I know this post will not get me on any "most-liked" lists around here, but here goes:
I just read through the this thread and had to chuckle to myself on the amount of "love" that upscale hotdogs are getting. Don't you guys know what hotdogs are?
They are a cheap food, made from meat scraps. Meat "by-products". Beef lips. Beef rectums. Organ meats. One of my older brother's favorite sayings (meat packing business) is "We use the whole hog, even the oink".
Even if I didn't have a brother who works in the meat packing business, I would know that. For many years I sold hotdogs (7-11s, etc), when I started out it was a beef/pork/chicken blend. Then we changed to a chicken/turkey dog, then finally to all-turkey. NOT ONE person commented or complained until we put up a manufacturer's sign advertising "Turkey Dogs". The complaining stopped when we went to a 3/99 cents price point.
I guess my point is,
go ahead and buy the hotdogs you prefer. But if you're buying these exotic dogs, you're being punked/trolled/taken in by the marketing department. If you think you're "tasting" all-beef, it's almost always that the "taste" is the fillers/seasonings/smoke (or smoke flavor) that is in the recipe. Any "grainyness" or flavor difference is due to that. You'll have to trust me, because I have been to many taste-tests at the different meat packers every time my company were deciding on a supplier change. And again, you will have to trust me: they are not using "prime", "choice", or even "select" cuts. They are using "utility" or "canner" grades, one step up from pet food.
So if you're loving your bison dogs, it's buffalo butts. If you swear by your Angus dogs...Angus assess. All pork? Let's not go there :mrgreen: Unless you have a dietary restriction (Hebrew National), or a food allergy, there's no real reason to spend $4+ for a package of hotdogs.
But go ahead get what you like, I'll stick with my 99 cent packs and I'll have my dogs/fixings/buns for less than one package of the upscale wieners