![]() ![]() "Needless to say, the carrier for this megalopolis had to be substantial: no undersized, spongy supermarket dog buns for this creation, no sir! In the Windy City you'll find a big, chewy poppy seed bun that has enough oomph to support the skyscraper constructions that Chicago natives depend on for a quick lunch. Let's start with the bun, which Susan describes as follows: ![]() So your mission, should you choose to accept it: clone a Chicago-style hot dog. Oh, and the celery salt - little things do, indeed, mean a lot. Charred enough to snap when I bit it, it was the perfect salty base to the sweet relish, crunchy onions, tangy mustard, onions, tomatoes, and those mildly hot little sport peppers. Not sure any natural-born cuke has ever worn THAT particular shade.īut color aside, the dog was fabulous. Wow, Susan was right about the neon-green relish. I'll take a "JUMBO Char Dog (Chicago Style)," please. Ketchup? Well, all right, if you really must people in Chicago are way too polite to scoff at you, but you will have branded yourself a non-native at the least." "Other vendors strayed off the trail somewhat, but in general a Chicago hot dog may have onions, sauerkraut, hot peppers, mustard, and the brightest neon green relish you've ever seen riding on top. This is the dog you'll find at Wrigley Field, home of the Cubs. "First of all, there was the Chicago Red Hot, 'dragged through the garden.' This meant a Vienna Beef Frank, topped with (in order, please) yellow mustard sweet green pickle relish chopped onion chopped fresh tomato or tomato wedges a kosher dill pickle spear sport peppers (tiny pickled hot green peppers) and celery salt. The number of toppings and the specific sequence of layering on the dog of your choice were practically mind-boggling. People in Chicago are very, very serious about hot dogs. One of the biggest surprises was hot dogs. "The Midwest has a number of culinary traditions, and when I lived in Chicago I discovered a few of them. Susan has lived in Chicago and she knows her Windy City eats. Susan Reid, our long-time Baking Sheet editor and test kitchen stalwart, wrote a piece detailing the Chicago dog in The Baking Sheet 10 years ago. Jumbo Chicago, Jumbo Char, Char Polish, Cheddar Char. While waiting to make my way to the front of the line, I had plenty of time to contemplate the menu. "Voted Best Hot Dog in Chicago," trumpets the Gold Coast Dogs Web site. Midway Airport, outside downtown Chicago: the crowd gathers at Gold Coast Dogs, which I'm assured is a "real" Chicago hot dog chain – despite, in this case, being far from the Loop. Step #1: Sample a REAL Chicago-style hot dog. Or, in the case of Chicago-style hot dogs – my sport peppers and pickle wedges ready to go. Thankfully, nearly all the readers were polite one of our tenets here at King Arthur Flour is to disagree agreeably, so I appreciate keeping the energy positive.īut I learned my lesson: if I'm going to tout any particular recipe as "Chicago," I'd best have all my ducks in a row. None of the big-time Chicago deep dish establishments use cornmeal, and I personally find cornmeal in my crust to be gritty and unpleasant."Ī very long back-and-forth among Chicago-area readers ensued, focusing first on cornmeal (yay or nay – the debate still rages), then on the best place to get "authentic" Chicago deep-dish pizza. "I am looking forward to trying the recipe but I see one thing right off the bat that I take issue with and that is the addition of cornmeal. Here's an example of one of the Chicago-style pizza blog comments: ![]() The first time I tried re-creating a Chicago culinary icon outside the limits of the Windy City, I went into the process unprepared.Ĭhicago-Style deep-dish pizza – how tough could it be?Īs it turned out, it wasn't the pizza that was tough - it was the Chicagoland readers, who were, shall we say, vociferous in pointing out the multiple errors of my ways mainly, the addition of cornmeal to the crust.
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