Top-Secret Hot Dog Sauce Recipe

RJM62

RJM62

Touchdown! Greaser!
Joined
Jun 15, 2007
Messages
13,157
Location
Upstate New York
Display Name
Display name:
Geek on the Hill
In honor of the last Friday in the year the world was supposed to end, I have decided to declassify my world-famous, top-secret hot dog sauce recipe. (Well, it's famous within my circle of close friends, anyway.)

This recipe is one I came up with while trying to reverse-engineer a sauce that I first tried more than four decades ago. A few years ago, I finally succeeded in doing so -- and then I set forth to tweak it a bit to my own tastes. I now consider it the Perfect Hot Dog Sauce.


secret_sauce.jpg



Ingredients:

  • Three ounces beef jerky. (Personally, I like the Slim Jim jalapeno beef jerky for this recipe. The peppered beef jerky also works well.)
  • One small to medium onion.
  • Del Monte Tomato Sauce in the little can or (if you must) ketchup.
  • One-third teaspoon chili powder.
  • One-third teaspoon paprika.
  • One-quarter teaspoon cinnamon.
  • Salt and black pepper to taste.
  • Dash of hot sauce.
Instructions:

Throw the beef jerky and a peeled, quartered onion into a food processor and grind it up until it's, well, all ground up. Then transfer it to a bowl.

Mix the tomato sauce (or ketchup, if you must) into the ground-up beef jerky and onions until it's of the desired consistency. Then mix all the other stuff into it. Let it sit for about an hour to let all the flavors do whatever it is that they do while sitting around for an hour or so. Then spoon it over the hot dogs, once they have been mustarded.

Variations:

The following variations have been authorized by the creator, and may be implemented without obtaining an STC, filing a 337, or obtaining any other special approval:

  • Green peppers, celery, corn, shredded carrots, or any combination thereof may be added.
  • Ginger may be substituted for cinnamon, or used in addition to the cinnamon.
  • V-8 or similar tomato-based vegetable juice may be used instead of tomato sauce or ketchup. However, when prepared this way, the mixture should be reduced on the range to thicken it up a bit.
  • Browned, crumbled ground beef may be used instead of beef jerky.
-Rich
 
Last edited:
You forgot the ketchup.
 
Last edited:
To confirm, you are going to come to the Gaston's event and do some cooking, right? :D
 
There's only 2 necessary hot dog sauces: Mustard and Ketchup. The ketchup is mandatory, unless you are eating a Chicago dog.
 
No vanilla ice cream? Put it on lamb and you'll never even know it's lamb.
 
GeorgeC said:
http://www.dallashotwieners.com/
Click to expand...

Yep, that's exactly the sauce I reverse-engineered. I finally matched it a few years ago, achieving a match so close that test panel I assembled -- three of my friends from Queens, my upstairs neighbor and his boyfriend, my ex-wife (on one of her semi-sober days), my two goddaughters, and some drunk who staggered by while we were performing the taste test -- agreed that it was indistinguishable.

I had driven from Queens to Kingston the previous day to buy the Official DHW sauce for reference purposes, along with two cases of beer (for palate-cleaning purposes, of course, to maintain the integrity of the testing process).

My quest began with trying to duplicate the DHW sauce, but the one I set forth above is my own. Those who have had both will immediately be reminded of DHW's if they try mine, but it differs in a few ways. Out of respect for DHW's recipe, I'll only point out two obvious differences: DHW doesn't put the onions into the sauce itself, and they use finely chopped meat (I'm pretty sure it's pork) rather than the beef jerky. There are other differences, but I'll keep those secret.

During the years that I was trying to reverse engineer their sauce, some of my "failures" -- because they missed the mark I was trying to duplicate -- were actually quite good in their own right. I became a rather popular addition to barbecues and cook-outs. I was always welcome, as long as I brought a tub of sauce with me.

-Rich
 
Last edited:
I'm always impressed with the variation in hot dogs around the country.
Dallas seems to have this, chicago has a couple, just up the road Wisconsin is completely different, in NJ (towards the Newark end) we've got "Italian" dogs. Down in DC, we've got some dog-like substances you don't have other places like "half smokes."
 
rugger1869 said:
Ketchup never, I repeat, NEVER goes on a hot dog. /eom
Click to expand...

Except an Italian (pronounced EYE-talion) dog in Newark. Then you get a big bun with both the hot dog and all the fries inside and smothered in ketchup.
 
slide_342248_3538241_free.jpg There’s something about gooey meat being churned around, piped out of a tube and slathered with corn syrup that somewhat puts a crimp in our craving for the fast food snack.

Gotta love any sauce that hides what disgusting crap they are...

The traditional hot dogs are a mix of beef, chicken and pork. The meat gets whizzed around until it resembles something pretty gross, then it gets mulched around with water until it resembles some thing even more gross.

We watch as corn syrup is ladled onto the mix ‘to add a touch of sweetness’, plus even more water, until finally they are piped into casings, and go through a process of racks that reminds us of the factory in Edward Scissorhands.

It takes 35 seconds to produce a chain of hot dogs to span a football team twice.

Liquid smoke is then piped over the hot dogs, and then they are drenched in cold, salty water.

By the end of it, nothing makes us want to chomp on a hot dog ever again!
 
Yellow mustard never goes on a dog, only spicy brown.
That said, the best dogs are plain dogs. They don't need anything to cover the taste.
 
I would like to point out that a slim Jim is not beef jerky in any way, form, or function. That is all.
 
no, its brown stick chile, mustard and onions. oh, and it must be a great lakes coney frank. there is no substitute..........
 
unsafervguy said:
oh, and it must be a great lakes coney frank. there is no substitute..........
Click to expand...
Back in about 1965 my dad showed me how to cook dogs. First thing I think I ever cooked. I don't eat a lot of dogs any more but have a great recipe for Chicago Italian Beef Sandwiches....:)
 
Goofy said:
View attachment 54170

The traditional hot dogs are a mix of beef, chicken and pork. The meat gets whizzed around until it resembles something pretty gross, then it gets mulched around with water until it resembles some thing even more gross.

By the end of it, nothing makes us want to chomp on a hot dog ever again!
Click to expand...

I thought traditional hot dogs were made from horse lips and skunk nipples....
 
About a five minute walk from the house is a little old dive joint hotdog shop that's been in business since 1939 and now owned buy a couple of young guys. Classic hot dog shop, I love the place.
 
I'm pretty sure hot dogs and baloney are one and the same mix, one is just larger diameter and sliced.
 
Goofy said:
View attachment 54170 There’s something about gooey meat being churned around, piped out of a tube and slathered with corn syrup that somewhat puts a crimp in our craving for the fast food snack.

Gotta love any sauce that hides what disgusting crap they are...

The traditional hot dogs are a mix of beef, chicken and pork. The meat gets whizzed around until it resembles something pretty gross, then it gets mulched around with water until it resembles some thing even more gross.

We watch as corn syrup is ladled onto the mix ‘to add a touch of sweetness’, plus even more water, until finally they are piped into casings, and go through a process of racks that reminds us of the factory in Edward Scissorhands.

It takes 35 seconds to produce a chain of hot dogs to span a football team twice.

Liquid smoke is then piped over the hot dogs, and then they are drenched in cold, salty water.

By the end of it, nothing makes us want to chomp on a hot dog ever again!
Click to expand...

I used to be a part-time health inspector for an Upstate New York county many years ago. I was actually impressed by the cleanliness of meat-packing plants.

That's not to say that I liked everything that goes into the food -- any part of a cow is technically beef, after all -- but at least the places I saw were always clean and sanitary.

That being said, I'm not a frequent eater of hot dogs or any processed food. But once in a while I throw caution to the wind, not think about what's inside the hot dogs, and just enjoy myself. It's probably not the healthiest thing in the world; but then again, most of my health-conscious friends are dead, so who's to say?

If you want all-beef hot dogs that are really all-beef, any of the kosher brands fit the bill.

Rich
 
I missed seeing this thread when it was new; looks like a good recipe, gotta try it!
 
Last edited:
What? No vanilla ice cream in it (it gives that "it's hard to tell what's in it effect"). I actually made a batch of this.

Great thing about it. You put it on lamb and you never know it's lamb.

1/2 cup Ketchup
2 TBSP dried chili powder
2 TBSP French's yellow mustard
1/2 cup white vinegar
1 red bell pepper roasted, peeled, and chopped fine
1 onion diced fine
2 TBSP oregano
2 cloves of garlic minced
1/2 cup vanilla ice cream

Get a large mixing bowl. Chill the bowl. Add the ketchup and you mix it that up real good. Add the chili powder, mustard, vinegar, oregano, peppers, and garlic. You mix. As you mix, added the onion. Then add the ice cream.
 
As I missed the recipe the first and second times, I’m glad to have the necro. “Rich’s hot dog sauce” is in my recipe list now.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top