Black Bear of the Black Forest is the house brand of deli meat carried at Shop Rite, the New Jersey-based co-op supermarket chain. I picked up a package of their natural-casing franks to give them a try; they looked decent enough and besides, it's always time for hot dogs, right?
They're a good, honest beef and pork frankfurter, full-flavored and just a little bit smokey (you can tell from the dark spots at the ends of the wieners that they've spent a little time in the smokehouse. ) They're decent steamed, but even better fried in a hot skillet and, of course, best on the grill - and they're made by Dietz & Watson. These babies definitely get a thumbs up.
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I've always loved Natural Casing hot dogs since I was a kid - I'm from Michigan, and the tri-state area over there have access to a local brand called Kogel's. They're extremely reasonably priced natural casing dogs with a flavor that, to this day, I have not been able to find with another brand or manufacturer. Since moving to Oklahoma this has been a problem for me - I don't want to say I hate caseless dogs, but they're not exactly what I'd call haute cuisine, and the only good caseless dogs are never cheap, with hebrew national and Nathan's coming in at around five bucks a package when they're not on sale. We have a local sausage maker in Tulsa who sold us skin-on hand made franks, but I found they were a little heavy on something... I'm not sure what, but I want to say coriander or cumin. Alas, it looks like the only way I'm going to get the hot dogs I like is to go on a road trip.
ReplyDeleteEric: You can get Kogel's dogs by mail order! Check it out:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.koegelmeats.com/store.htm
Yeah, I know, but they're so expensive to ship! Still, I may resort to this - the last time I went home I ended up buying 60 dollars worth and they were lunch for a good three months. The question is how close can I get them - if they can be bought in Indiana, I might just make the trip. A popular regional soda in that area is Ski, which my wife and I are both very fond of, and by making the trip we could stock up on both.
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