jersey, Clifton specifically, ya gotta to to Rutt's Hut. Deep fried hot dogs with their own special sauce
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rutt%27s_Hut
Can't get stuff like that up here in the North Country, though when I'm in Saratoga I try to stop in Hot Dog Charlie's
http://www.hotdogcharlies.com/
There is no rivalry between NY and Chicago. There may be a rivalry between chicago and NY, but I assure you, NYr's are blissfully unaware of it. Salad on a hot dog? Ok, if you must. But that deep dish mess has nothing to do with pizza.