Many Americans will celebrate this Independence Day by ingesting a batter-like poultry product (made by forcing bones and attached edible tissue through a sieve under high pressure) blended with a slurry of pork and/or beef meat taken off the bone by advanced meat recovery machinery (AMM) and mixed with potassium lactate, sodium diacetate, sodium erythorbate, corn maltodextrin, sodium nitrate, and paprika extract, then forced into tubes.
These will be heated over glowing little pillows formed of carbonized sawdust and petroleum distillates and placed in enriched flour buns moistened by a paste of ground yellow mustard seeds mixed with acetic acid and tumeric, then garnished with cubes of chemically preserved cucumber dyed an improbable green with FD&C Yellow #5.
Yum!
Have a safe and happy 4th of July.
Read more:
“What’s in Your Wiener? Hot Dog Ingredients Explained,” Katherine Harmon, Scientific American
Short link: http://wp.me/p6sb6-azt
Image (after James Montgomery Flagg and Oscar Mayer) by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com
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Tags: 4th of July, cookouts, food, food ingredients, Fourth of July, frankfurters, franks, grilling, holiday food, holidays, hot dogs, July 4th, weenies, wieners
NotionsCapital 
July 3, 2011 at 9:02 am
Whatever! Vienna Beef and Chicago-style dogs rule. And, NO KETCHUP, ever!
July 3, 2011 at 9:57 am
Lora wrote: Vienna Beef and Chicago-style dogs rule.
Boiled or steamed hot dogs on the 4th of July? I think not. Gotta grill ’em.
For those who have been living under a rock, a Chicago-style dog adds a few things to the frank and bun: yellow mustard, “neon” green relish, chopped onions, two (2) tomato wedges, pickle slice, two (2) Sport peppers, and a dash of celery salt. We have a half-dozen new Chicago dog joints here in DC offering such fare for $8 a pop.
Vienna Beef is cited one of the deadliest dogs: 160 Calories, Fat (g): 13 grams of fat, 5 grams of saturated fat, 530 grams of sodium, 8 grams of protein, added nitrites. One of the more interesting things about Vienna Beef dogs is the lawsuit.
And, NO KETCHUP, ever!
I believe “ketchup on hot dogs” is numbered amongst the abombinations in Leviticus.
July 4, 2011 at 9:34 am
July 4, 12 Noon EST:
Nathan’s 2011 International Hot Dog Eating Contest
Live Coverage om ESPN, liveblogging here.
UPDATE: Joey Chestnut once again won the 2011 Nathan’s Famous International Hot Dog Eating Contest, downing 62 dogs in 10 minutes. Exiled former eating champ Takeru Kobayashi beat him by 3 in a simultaneous but unoffical eating bout on a rooftop in Manhattan. Kobayashi was banned from league competition after competing in an unsanctioned barroom bolt-down. Competitive eating is even messier than other pro sports.
“Sonya Thomas, of Alexandria, wins Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest,” AP via TBD
July 4, 2011 at 12:41 pm
…and what will you be having, Mark?
[Mark Bittman tweeted a link to this post – ml]