I remember from the 1960’s a hot dog cooker where you put them between the electrodes and plugged it in. It took like 5 minutes to “cook” them but they were absolutely disgusting. It was like a Presto or West Bend.
“I char my brats then simmer in beer so they plump but don’t split, apply mustard and onions...delicious”
I’ll have to try that.
Be there in half an hour...
My work territory used to be downtown Philadelphia in the Historic Old City section. My meals were exclusively chosen by my favorite cart vendors. The best dirty water dogs and sausages ever. The caramelized onions from the steam table are a delicacy unrepeated in any other form. Cart vendors for Chinese food are great too.
Not a dog eater but my wife is....grilled some for her for July 4th while I was doing burgers. Later I decided to just eat one by itself....no bun, or condiments just the dog. I refrain from using salt every chance I get so maybe now I’m hypersensitive to it but the sodium was absolutely overpowering. Wow.
Brats are rare for me now but i do love ‘em. I do mine on my weber charcoal grill.....absolutely awesome but man are they unhealthy.....if my cardiologist found out I was eating brats he’d probably drive to my house and slap me.
Good idea. We have good sausage products from a company called Swaggerty’s out of TN.
This one includes a recipe for an onion sauce topping:
https://www.epicurious.com/recipes/member/views/new-york-dirty-water-hot-dogs-50120589
(I can’t remember where, but I read an article by a man who said his grandmother’s secret to great hot dogs was to boil them for a very long time - until they actually puff and split a little..)
Ping
“you get from a cart on the street, usually in New York”
Gag me with a maggot, NYC?
If you MUST boil your hot dogs, it is hard to beat beer. It can even be cheap beer. (Tuborg was my go to back then, $1.79/6 pack, 1985)
I want that right now.
My “dirty water” recipe is half a beer, some sauerkraut juice, fill the rest of the way with water and sprinkle in some black pepper corns.
I put about 1/2 inch of water in the pot and salt it liberally, bring that to a boil, then put the dogs in and turn it back down to a low simmer and cover the pot and let them steam in there for maybe 20 minutes, turning them over once or twice. Makes a pretty good imitation of that hot dog cart flavor and consistency.
So yummy.
I can’t stand brats and boiling in beer doesn’t help a bit.
As a kid when we brought lunch from home, mom would put boiled water in the thermos, some seasoning and the dogs and by noon, we would pull out the dogs and put on our white bread.
or for camping.
For some reason, Ignatius J Reilly of Confederate of Dunces is springing to mind.
A good quality hot dog grilled are the best with a toasted bun.
But when you are having a large party or gather and the grill isn’t an option, filling up a westinghouse roaster (or slow cooker) with water, and dumping a giant package or two of cheapest hot dogs you fan find in and turning on to a good temp will warm and hold the hot dogs damn near indefinitely... folks can graze all night on em... and they do have a very distinct flavor.