Building A Great WV Hot Dog At Home: The Import Edition

While I like my homemade WV weenies to be as local as possible, in the name of fairness I figured that I'd let some out-of-state products (or at least stuff from unfamiliar Yankee regions of West-by-God) take a crack at making a good dog.

Rather than my usual Heiner's goodness, I had Pepperidge Farms buns I scored for free with my weenie purchase. Their okay out of the bag for any other part of the country, but the phrase "Huntington-fresh buns" ain't just whistling Dixie. If a dog is to be served here, the bun has to be softer than a Steelers' fan's brain to cut the mustard.

The weenies should be top notch, though. They are the new angus beef franks from Ball Park. I could kill too birds with one stone here. So, as I boiled the weenies, I used some sort of contraption to steam the buns to 'til they had the texture of congealed porridge.

With the sausage and bread under control, next it was time for a squirt of yellow mustard and some sauce. This time I am using some of T & L's spicy sauce that a family member brought me from Clarksburg.

Then it's some Vidalia onions from Georgia and Gunnoe's slaw from East Virginia. Don't forget some salt and pepper, too.

Overall, this one worked out pretty well. The bun was gooey as all get out of it and the angus Ball Park frank is a serious hot dog for a serious weenie wonk. Nathan's skinless franks, at $1.00 more and 65% of the deliciousness, seriously need to justify their existence with a price cut or a pink meat reformulation. I'm still gonna stick to Cavalier freshness for day-to-day dogs, but I might grab some of these angus franks every other payday as a treat.

The T&L sauce was just too damn spicy for my liking. It needed a bit more Italian-y sweetness to balance the flamethrower. That said, I imagine that I will enjoy some of their medium sauce the next time that I am north of Exit 57.

Gunnoe's slaw blows. Bring us back Ballard's, Kroger, even if a few people got sick a few years ago.

Vidalia onions rawk. 'Nuff said.

I give this version 3 weenies, thanks mostly to the weenie, the onions, and to the steaming contraption. A little better and/or a little less spicy sauce and some mediocre slaw could have brought it to the 4 weenie range. Maybe next time.