Add Extra Flavor To Your Hot Dogs This Summer With An Old-School Trick

Is a hot dog a sandwich? The world may never have a definitive answer, but if you take the wiener out of the bun, one thing you can say for sure is that a hot dog is a sausage. That means they make the perfect neutrally flavored base for a DIY version of a classic gas station snack.

Surely you've seen pickled sausages, usually sold in pouches and bearing labels along the lines of "Big Mama" or "Fire Cracker." Back in its infancy, The Takeout did a taste test of pickled sausage along with canned bread and canned cheese, and the results were not positive. That's just because I didn't work for them back then, as I've always been a pickled sausage fan. Not to mention, homemade ones are a lot tastier.

To pickle your own hot dogs, you'll need distilled vinegar, which is the kind that can be used for cleaning as well as cooking. Combine it with an equal amount of water — you'll need about 3 ½ cups of each to cover a package of 10 hot dogs. Boil the mixture along with 2 tablespoons of salt, plus 1 of sugar if desired. You can also add any spices and seasonings you like, including garlic, mustard seeds, crushed red pepper, or black peppercorns. Put the hot dogs in a jar or jars, cutting them into pieces if necessary. Once the vinegar-water mix has come to a full boil and the salt has dissolved, pour the liquid over the hot dogs, making sure they're immersed. Stick them in the fridge and let them soak for at least two days.

If you want, you can put these pickled dogs in buns and eat them just like regular hot dogs, There are two ways you can go with the toppings. One is to use contrasting condiments to offset the tube steaks' vinegary flavor. This category would include mild and creamy stuff like mayonnaise and ranch dressing, along with savory add-ons such as cheese and bacon. You could double down on the tang by piling on sauerkraut, mustard, pickle relish, and giardiniera. If you want the best of both worlds, use your pickled sausage as the centerpiece of a West Virginia-style slaw dog slathered with yellow mustard, chopped onions, chili, and, of course, coleslaw.

If you've had to truncate the hot dogs to fit them in the jars, you can always use them for gas station charcuterie, which is sure to be the next trend, according to this would-be stealthfluencer. (I go by the principle that people are more likely to do as you suggest if you keep your face off-camera and don't try to sell them overpriced products.) Slice the sausages into bite-size bits, stick a toothpick in each one, and set out a bowl of mustard for dunking. (Or ketchup, if you must.) As for the other components of your board — which should be cheap and plasticky, none of your fancy rusticity, please — these could include home-pickled eggs (extra points if you use beet juice to turn them a vivid pink) along with a curated selection of flavored potato chips, cheese puffs, and chicharrones.