Spice up your Independence Day weekend with this hot dog hoedown

Ah, summer, the season for hot dogs. From local ballparks and backyard grills to the best roadside stands, you’ll find a range of dogs that reflect family traditions and local cultures.

Debates about its history as well as the proper condiments abound. Both Frankfurt, Germany (hence the name frankfurter), and Vienna (the wiener) claim to be its birthplace. Did German immigrants first bring this sausage to New York in the 1860s? Some say the dog was first named dachshund sausages because of their long, thin shape, and that the term evolved to hot dog because dachshund was just too hard to spell.

Some accounts credit German baker Charles Feltman with selling this sausage in a bun from his Coney Island stand to beachgoers back in the 1860s as a convenient meal that did not require plates or cutlery. And longtime employee Nathan Handwerker quit in 1916 to open a rival hot dog shop, Nathan’s Famous. Decades later, Nathan’s launched the first July 4th hot dog eating contest, a tradition that continues to this day with a record set in 2021 of 76 hot dogs in 10 minutes.

In Chicago, Oscar Mayer launched his own hot dog empire in the 1880s. Mayer became an industry innovator by inventing a machine to mass-produce one of America’s favorite foods, streamlining packaging and creating the quality control standards needed to make them widely available.

Now, hot dogs — easily cooked at home, over campfires and in outdoor venues — are eaten on the move with friends and embody summer’s carefree vibe. Americans eat an estimated 7 billion of them between Memorial Day and Labor Day, according to the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council. The biggest hot dog holiday is July 4th, when Americans collectively eat around 150 million hot dogs. President Franklin D. Roosevelt served a hot dog on a soft bun with mustard to visiting British monarch King George VI, who was so enchanted that he asked for seconds.

The classic U.S. hot dog is made with all beef, but hot dogs also can be fashioned from a variety of meats, including pork, chicken and turkey, and these days you can find vegetarian hot dogs made of soy and beans and tofu. The best? Those plump all-beef dogs in natural casings that snap at first bite.

Regional variations are endless. There’s the Chicago dog, an all-beef hot dog in a poppyseed bun with bright yellow mustard, equally bright green pickle relish, chopped onion, sliced tomato, dill pickle and pickled peppers. Then there’s the New York dog with sauerkraut, brown mustard and diced raw onions. In Arizona, find a Mexican variation with pinto beans, salsa, mayonnaise and bacon.

Hot dogs have not lost their appeal. I’m seeing a renaissance of wild and wonderful creations lifting vendors to culinary destinations: the Papaya King in New York City, Pink’s Hot Dogs in Los Angeles and Ben’s Chili Bowl in Washington, D.C. But when this New Jersey girl thinks of the best dog, I hark back to the ones my dad cooked on the grill, split down the middle, juicy and crisped, cooked alongside sweet princess corn slathered with butter. You can’t go wrong with corn and dogs, ever.

Serves 4.

While my favorite dogs are the ones my dad used to grill, served on a tender bun, and topped simply with a good rough Dijon mustard and diced pickles, some folks prefer theirs fully loaded. Take the kind of dog that’s “dragged through the garden,” piled with tomatoes, hot and sweet peppers, cucumbers, avocado, onions (fresh or grilled), olives, pickled veggies, and laced with strong mustard or spicy aioli.

The key is to get the right kind of dog, and that is a fat all-beef frank. When it comes to cooking, I’m just not much of a grill master, and often impatient, so the stovetop method guarantees success. Whether you toast the buns is up to you. … I tend not to as they hold their shape if they’re not laid out flat, allowing the dog to be snuggled into the bun and ready to top with whatever suits you. Just be sure to provide plenty of napkins to catch the juices sure to run down your arms. From Beth Dooley.

• 4 to 8 hot dogs

• 2 to 4 tablespoons butter

• 4 to 8 soft buns, gently split open

• Toppings (see list)

Directions

Set a large skillet over medium-high heat, add the butter, and melt to bubbling. Add the hot dogs and cook, rolling occasionally until all sides are browned and crisped, about 3 to 5 minutes. Place the hot dogs on the opened buns and top to your heart’s content.

Here are suggested quantities for topping off those dogs. Why not offer all of them and allow guests to build the dog of their dreams?

• 1 yellow bell pepper, seeded, and cut into strips

• ½ pint cherry tomatoes, cut in half

• 1 jalapeño pepper, thinly sliced

• 1 avocado, pitted, thinly sliced

• ¼ c. pickled carrot slices

• ¼ c. thinly sliced radish

• ¼ c. diced white onion

• ¼ c. coarse Dijon mustard

• 2 to 3 tbsp. chipotle mayonnaise

• ½ c. thinly sliced yellow onion, sautéed with the hot dogs for about 2 to 3 minutes

• 1 red bell pepper, seeded, cut into strips, sautéed with the hot dogs until browned at the edges, about 2 to 3 minutes

Beth Dooley is the author of “The Perennial Kitchen.” Find her at bethdooleyskitchen.com.