being that ive lived in louisiana for the past 6 years..i would gobble the HOT DOG made from wagyu in a few seconds flat, although i think the picture is misleading and its probably huge, so a few minutes then.

also.. whats the point of b*tching about frankfurters and hot dogs. thats real gay.

i guess if you were some uppity douchebag from germany, you may insist its called a frankfurter
..however, if i may act like an ignorant southerner briefly… its a goddamn hot dog, man. all american at this point, f the roots. it may have been a frankfurter in a fancy bun at some point.. but psssssh, who cares.

seriously, to the gentleman who cooked this beautiful “fat” food, congrats my friend, youve outdone all other hotdogs, frankfurters, wieners, etc.. by making me drool while looking at my computer, i only imagine the smell being twice as effective as the photos.

can i pay you via paypal for a gator dog? :)

-p.s. i dont mean to bash opions, but lighten up guys.. ITS A HOT DOG. not a genocide or some horrible conflict we’re arguing over.

Also, I didn’t say Kobe beef = Wagyu. In Japan beef and many other foods are named according to the region in which they are produced. Kobe “style” beef does not exist in Japan, but beef that is historically bred in Kobe exists (Kobegyu), and you can eat it in Kobe. And if you’re truly a connoisseur you can eat highly esteemed beef from many other regions in Japan that have their own names and levels of subjective quality (Yonezawagyu is superb). Kobe just happens to be a name known in the US and which is abusively used for marketing purposes.

To your credit, yes the word “wiener” does have a different meaning from hot dog or frankfurter, so I apologize for being cavalier about it, but frankfurters *are* traditionally made from pork, and you can look this up. The origin of the term “hot dog” isn’t clear to me, some sources on the web attribute it to coming from Frankfurt, though I have my doubts having eaten Frankfurters in Frankfurt. I received a long spicy 100% pork sausage (easily 50%+ juicy pork fat inside) settled in a roll that in combination would look much like a broomstick would were you to thread it through a baseball. So the idea is at least partially Frankfurtian, but it wasn’t named a “hot dog” in Germany, as they speak German, and a “heiss hund” just doesn’t have the same ring to it. The amount of poorly referenced info on the web concerning this topic is often copied from one place to another; though wikipedia does confer with me on what an authentic frankfurter consisting of only pork. Perhaps the true history of these terms and foods would be a good side project for the Shameless Carnivore.

BTW, I am aware of Hebrew National’s products. I can buy one of their packages labeled “beef frankfurters” at my supermarket. I assume “beef” is prefaced to distinguish the product from a standard frankfurter which does not contain beef.

Upton Sinclair would probably agree with you about not thinking too hard about the origin of sausages you intend to eat! Beef or not, I enjoy them all.

First, to Harry: thank you for being here and writing thoughtfully about the post and its comments. I appreciate your candor.

Secondly: You’re wrong. Oh boy, are you wrong.

Wagyu beef is beef from the Wagyu breed of cattle, most famously known from Kobe, Japan. It is not Kobe beef, because — like Cognac and Champagne and Bourbon and other products that have regional designations — it is not from the Kobe prefecture. Wagyu steers, however, have been imported to the USA, and have a fine, longstanding reputation of producing beautiful, if not fully “Kobe,” beef, with all that fantastic marbling. It’s good beef, quality beef, and very tasty, no matter what you do with it.

Which brings me to my next point. Harry, while enthusiastic, clearly doesn’t know what a hot dog actually is. No, it does not have to be made from pork, though pork-based hot dogs are very popular. It’s kind of astonishing that he’d use the word “frankfurter,” not even realizing that the spicy BEEF sausages originating from Frankfurt bear the namesake of that colloquialism, as opposed to “wiener,” which refers to the milder, veal-based sausages commonly found in Vienna (note: also beef). Obviously, Harry isn’t a Jew like me, otherwise he’d be keenly aware of all of the AMAZING kosher hot dogs on the market, particularly Hebrew National, all of which are made from beef.

Here’s what a hot dog is: Meat — generally beef or pork, but it can also be chicken, turkey, lamb, llama, what have you — combined with fat (very important – all decent hot dogs should be minimum 30% fat, for flavor and binding purposes), and spices (usually salt, garlic and paprika), all of which are emulsified into a liquid, stuffed into a casing, then smoked and served on a roll.

THAT, sir, is a hot dog. Get your facts straight if you want to get all huffy in these environs.

That said, it doesn’t matter where your meat comes from when you’re creating a hot dog, unless you’re making it’s of the kosher variety. Is a Wagyu hot dog a waste of good beef? Not if you really consider which parts they’re using. Obviously, anything from the sirloin or short loin would be sad to see liquefied and poured into a sausage casing. But scraps from the shanks? Trimmings from the chuck or round? Head meat? The tail?

Any part of this animal can be made into a hot dog. Which is why I don’t like to think about it all too much when I’m enjoying my frank. After all, isn’t that the whole point about hot dogs in the first place?

That is all,
Scott
The Shameless Carnivore

I find it interesting that beef frankfurters are only popular in the US; probably for their lower price and lower fat content. An authentic frankfurter is made from pork. Personally, if I wanted to construct a decadent contest winning dog, I’d start kuro buta (japanese black pig) or maybe wild boar; perhaps even a 50/50 mix.

And while I’m being stuffy; for the record… A frankfurter is a sausage. A “hotdog” is a frankfurter in a bun. Americans seem to combine the two words as meaning the same thing, but take a look at the package of wieners next time you buy; they aren’t called hotdogs. That said, a frankfurter wrapped in sushi rice is probably closer to being sushi than it is to being a hotdog.