is there such a thing as a decent hotdog?

Mayflower10cat

Try veggie hotdog sausages - Sainsburys do a very good frozen one. The best branded veggie hotdogs are made by Tivall, bigger upermarkets stock them and Holland and Barrett. We've fed them to meat eaters for years and they've enjoyed them - never guessing their actually vegetarian.
http://www.sainsburys.co.uk/groceries/index.jsp

triticale

I like the ones in jars from Lidls. Yum.

I will buy the cheaper tinned ones if I'm particularly skint though. I used to love Westlers when I was a child - never seem to see them around these days.

I do find it strange that OS'ers seem so against mechanically recovered meat - surely it is essentially just a larger scale version of boiling and stripping every last scrap off a chicken carcass? (I know that the process is slightly different than that - but the concept is the same - waste not etc)

Personally I have no problem with MRM used as an ingredient. Better than the minced spinal columns of the 80's!! :eek:

rachbc

I meant the frankfurther type suasages. I'll look at the herta ones thanks.

SailorSam

I always liked hotdogs, Saturday lunch with tomato sauce and fried onions was a treat.
But now since i've seen what goes into them i wouldn't touch them.
Still love the smell of fried onions though.

valk_scot

Lidl do a good high meat content version, six in a jar for about £1.39 iirc? No they're not that healthy when it comes to animal fat content, but neither is butter or cream and many of us eat them.

As to mechanically recovered meat well, it doesn't sound that nice but it's not poisonous and won't actually hurt you to eat it. The nutrient content is adequate. Some people can't afford to be too fastidious about this sort of thing, remember...better to give your kids MRM than let them go protein deficient, surely? But it's like everything else...if you can afford the higher quality products then it's your choice and you're lucky to have it.

Any

I also buy Herta, especially when they are on offer.
I love them and OH loves them, though he doesn't understand how I can eat them cold (ie not cooked at all) - they are already smoked/cooked!!:-)
I cannot see anything wrong with frankfurters, though I don't buy the really cheap ones.. (always check labels for contents).

Frankfurters (which is what I grew up on) and english saussages are
completely different things though in my eyes... You do with it different things as well.
I have to say sometimes it surprises me how many people buy cheap/value minced meat but turn their nose on frankfurters, salami, burgers etc... IMO (and it is just my opinion) if it was hurtfull they would not sell it to us and looooong time ago people eat all the parts of the animal... ears, bones etc.

LV_Sue

I buy Herta frankfurters as well. I buy them when they are on offer & freeze them. My 4 year old grandson would eat them for every meal if he was allowed to :eek: - which of course he's not!

Any
I eat them cold as well, lovely in a HM pasta salad with tomatoes, cucumber & mayo.:) I've never met anyone else who likes cold frankfurters, my husband thinks I'm weird so now I can tell him I'm not alone!:rotfl:

scheming_gypsy

I'll eat hotdogs cold out of the tin but never really done it with frankfurters

Diflower

I've got another pack now as I was passing Lidl and s/sons will be here for a couple of days as it's half term.

They're 79% pork, and standing there gazing at all the labels, have a lot fewer added extras than the cheap sausages. No, I don't know exactly what 'pork' but you can eat all of a pig, can't you:).
The 'experts' ie OH & sons, say they're at least as good as Hertas.
They also say those cheap ones from Mr T (Bessy's or something like that?) - which usually cost more than Lidl's anyway - are horrid.

minerva_windsong

The market in the London suburb where I live has a van every Saturday which is run by a German guy and sells the best hot dogs ever. They also sell packets of the sausages which you can buy and take home to cook yourself. They're not exactly hot dogs per se but I am very reluctant to go back to Tesco sausages after buying them.

It's something of a long shot but does anywhere near you have something like that - either a van or a proper butcher?