Unnecessary tangent: the main thing that makes them so good* is that they wrap them in foil before handing them to you, letting the bun heat up and steam a bit. You could microwave a cheap bun for a few seconds at home and get the same experience while saving several dollars. Or grill/toast it for one that blows ballpark dogs out of the water.
* Besides cooking them well enough, which most people don’t do because the perfect hot dog takes multiple times longer than the instructions say. Simply heating them through isn’t enough - blistered is better!
You can also (lightly) score them down their length before cooking for more surface area (the cuts will pop open during cooking) and a firmer texture. Even one line makes a huge difference in how they come out.
It’s basically the same thing as that spiral cut technique that was going around a while back, but doesn’t need a skewer and requires a hundredth the effort.
I haven’t been to Dodgers, but they have a reputation for being a pretty terrible hotdog due to the sponsor being mediocre.
On the flip side, all of the Chicago stadiums are sponsored by the best in the business, Vienna.
When I was more directly involved in lower-scale hotdog slinging, we’d get a similar result by holding the buns in a steam table, making them warm and fluffy. Boil a pack of hotdogs, finish them on the grill… A boil-grilled Vienna 6" 6:1 on an S. Rosen (Alpha Baking) 5" bun with diced onion, celery salt, mustard, and ketchup… Perfection.
Pretty much everywhere in the Chicago region uses the exact same hotdog bun you can get in every grocery store here. Most stores don’t carry the poppyseed variant though.
Ballpark dogs also help.
Unnecessary tangent: the main thing that makes them so good* is that they wrap them in foil before handing them to you, letting the bun heat up and steam a bit. You could microwave a cheap bun for a few seconds at home and get the same experience while saving several dollars. Or grill/toast it for one that blows ballpark dogs out of the water.
* Besides cooking them well enough, which most people don’t do because the perfect hot dog takes multiple times longer than the instructions say. Simply heating them through isn’t enough - blistered is better!
Air fryer has totally changed my hotdog game, shit’s unreal
You can also (lightly) score them down their length before cooking for more surface area (the cuts will pop open during cooking) and a firmer texture. Even one line makes a huge difference in how they come out.
It’s basically the same thing as that spiral cut technique that was going around a while back, but doesn’t need a skewer and requires a hundredth the effort.
You know your dogs!
Air fryer changed my cooking game in general
I haven’t been to Dodgers, but they have a reputation for being a pretty terrible hotdog due to the sponsor being mediocre.
On the flip side, all of the Chicago stadiums are sponsored by the best in the business, Vienna.
When I was more directly involved in lower-scale hotdog slinging, we’d get a similar result by holding the buns in a steam table, making them warm and fluffy. Boil a pack of hotdogs, finish them on the grill… A boil-grilled Vienna 6" 6:1 on an S. Rosen (Alpha Baking) 5" bun with diced onion, celery salt, mustard, and ketchup… Perfection.
Pretty much everywhere in the Chicago region uses the exact same hotdog bun you can get in every grocery store here. Most stores don’t carry the poppyseed variant though.
Blistered is better. Not as good as not eating hot dogs, (best.)