Trending
Few foods feel more American than the hot dog, a mainstay at ballparks, street carts and Fourth of July barbecues.
But to simply call hot dogs "American" is to miss a whole lot of nuance, and potentially offend local connoisseurs across the country. Which is the best? The answer is probably the one you grew up with.
Hot dog towns
Throughout New York City, you can still find carts selling boiled hot dogs (Sabrett's and Nathan's are two of the big names.) These boiled hot dogs are affectionately known as "dirty water dogs," though the dirty water is actually a spiced brine that keeps the wieners hot in stainless steel tanks.
A classic NYC dog is usually served with sauerkraut, spicy brown mustard and Onion Sauce, which features sliced onions in a spiced, tomato-based sauce.
Over in Chicago, dogs with the full Chicago-style toppings rule: mustard, neon relish, onion, tomato, pickle, sport pepper (a type of pickled pepper) and celery salt.
Chicago-style hot dogs are steamed or grilled over an open flame. The steamed buns almost always have poppy seeds. No ketchup is allowed.
In Cincinnati, you'll find dogs topped with chili (finely textured, all meat, no beans), mustard and onions, and then a mountain of shredded cheese.
Detroit-style dogs feature Coney sauce -- a beanless beef chili or meat sauce -- and mustard and onions. Not too far away, in Flint, Michigan, there's a Coney dog with a dry crumbly meat sauce, as opposed to the soupier meat sauce served up in Detroit.
In Kansas, one camp says their Reuben-style franks should be the official Kansas-style hot dogs, while others lean into the state's barbecue heritage and think the perfect dog is topped with burned ends, Kansas City-style barbecue sauce and something crunchy like frizzled onions.
The Sonoran hot dog, popular in Arizona, got its origins in Mexico and features a bacon-wrapped wiener, hot pinto beans, grilled and raw onions, diced tomatoes, mustard, jalapeno salsa, and mayo or crema. It is served on a soft, sweet, canoe-like Mexican roll called a bolillo.
West Virginians love their "slaw dogs," ordered "all the way" with a meaty, beanless chili, coleslaw and chopped onions.
Pittsfield, Massachusetts, has a mini but quite specific hot dog culture. At Hot Dog Ranch, veteran cook Jordan Adams says the bestselling all-beef "everything" dog is served with a secret-recipe Coney sauce that's mixed up by one employee before the shop opens. It's also got yellow mustard and chopped onions.
Upstate New York boasts a robust hot dog culture. At Nick Tahou's Hots, a Rochester hot dog mecca since 1918, the Garbage Plate is a mountain of food including baked beans, home fries, hot dogs, mustard and a heavily spiced thick meat ragu. It is most classically consumed with buttered bread and macaroni and cheese. And maybe an antacid after.
In Tonawanda, a suburb of Buffalo, Ted's Hot Dogs kind of mashes the dogs against the grill grates until they are squished, charred and crusty. Not as juicy as other methods, but a treat served with a house-made hot sauce.
Baltimore has frizzled hot dogs, which are split and fried in oil, while Washington, D.C., has large, crunchy, spicy half-smokes.