The best hot dog in America

Hot dogs have come a long way.

When I was a kid, my mom threw me a Hot Diggity Dog birthday party. There was an actual party kit you could buy that had paper napkins and plates with Hot Diggity Dog logos on them. The whole idea was just to boil hot dogs and serve them to kids on the plates. Napkin use was minimal. I just loved it.

Now I’m going to tell you about the Queen of hot dog places, also called Hot Diggity Dog. It’s the “queen” because it’s run by women. Women who know their dogs. Hot Diggity Dog is located in a Hobbit house in a rundown section of Nashville. You have to know you want to come here because it’s hard to find, even with a GPS in your car.

Hot Diggity Dog is the size of a good-sized closet inside. The line – and there is always a line – starts at the back and then winds its way to the counter. After you place your order you can get your drinks. There is no going back after you place your order. There’s no room. You make very good friends with the people in front of you and behind you. There is no choice.

Once you make it up to the counter, be ready to order in rapid fashion. There is no pausing to decide if you want the classic Chicago Dog (bright green relish, onion, celery salt, tomato and peppers) or the Nashville Dog (cole slaw, onions, mustard and chili). “What’ll you have, hon?” asks co-owner Gayle Davis in a thick Southern drawl (she’s at the far left of the photo). You’d better know, because she seems sweet but she needs to move the line along. You get dogs either steamed or grilled. You want grilled, trust me. Fries? You need them. The dogs are all beef, natural casings. They snap when you bite into them.

So here’s the pay-off. Steamed bun so it’s nice and squishy. Hot dog tender on the inside and snap-a-liscious on the outside. Homemade cole slaw and chili. Onions. Mustard. Yes. Yes! And the fries? Take a look at the paper bag. Can you not see the grease seeping through the paper? Does that not tell you that there are some delicious fries inside?

I don’t eat hot dogs every day. There was a phase where Mark and I ate Nathan’s hot dogs for a week. We gained five pounds a piece. So I keep my hot dog consumption to a minimum. But sometimes only Hot Diggity Dog will do. Mark and I have a phrase we use when we eat something utterly wonderful and unexpected. “It was just want I wanted and I didn’t even know it.” I always know it at Hot Diggity Dog.

Liquid smoke

“If you wrote something for which someone sent you a check, if you cash the check and it didn’t bounce, and if you then paid the light bill with the money, I consider you talented.” Stephen King wrote that. I am now going to relate it to BBQ.

As one of the Chicks In Charge competition BBQ team, Stephen King would consider me talented. I have, indeed, won money for my BBQ, the checks didn’t bounce and I did pay a bill or two with the proceeds. Modest proceeds. Very modest. But I know enough about BBQ to tell you that what I am about to write will immediately send several of my BBQ friends into cardiac arrest. I tried liquid smoke.

It is 20 degrees here in the sunny South, I could not pass up the pork butt at the Publix for 78 cents a pound and Cook’s Illustrated had an article on indoor pulled pork using liquid smoke. And I thought…what if? What if liquid smoke really works? It is all natural. Kind of.

The recipe calls for cutting the pork butt in half, which you could never do in a competition but I was going to worry about that little detail later. Then you make a brine with water, salt, sugar and liquid smoke and brine the butt for two hours. You rub it with mustard, more liquid smoke and a rub that has smoked paprika in it for even more “smoky” flavor.  After that you put it on a sheet pan with a rim, cover it with parchment paper and then with foil. Into the oven at 325 degrees for three hours. Then you uncover it and let it finish cooking to 200 degrees internal temperature for another hour and a half.

This is what it looked like when it was done. Not bad. I was beginning to get encouraged. Let’s see. I somehow figure out how to cut a pork butt almost in half at a competition so that it’s legal. Then instead of cooking the butt for 15 hours like normal, I get some shuteye and show up at the cook site at about 5 in the morning with my bottle of liquid smoke carefully concealed in my bag of wine (for later, of course). This could work.

My fellow competitors might wonder why there is no smoke coming from my cooker, like there was actually real wood in there, but I would make up a clever lie to conceal the truth. Here’s what the pork looked like after it was pulled. Nice and pink. Juicy. I was almost giddy with excitement! Until I tasted it. It was…well, it was not at all smoky.

Well, the whole day was not lost. I also did an experiment with cole slaw. Everyone in the South loves cole slaw on their pulled pork sandwiches. But there’s two kinds – Carolina slaw, which is vinegar-based, and regular slaw, which is mayonnaise based. So I made both kinds. You can figure out which is which.

I have to say I loved them both.

I made cute little sandwiches with Sister Schubert yeast rolls and some barbecue sauce I’ve had in the icebox for over a year (didn’t you know that barbecue sauce never goes bad?). Very tasty, if I do say so.

Here’s the recipe for the Carolina slaw. It’s worth the effort.

Carolina Slaw

1/2 cup apple cider vinegar

6 tablespoons sugar

6 tablespoons vegetable oil

2 1/2 teaspoons dry mustard

1 teaspoon celery seed

2 bags slaw mix

1/2 minced green pepper

1/2  minced sweet onion

Combine the first five ingredients and whisk thoroughly. Chop up the slaw mix until it is in small pieces and add the green pepper, onion and dressing. Let sit in the icebox for at least two hours.