The National Culinary Review

says Mitch Prensky, chef/owner of Supper in Philadelphia. He brines 100% Berkshire pork shoulder for his hot dog filling, allows the ground, seasoned meat to rest before putting it into the sausage stuffer, and smokes the links. “The recipe, similar to a pâté, took me two months to perfect. The entire process requires four to five days, and we make a fresh batch every week.”

Happy Dog customers can top their hot dogs with a choice of 50 condiments and other extras, including Korean kimchi, bacon-spiked greens, chipotle hollandaise and bourbon baked beans.

Pineapple/Ginger Chutney

Eric Williams, Chef/Partner
Happy Dog
Cleveland

The 7-ounce hot dogs, priced at $9, are
wrapped in bacon, deep-fried, tucked
inside a house-baked bun and plated
with kraut, barbecued onions and beer
mustard. “They’re a loss leader for us,”
Prensky admits, “but they bring people in
and there’s profit on other items ordered.”
More importantly, he considers the labor-
intensive product a kind of advertising,
calling the hot dogs a “mascot” for his
way of thinking about food. “They speak
volumes about who we are, how we do
things and the lengths we’ll go to, even for
something as pedestrian as a hot dog.”
Calif., sold Niman Ranch brand franks. But
when the company changed the specs two
years ago, substituting collagen casings for
natural hog ones, she didn’t like the result.
“That distinctive snap was missing when you
bite into it. So we decided to make our own,
and it’s better than anything we can buy.”

Yield: 2 quarts

1 fresh pineapple ½ Spanish or yellow onion ½-inch piece fresh gingerroot

4 cups dried fruit (cherries, currants, yellow raisins)

½ cup pineapple juice

1 cup red wine vinegar ½ cup sugar

1 t. ground cinnamon (preferably Vietnamese)

For 11 years, Marsha McBride, chef/owner
of Café Rouge and proprietor of a retail
meat market connected to it in Berkeley,
They start with a combination of whole
grass-fed beef chucks, sourcing from a
nearby rancher when they can get it, and
certified organic pork from Becker Lane
Organic Farm, a fifth-generation family farm
in Dyersville, Iowa. Seasoning with smoked
paprika and poaching off the links to precook
works better than smoking, which, McBride
thinks, masks the meat’s good taste. The
dogs are grilled to order over mesquite.

She says properly emulsifying the fat is the most critical production step, otherwise, the texture is too crumbly. Staff rely on a buffalo chopper to get that right. “It’s a great tool for charcuterie, and hot dogs are a type of sausage,” McBride says. “They have a bad reputation only because they’re usually prepared with cheap, inferior ingredients.”

Hot dogs at Café Rouge are a combination of whole grass-fed beef chucks and certified organic pork seasoned with smoked paprika and grilled to order over mesquite.

Method: Clean pineapple and onion; small-dice. Peel gingerroot; fine-mince. In heavy-bottom saucepot, combine onion, dried fruit, pineapple juice, vinegar, sugar and cinnamon. Cook on medium heat 10-12 minutes, until fruit rehydrates. Add pineapple and ginger. Lower heat; simmer 10 minutes. Serve warm on hot dog topped with brie and caramelized onions.