Tasteless meat mush bursting from the seams?
Sickly gray monstrosities? Better be careful the next time you boil hot dogs.
Head to almost any baseball game, tailgate party, or backyard picnic, and you'll most likely come
across the meaty aromatics of a simple hot dog. Placed between the folds of a fluffy hot dog bun
and topped with any variety of delicious toppings, hot dog meat is soft on the inside
and "snappy" on the outside. It's also primarily comprised of animal muscle, such as pork, turkey,
or beef, as well as seasonings like coriander, ground mustard, and garlic.
The ultimate hot dog can be prepared in a multitude of ways.
One of the more popular ones is grilling, which colors the exterior with those coveted charred
grilled marks and adds a mouth-watering smoky flavor. But for those who don't have a grill,
the use of a frying pan, an oven, a microwave, or a pot of boiling water works well too. However,
boiled water presents a problem for some home cooks, as there is often confusion as to whether
or not hot dogs should be left to sit in scalding hot temperatures. Here's why that's a big no-no.
"No! No! No!"
Let's start with this fundamental question: how should you cook hot dogs in boiling
water? According to Food52, it's a pretty simple process. Boil some water, drop your hot dogs in,
and let them swim around for 4-6 minutes. Don't cover the pot with a lid. Remove the
hot dogs when they start to look plump and let them rest on a plate lined with paper towels.
What happens when hot dogs sit in the pot for too long?
Hot Dog Profits states that they'll get mushy and emphasizes that hot dogs should never be left
in boiling water. Lacademie goes on to explain that over-boiled hot dogs won't taste as good,
their texture will be off, and they might even burst.
So in short, boil hot dogs for about 5 minutes or so and remove
them immediately to prevent changes in aesthetics, textures, and flavors.
The beloved "plump" aesthetics of hot dogs are due to a process called osmosis.
"You want osmosis?"
"You got osmosis."
You may remember from science class that the goal of osmosis is to even out two drastically
different concentration levels through a passive process without any expenditure of energy.
Molecules move from the higher concentration level to the lower concentration one
until their levels are the same. Osmosis happens all the time in food, and Cooking For
Geeks provides examples like seasoning meat with salt or making homemade dill pickles.
EatByDate explains that osmosis also occurs in hot dogs, as water goes in through hot dog
skin and pushes all those chemicals and salt out. The process also makes hot dogs plump up
from all that water intake, but they can go from perfect to mushy in a matter of minutes. Too much
water intake will cause the skin of hot dogs to crack and rupture, which results in those mushy
textures. To add insult to injury, over-boiled hot dogs also result in off-putting gray colors and
bland flavor, since the hot dogs won't have any salt and/or preservatives left inside.
Let's say you and your guests are not quite ready to devour a generous pile of boiled hot dogs.
Leaving them out at room temperature for too long will cause them to cool,
plus it provides an optimal habitat for bacteria to grow. On the other hand,
leaving hot dogs in boiling water will cause them to get bland, mushy, and gray.
The solution lies in the "dirty water dog" technique, which, according to CBS News,
is popular among locals in New York. About an hour before serving, warm water is mixed with
a variety of ingredients, such as ketchup, onions, vinegar, and/or any number of suitable seasonings.
Hot dogs then sit in this water, which begins to take on a "dirty water" appearance.
The water doesn't have to be creatively seasoned either, as it can simply take on
the salty characteristics of the hot dogs themselves, according to EatOutEatWell.
Houston Home Journals explains that osmosis is also occurring within the "dirty dog" method,
but the hot dogs won't burst because the water is not boiling. In fact,
the water should be kept at over 160 Fahrenheit. This way, the hot dogs will stay warm, plump,
and flavorful because of the seasonings and/or food extracts in the heated water.