Russell van Kraayenburg - Haute Dogs: Recipes for Delicious Hot Dogs, Buns, and Condiments

2014 by Russell van Kraayenburg

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Number: 2013911675

eBook ISBN: 978-1-59474-680-2
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-59474-675-8

Hardcover designed by Amanda Richmond
Hardcover production management by John J. McGurk

Quirk Books
215 Church St.
Philadelphia, PA 19106
quirkbooks.com

v3.1

TO MY MOTHER,
LOREE VAN KRAAYENBURG,
WHO ALWAYS TAUGHT ME TO EAT MY VEGETABLES.
I PUT VEGETABLES ON SOME OF THESE DOGS.
DOES THAT COUNT?

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

Id like to say I wrote this book simply because hot dogs are my all-time favorite food and leave it at that. They are, after all. However, that would leave this page awfully blank. So here is my attempt at describing just how obsessed I am with hot dogs, and why you should be, too.

For me, the story starts about 20 years ago, around the time of my earliest memories and around the age at which I, a typical American child, was introduced to the magic that is American fare: those quick, not-so-healthy but oh-so-delicious foodspizza, cheeseburgers, tacos, and, of course, hot dogs. My first hot dog was a Plain Jane on a boring bun topped with nothing more than a squirt of mustard and possibly a little ketchupdont judge me. I was 7. Despite the unimaginative toppings of that first wiener, it was love at first bite. I remember countless birthdays centered on glorious stacks of frankfurters. I insisted that our weekly grilled meals contain plenty of the tube-shaped meat to go around. And when I eventually learned how to cook on my own, at the spoiled age of 15, I made one thing and one thing only: hot dogs.

In high school, friends were amazed at my ability to consume hot dogs every day for months. The lunch lady knew me by name and made sure to set aside a few extra links for me in case they ran out. In college, my nicknames began to reflect my love of this meaty, bread-heavy, topping-laden snack. Even though I knew how to cook, and cook well at that, I prepared hot dogs for special nights in, and I dragged weary dates to hot dog stands for anniversaries or special occasions. But my friends soon resented my obsession with the weenie. As the semesters piled on, I was no longer asked where we should go to lunch; my friends conveniently chose for me, and the hot-dog-filled stands and diners I once dragged us to disappeared from our repertoire.

You see, what I knew (and what my friends didnt know) is that the hot dog can be different every time you take a bite. Where they ordered the same toppings on the same bun with the same weenie over and over, I explored the vast, varied world of wienerdom. They thought hot dogs were tired. I knew they were alive with possibilities.

These days, when I mention red hots, frankfurters, foot-longs, hotshots, tube dogs, or dachshund sandwiches, my friends take notice. Their ears perk up and their stomachs rumble. Because now they know that when I say hot dog, I mean haute dog. They know to expect a trip down a back alley where, hidden between an abandoned warehouse and a dive bar, sits a decades-old diner that serves the most marvelous, topping-heavy, plump and juicy dogs around. Or they know to expect an expensive visit to some upscale and trendy bistro where the hot dog has been redefined from street food to black-tie fare. And they know that the next time we go for hot dogs, theyll be biting into something completely different, a dog theyve never tried before.

Thats what haute dogs are. They arent the same old tired dog youve been eating in your backyard since you were a kid. Haute dogs are the edible manifestation of the worlds love for this time-tested meal in a bun and the culmination of over a century of culinary creativity. Haute dogs can be found in just about every town and every country. Chances are everyone has tried one at some pointand deciding who makes the best local haute dog can be as divisive as ranking hometown sports teams. You can find haute dogs in street carts, at food trucks, in diners, delis, bistros, and restaurants, and you can make them in your kitchen or out in your backyard, too.

Today, haute dogs are popping up on every continent (okay, except maybe Antarctica, but I bet someone is working on that). So what happens when you take an American fast-food classic and combine it with regional cuisine, deluxe ingredients, secret recipes, and cultural idiosyncrasies? You get sloppy chili dogs, chunky chutney dogs, and dogs fried in the middle of a waffle. You get dogs slathered in rmoulade, buried in French fries, and smeared with homemade ketchupor no ketchup at all. You get haute dogs and you get this book.

HISTORY: WHICH CAME FIRSTTHE BUN OR THE DOG?

I hate when history books start with as with many things, the true origins here are unknown but unfortunately, as with many foods, the true origins of the hot dog are unknown.

Although it would be nice to point to one sweeping, cinematic story of how the hot dog came to be, chances are it took shape in many places at once, growing out of a long-lasting love of both the sausage and the bread. Somewhere in the millennia-long history of these two staples, people began putting the two together, and sometime after that an American classic, one that would spread over the entire world within one short century, was born.

Instead of cute folktales about how the bun saved vendors the annoyance of customers stealing the customary gloves used to serve naked sausages, or how an inventive baseball stadium ice-cream vendor invented the bun-wrapped sausage to see his business through a cold-weather slump, Ill tell you the truth. Somewhere in history, some enterprising foodie added that convenient slice down the center of the bun that turns an otherwise unassuming loaf of bread into the perfect, portable vessel for a piping hot frankfurter.

Bread can be traced back to the begin-nings of civilization, when humans shifted from hunters and gathers to farmers. Sometime around 7000 BC , early farmers in the fertile crescent of Mesopotamia (modern-day Iran and Syria) domesticated wheatlike crops whose grains would become a sine qua non for breadmaking, and the first professional breadmakers turned up around 2000 BC . Ancient Egyptians are thought to have discoveredaccidentallythat the natural yeasts found in the air could be used to leaven bread when some forgetful chef left out dough overnight. But flat, tough, utilitarian loaves still ruled the first dozen or so centuries of breadthe Romans believed unleavened bread was healthier. Two important developments came when ancient Romans began to use wind power to grind finer flours and borrow from European tribes the technique of leavening bread with brewers yeast (elsewhere, chunks of dough from the previous days baking would be added to leaven breads).