- 4 minutes ago
What’s the best hot dog you can buy? Food & Wine food stylist Julian Hensarling and hot dog expert Lee Pantazis put some of the biggest brands and grocery store favorites to the ultimate blind taste test. From Nathan’s, Hebrew National, Sabrett, and Oscar Mayer to Costco, Trader Joe’s, Aldi, Walmart, and Whole Foods, they judge each all-beef hot dog on appearance, texture, and flavor—looking for great seasoning, a juicy bite, and that all-important snap.
Along the way, they reveal how to spot a natural casing before you even take a bite, why natural-casing hot dogs have become surprisingly rare, and the surprising alternatives manufacturers use instead. Plus, Julian and TK discover why you shouldn't count out the store brands as a few unexpected contenders climb surprisingly high in the rankings. After tasting them all straight off the grill, the experts narrow down their favorites before crowning the ultimate #1 hot dog.
Along the way, they reveal how to spot a natural casing before you even take a bite, why natural-casing hot dogs have become surprisingly rare, and the surprising alternatives manufacturers use instead. Plus, Julian and TK discover why you shouldn't count out the store brands as a few unexpected contenders climb surprisingly high in the rankings. After tasting them all straight off the grill, the experts narrow down their favorites before crowning the ultimate #1 hot dog.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:04I didn't need my teeth. It just came right out. We're blind tasting hot dogs. We're going on a
00:10wiener adventure. We went to the grocery store and bought every brand of hot dogs we could get
00:14our hands on to rank the top three. We'll be looking at three things. Appearance, texture,
00:19and flavor. All beef hot dogs, cooking them all the same way on the grill.
00:26How would you describe your perfect hot dog? I'm going to look for a hot dog that fills up the
00:30bun,
00:31has a wonderful red color that is firm, but not mushy and not rigid either. We're going to try to
00:36have something that has a little bit of spice, a little bit of garlic, and a wonderful beef-forward
00:40flavor. I mean, we've got to start off discussing the cooking method. I can't even do that. The
00:46size of the hot dog, it's lost in the bun. You can see the little line. This is probably a
00:52skinless
00:52hot dog that was in cellulose. They are consistent. They are permeable. They let smoke through. And
00:58that line is where they ran a blade and then the hot dog went through the extruder and then
01:02the cellulose fell off. 90% of hot dogs in America that are sold are skinless hot dogs. Sure.
01:07Yep. Not heavy on the spice. Definitely picking up the smoke. It's got a nice sweetness. There's not
01:12much of a snap on this hot dog at all. If you put a heavier char on this, you can
01:16make your own snap.
01:17I think in that. Sure. This with mustard and kraut would be a really solid backyard dog. This is our
01:21first one. If this is a baseline, it needs more to make it something that I'm going to come back
01:27to. It's not going to stand alone. It does not stand alone. I'm going to give this hot dog a
01:31four
01:31out of 10. Four and a half is my call for this one. Oh no. It was the big one.
01:36You pulled Oscar
01:37Meyer. The bun they're using in the picture is a different bun than the one we were gifted. Beef and
01:43then water. Dextrose. Corn syrup right there too. That's that sweetness. Sodium phosphate and sodium
01:48acetate. Just different kinds of salts. This is the stuff that people poo poo on and say nitrates
01:53are bad. I do stand by our ratings. Agreed. It does not shock me that it is Oscar Meyer versus
01:58a store
01:59brand. The dog is now almost reaching the tip right here. This is going to be telling us something.
02:07Just the tip? Just the tip. Those little creases. Yeah. That means it got twisted. Cellulose can twist.
02:12Again, we're pretty uniform and you see the extruder line. I'm going to go hot dog plain first and then
02:17I'm
02:18going to go with the bun. That's just my technique. Yes chef. Very salty. Flavor is extremely beef
02:24forward. No sweetness. Not a bit. Tiny bit of garlic. Tiny bit of paprika. Not as juicy and I think
02:29that's you know has a lot to do with the fact that there's not as much fat in here. The
02:32one thing that
02:32not having as much fat it really does bring out that beefy flavor like you were saying. That little
02:37air gap that exists right there. This is what the smoke created when they were smoking it and that is
02:42where you're talking about creating a skin that has a pop. This with the bun was tolerable but the hot
02:47dog alone. Not as good as the last one? Nope. Is this great value brand? Probably so. This is a
02:53three
02:53and a half. I'm going to go three. The salty factor like it's just too much for me. I like
02:58the aesthetic
02:59of this. Sure the look is good. Yeah the flavor was just not as good. The texture was not as
03:03good and
03:04I would say this is a store brand hot dog. All right big reveal. I've got the double pack. Oh
03:09great value.
03:11Great value. Nailed it. Okay cool. I will say the smoke flavor didn't taste natural to me. So yeah you
03:16see
03:17smoke flavor added right there. A serviceable hot dog. You know when it's 4th of July you're grabbing
03:21a pack of these for four bucks and your 10 year old is not going to have an opinion on
03:25natural smoke
03:26versus I mean they might. I don't know 10 year olds are pretty discerning these days.
03:32We've got a good basis for like where we're starting. You know you're in a liquor store and
03:37you're looking at the bottom two shelves. They exist for a reason. They're a hot dog. Yeah it's a hot
03:42dog.
03:42It's supposed to be a food of the people. Bun length hot dog. Skinless casing again. Yours is
03:46starting to wrinkle. Sometimes that can be a sign of the fat expanding under heat. Some people seek
03:53that out. Some people don't. I can't tell if this one has normal levels of salt. The last one was
04:00offensive or if this is just a more balanced hot dog. This one does have a little bit more juice.
04:06Yeah definitely more juicy. It also has like the right bounce back. Yeah. I'm not able to just like
04:12mush it into nothing. Definitely more spice like there's a bit more complexity. The red pepper flavor
04:17on this is actually discernible and that's nice. I want a little bit of salt, a little bit of sweet,
04:22a little bit of fat, a little bit of heat, a little bit of all the flavors. We're getting a
04:25mystery meat.
04:26We get to play with it. I want to make sure that we play with a wiener we want to
04:29play with.
04:29Indeed. I'm going to say this is my five right here. I would agree. I'd be quite satisfied with this
04:34and you
04:34know a hot dog's really just a plate. Yep. This is a plate I could put a lot of cool
04:37stuff on and
04:38make some really really fun meals with and I think this is a great foundation to have a cookout on.
04:43Oh wow. Applegate. Uncured. Uncured. Celery powder and cherry powder to preserve which I think we did
04:51like picked up like the salty factor was not at the level that those ones that did have the nitrates
04:57in
04:57it. Even an uncured hot dog is still going to have nitrites. Celery powder and cherry powder are still
05:03creating the nitrites. You're just not injecting explicit sodium nitrite into the hot dog. Exactly.
05:10I like Applegate as a brand. You are paying for the uncured, grass-fed, organic. That's where your
05:16money's going. And this is a great product. This is a first jump in size. Poking out? Poking out. Almost.
05:24I see a seam right here on mine. Right there, yeah. Yep. But I also see some irregular wiggle on
05:29mine. Yep. I think
05:30that could be where one part had more fat, one part had less fat and so as it cooked, one
05:36part expanded,
05:37one part shrank. We've got that little twist. Little twist. Noticeable red pepper flake and juice.
05:44Flavor-wise, this is a great hot dog. Not too salty. Beef forward. With the fat comes a little sweetness
05:48too.
05:48Mm-hmm. This is the most spice forward too. I mean, I can taste paprika in that. Yes.
05:52There's definitely some color. Like we're actually picking up on some color with that juice that's
05:56coming out. It's on your bun. It's on my bun. So if the last one was a five. In terms
05:59of texture,
05:59it's about the same. In terms of the skin appearance, it's all about the same. I would
06:03say this is a five as well. I'm going to go five and a half on this one. I think
06:06I just prefer this
06:07flavor profile. Picking up on that spice, the garlic, all the things, as well as the beef flavor,
06:12that's going to get that extra half point. This is the one, like the first one I'm really interested to
06:17see
06:17what it is. Yeah, because you want to go buy this one afterwards? I possibly would.
06:20It's the Hebrew National. Hebrew National. It's a great hot dog. Absolutely. And you can see
06:24this hot dog right here has a lot of spice already in it. Like all that liquid has a color
06:29to it.
06:30Kosher beef is your first ingredient. Hebrew National is a great brand. Great hot dog.
06:37We've got some girth now. Girth Brooks. Girth Brooks. Got the extruder line right there. Definitely
06:42going to be juicy. I mean, I can already feel this one. It's got that pushback right there. I'm going
06:46straight in with wiener here. Ballpark. I think it has to be. I think this has to be ballpark.
06:52Look at the inside of that. Yep. It's a little pinker. It's not as red. This was a slime when
06:57it
06:57got put into the machine. It's such a vastly different texture. It is a juicy hot dog. It is,
07:04but it is not a greasy hot dog. And it is also not squeezing out any of the fat out
07:08of the hot dog.
07:09Does not have what we're looking for on the interior. No. This was done in a factory that's
07:14shooting out a hundred million hot dogs every 37 seconds. Processed food. We started and we hit
07:19a little peak and I think we have. We've come back down. I think we've come back down. You don't
07:23need
07:23a lot of teeth to eat this. Yeah. I didn't need my teeth. It just came right out. This is
07:31a totally
07:31serviceable hot dog. This is not a hot dog I would seek out. Yeah. This is a kid's hot dog.
07:35Yeah. Oh,
07:36absolutely. Two and a half. Three and a half. Just because I like the size of it and I like
07:40the look
07:41of it. But this isn't bringing anything to the party. Let's see what we got here. Oh, park view,
07:46not ballpark. Aldi. Aldi has some great products. Aldi has some availability things that are unique.
07:51You have to put the quarter in to use the push cart. No nitrates or nitrites. Uncured. But it does
07:58have sodium phosphates, cherry powder as our preservative right there. This is what you buy when you're
08:03worried that you didn't have enough and you go, throw some hot dogs in there to make sure,
08:08you know, we have enough food. All right. Oh, that's a big hot dog. That makes me happy.
08:16We're looking for our extruder line. I see one. Yep. Little red pepper in there. Not as juicy as I
08:21thought it was going to be. Same. But who knows? I'll be honest. I taste the grill more than I
08:27taste the
08:27hot dog. Straight into salt. Not even like a pleasant salt. Like an odd bitterness with that saltiness.
08:33Three and a half. Yeah. Three. Yeah. It's, it's, it's got size and it looked good. After that,
08:38the conversation stopped. Oh, what do we got here? What do we got here? Oh no. The 365 brand
08:45from the Whole Foods, paprika, coriander, black pepper, ginger, nutmeg, white pepper, allspice.
08:52I didn't catch a single bit of that. These aren't organic. They are welfare certified. So it's
08:59Whole Foods, right? It's Whole Foods. So it's Amazon. It's not surprising that this isn't a hot dog
09:02that wows us. This was a large hot dog. That's what it tasted like.
09:08Got another on the thicker variety, but definitely not full bun length. Seam is nice and apparent right
09:14there. Oh. Huh. This one has the least prevalent skinless skin of any that we've had. There's no
09:25discernible difference between exterior and interior. And mine's even got some wonderful
09:29char on it that you would think would increase that textural component. The color of it, I won't
09:34say off-putting. You can tell that it's extremely homogenized. It's extremely whipped. There's a lot
09:39of air in this mix. Agreed. This is a souffle of dog inside of it. What's odd is I actually
09:45like the
09:45flavor of this one. Do you? It's got good salt. It's got good sweetness. It's not spicy. There's not much
09:50going on, but like it's a nice like beefy hot dog. Not a lot I can say about this one.
09:54I'm going to
09:55give it a three and a half. I concur. Three and a half. We're just going to keep guessing ballpark
09:58until we get it right. Agreed. We're in the ballpark. This, I mean, yeah. Oh yes. Right? Yes, sir.
10:04Ah, we finally did it. Done. See how smart we are? Why does it plump when it cooks? The short
10:09version is
10:10heat causes an expansion. That goes back to the air that was in there. That goes back to how whipped
10:14that
10:16emulsification was. Hydrolyzed beef stock. Oh, so the reason they do the hydrolyzed beef stock,
10:20it's like cooking rice in chicken stock versus cooking it in water. Every bit of the bite you get
10:25has some beef flavor. Whoa. I think these are trying to mimic a sheepskin casing. Okay. It's like the size
10:34that they're trying to mimic. Yeah. You can see where the cellulose didn't close a hundred percent. And so
10:39you see that different textural component. That was a nice little snap pop. And it's got some color,
10:44you know, this looks closer to like the apple gates. Like maybe we're going to have some texture.
10:50This is liquid smoke. I don't think that's a natural smoke. You can see how it was whipped. Sure.
10:56And then piped in. Extruded into it. You can actually see like the striations, like the lines.
11:02You have a machine shooting through there so fast, it's basically stacking coins. Dime, dime, dime,
11:07squirt, squirt, squirt. This is still in that three and a half, four range to me. The flavor of the
11:11hot dog
11:12is underwhelming. Definitely a four for me. It's a four. I don't think this is a like nationally
11:16recognized name brand. Sure. I think this is a store brand. Yep. Agreed. It's going to be a ballpark
11:21again or something like that. Ballpark number two. Trader Joe's. Grocery store brand. Uncured.
11:27Smoke flavor added. Smoke flavor added. So yeah, we're starting to really dial in here, by the way.
11:31It's a cool package. I really like the... Yeah, the branding's great. It's a totally serviceable hot dog
11:36that you're going to need some good toppings for. I like the size. We have not transitioned away from
11:43skinless hot dogs. A little bit more juicy. There's definitely a little bit like, I can see some
11:48seasoning going on in there. The emulsification on the interior of the hot dog has some separation.
11:54I kind of like this one. The smoke that I taste, tastes like a natural smoke. There's not a lot
11:59of
11:59sweetness. No. And I actually enjoy that. Buns are sweet. Mm-hmm. Toppings are sweet. Ketchup is sweet.
12:05You see that? Yeah. There's like actual little pieces of fat. That's a positive. I think that's a
12:10positive. I think that's a real nice thing that it's not overworked. Flavor wise, I still think
12:14the Hebrew is my favorite. Texture and size wise, I think this is the one that hits the mark for
12:18me
12:18so far as the best. It's a good hot dog. This is a good hot dog. Yeah. I wouldn't be
12:21mad if I bought
12:21this and cooked it. Agreed. I think this is a five, just like the Hebrew. I'm going to go six.
12:25I think
12:26this is just a little step up from that Hebrew national. I think this is a company that makes hot
12:30dogs.
12:30Yeah. I don't think this is a big box brand. What do we got here? All right.
12:35Wellshire. Wellshire. I might actually pick this up if I was at a grocery store. May I hold the
12:39wieners? So this is why I like this. Beef, water, salt, sugar, spices, natural flavor. And that's it.
12:46I thought these were nice. Agreed. I thought that was a good hot dog.
12:51Okay. Real red color. Definitely has the seam. These are juicy. They're juicy. You can see it. Yeah.
12:57It's, it's firm. Like the Applegate, it was a little bit more firm, but it looked like meat.
13:01This has that. It's really salty. Yeah. I feel like the ingredient,
13:05like what's inside of this is probably higher up. Yep. I think the skin is great. And I think
13:09the firmness of the emulsification is nice. I like that it springs back. The previous emulsion,
13:15I guess, two hot dogs ago, it looked like it was dimes stacking based on these. This doesn't look
13:19like that. No. I'm going to go four and a half. It's I think a little too salty. I'm going
13:24to agree with four
13:25and a half. Boar's head. Boar's head. Look at that. I feel like boar's head across the board always
13:31brings. That's why pump subs are so good. Boar's head stuff. Yeah.
13:37What we got here? The splitting. It's a nice split on that. This might be a natural casing. Yeah. I
13:42don't
13:42see a single line and that splitting right there is really making me think of natural casing right there.
13:47It's got that little snappy tear. So it is salty. It is sweet and it has a nice garlic note
13:54to it.
13:55It's almost like looking at the skin on pork. It might be a collagen casing. There is a fake
14:00casing that does this. I think we're getting tricked. I think so. But I do think this is
14:04really nice. Whatever this casing is, is a step up from a skinless hot dog. 100%. And it's not even
14:11close. You can see how juicy my hands are in a good way. Yeah. You can see it's like there's
14:16variation
14:16in texture of the meat. Of all the hot dogs, this is the one that's coming with the most complexity.
14:21This is the best one we've had. I agree. This is definitely the best hot dog so far. I mean,
14:24I already ate. Yeah, look at that. Right? Like we're tasting hot dogs and I'm almost done. I'm
14:29going to give this a solid seven. I'll go seven as well. This is going to be a tough one
14:32to beat.
14:33I'm excited to see what we have here. I'm going to go buy some. Market side. So this is a
14:38Walmart
14:38product. Really? Yep. Fully cooked, uncured Angus B. Franks. This was the one that tasted like it had
14:45meat. Flavor was on point. It wasn't overly anything. They're skinless hot dogs. And the crispy skin that
14:52was created on the outside is, it was nice. I don't know how they got it, but it was nice.
14:58I'm not going to eat the rest of the day. This is a lot of wiener. Got the seam again.
15:02Another
15:02skinless. Not too big, not too small. It is a juicy hot dog. Yeah. I mean, I'm sitting here watching
15:08little bits of juice squirting out all over the place. So it looks extremely emulsified. Decent color
15:14though. It's not too anemic. When you bite into it, you get that fatty juiciness. It makes you salivate
15:20more. And then when you salivate more, it tastes better and like it expands. And it's just,
15:23it's really pleasant. There's no bitterness. No bitterness. There's good sweetness. There's
15:27good salt. This is giving me hot dog. If I got handed this at a barbecue, I'm going back for
15:32a
15:33second. Agreed. I'm going to go seven. I would eat this hot dog with a smile on my face and
15:37we'll
15:37continue to. I'm going to go seven and a half. Across the board, a good hot dog. This could be
15:41Kirkland.
15:42It's a big package. Oh, look at that. Go buy $1.50 hot dog from Costco. Honestly,
15:50that looks good to me. It's an attractive wiener. It's an attractive wiener. So this
15:53is the kind of hot dog I would actually like to drop in a deep fryer. I agree. This thing
15:57would
15:58split and crisp in the prettiest ways possible. I think it would be a really, really nice way to
16:03do this hot dog. Oh, hanging over. I love when a little wiener pokes out. It's hard to tell because
16:11of the wrinkle, but this is a skinless hot dog. To me, this looks like a Nathan's. I was just
16:15going to say
16:16the same thing. It's strong in its flavor. It's not beating around the bush. It springs back.
16:22It's good texture. This is a good hot dog. We're in that seven range right now. Seven, seven, seven.
16:27Agreed. So I'm going to say seven. I mean, I love a Nathan's. I really do. But that Kirkland one,
16:31really nice. It was super nice. And so that's going to be my high point right now. So seven.
16:37Okay. Sabret from the Bronx. We were close to that. I'm sorry to get you confused with Nathan's because
16:42you are your own thing, but you are delicious. A phenomenal, like New York style hot dog. Absolutely.
16:48And I will say they add smoke flavor to them. Yep. The hickory smoke flavor. It's a slightly
16:53different smoke. So that's a little bit sweeter. And so it's not as much like, hey man, here's our smoke.
16:58You know, they've been making these for a long time. Yeah. I mean, and they do it well. It is
17:02the quintessential dirty water dog. Agreed.
17:06All right. It's a natural casing. It's a natural casing, huh? Look at that tear.
17:10Well, the bow. And look, you can even see at the very end of it, a little tail. You can
17:14see the
17:15casing is still on the hot dog. You can feel it. Got that curve. Yeah. Good wiggle. Got a good
17:19wiggle.
17:20Good wiggle. It's wonderful. The actual casing, not connected to anything.
17:27You can still see that clear bit right there. Color wise, we've talked about it. This one is a little
17:31gray.
17:32It is. It's not as robust a red as we've been getting, but the emulsification is good. Again,
17:37we're not stacking dimes. It has snap, but it goes so fast. Just boom. It's not surprising that only one
17:44of them was a natural casing. The truth is natural casing hot dogs appear to be a rarity. I also
17:48think
17:49there's a little bit of an ease of approach. Hot dogs are a utility food, especially because most of these
17:56beef
17:56ones, I don't know if they're going to be using pork. They use sheep most of the time. So there's
18:01like another element that's like harder to find, harder to source. Yep. Whether that is because
18:05people seek out that or whether that is because the powers that be that make hot dogs have made
18:10those more affordable is a different conversation that I can't speak to, but big hot dog, big wiener
18:15will get you. But this was an eight. Yeah. It's an eight for me as well.
18:20Oh, it's Nathan's with the natural casing. With the natural casing. All right. And I am so happy. Yes.
18:27That Nathan's and the natural casing is our highest rated. Nathan's is kind of the inventor of selling
18:33hot dogs to the people. This is a good hot dog. I'm happy that it was Nathan's as well.
18:38All right. We've got our top dogs here. Over here in third place,
18:41we've got a two way tie with MarketSide and Sabra. I think these are both killer hot dogs.
18:46The MarketSide brand was a real surprise to me. And we even had a little bit of a discussion about
18:50what the casing was on this one, because it was such a nice textural component. Coming in in second
18:56place is good old Kirkland with a solid score of 7.25. Across the board, flavor, consistency, color,
19:03texture. It's a high quality product that we both enjoyed. And at number one, kind of with no surprise,
19:08is Nathan's with a natural casing. We both scored this at an eight and it's going for $5 a pack.
19:15The flavor, the consistency, the mouth feel, the size, the shape, everything about this
19:20screams the perfect hot dog. The natural casing was certainly a part of what made it superior,
19:25but the whole package was, it was just a beautiful wiener across the board. And also historically,
19:30Nathan's carries the flame as America's hot dog.
19:35You're not going to go wrong with any of these dogs right here. And if we've missed
19:39any of your favorite brands, let us know in the comments. Lee, thank you so much for coming out
19:43here and giving us all of your hot dog knowledge. And I'm so glad I got to share hot dogs
19:48with you.
19:48I feel like more hot dog than man right now. I got that dog in me for sure.
19:54We will see you back in the comments.
19:54Thanks for meeting you, Michael.
19:54We will see you back in the comments.
19:54Bye.
19:54Bye, bye.