Proper Hotdog Care
Members of the Cringe Impyre have been gravitating towards grabbing the popular cylinder shaped meat stick known as the hotdog over the course of the last couple months. ONN and its team of experts have decided to put together a guide to getting the most out of your meat sticks before the bit and the buns go stale.
There are a few ways to properly prepare a glizzy for gobbling but proper care starts with safety.
When you pick up your package make sure it is properly sealed. Check for holes that could let air in and fluids out. The plastic covering should be tight and shouldn’t move freely. Your hotdog should look glossy when properly wrapped and not have a cloudy or matte appearance.
Hotdogs are uncured, so makes sure you keep them at an appropriate holding temperature before use.
With pokey pork prep out of the way we can move on to popular preparation pastimes. We’ll start with the down and dirty.
A good dirty boil leaves a little foam.
That’s right the New York Dirty Water method or the dirty boil for short. Most boilers make the mistake that getting their wiener wet should be a clean process, but there are flavor gains to seasoning the boil water. Add a helping of your favorite stock to the boil water and let your meat soak in the juices. Popular additions also include fresh herbs, spices, and vinegar, but we’re not here to push a particular recipe. Just remember it doesn’t have to come out clean to be enjoyable. A word of caution though, overboiling the hot dog may leave it deformed.
These won’t be slipping into any buns.
When boiling using any method, dirty or otherwise, remember that pork plumps best. You want it plump right? Your guests sure do. Leave the beef dogs for the grill, the second way to cook a dog that we’re covering.
Grilling hotdogs is a great way to get a little sizzle in your sausage. Make sure to manage the heat and keep the flame burning even and your eyes on the prize. All beef dogs are good here because their stronger flavor survives the heat, especially if you’re using charcoal or wood fired grills as the smoke imparts its own strong flavor. You wouldn’t want your flavorful juices overpowered would you? There’s another risk to grilling your small sausages, and that’s turning the heat up too high. If you’re using coals you’ll want those to rest a bit and calm down from their most excited time. If you’re not careful your hotdog will finish before its down all the way through, or worse.
Neglect
Though many people prefer their dogs done at different speeds and to different degrees, you don’t want yours burnt and shriveled by careless treatment. Make sure everyone involved in your sausage party understands that you need your full attention for the best results.
There is one more popular method for getting the deed done but it is less a method for cooking and more a cautionary tale. Some people microwave their dogs. ONN can assure you that this so-called cooking method is only for the depressed and desperate, and that microwaved dogs will never see any real buns. At best they’ll get a curled up piece of normal bread. A more likely outcome is being directly dipped into a tub of mayonnaise. Do not be this person. Do better.
