Working Girl Cooks!

I am not meat’s biggest fan. In fact I like to eat a mostly vegetarian diet. And when I do eat meat I almost strictly stick to chicken and seafood. But these hot dogs are F-ing awesome! The first year TDH and I started dating he took me back east to Rhode Island to visit his family. Both his parents were born and raised in Rhode Island and he still has a set of grandparents and a handful of aunts, uncles, and cousins living in Providence. I don’t remember many details from our trip as it was 6 years ago (hey I’m getting old…my mind is going already!) but I do remember the food! I remember joking about how I gained 10lbs during that 10 day trip because we ate so so so much! TDH comes from an Italian family that loves to eat. We ate a lot of pasta but the food I remember most are these hot wieners. I have never had hot dogs this good before. They don’t have them anywhere except Rhode Island. They are made by a company called Olneyville New York System. They use a secret blend of spices to make the meat sauce that tops the hot dogs taste incredible. You can find out how they make their incredibly indulgent wieners by going here but they don’t divulge the secret spice recipe. Well, the other day my mother-in-law sent me a link to a food network recipe for Rhode Island Hot Weiners with a spice recipe. I couldn’t wait to try it out to find out if it was authentic and I thought what a better time than Super Bowl? So I threw a Super Bowl party….simply so I could make hot wieners…umm…and…watch…the …game?

There are a few secrets to making amazing hot wieners. The first is to use 80/20 ground beef. The fat really adds to the flavor and keeps the beef sauce nice and moist. You are also supposed to use shortening. I just didn’t have the heart (attack) in me so I used butter. I think I will break down and use shortening next time. The sauce just wasn’t as moist with butter. The sauce is really easy to make and only needs four items. Really good fatty ground beef, onions, shortening…. and the secret spice sauce. This spice mix is OFF THE HOOK! (Did I really just say that??). Holy moly mother of something holy! Just the smell it leaves in your kitchen while you are cooking the sauce is heavenly. I have officially decided that everything I make from now on must include this spice mixture.

The other secrets to making these hot wieners really kick some ass is  to make sure you buy natural casing all beef hot dogs and steam the buns. I just popped them in the microwave bag and all for a minute to steam them and they came out nice and warm and moist.

Needless to say these were a major hit at the Super Bowl party. Everyone ranted and raved and all 24 of them were gone before the game ended.

Click Here to get the recipe from the Food Network and Enjoy!