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It’s a hot dog, but with the meat gone and replaced by a pickle. Why? Well, the problem with frankfurters is that the star of it all — the cylindrical chunk of meat, the legendary tube steak — can be expensive, and high in calories. Also it’s meat, which you’ll be surprised to learn is not allowed on vegetarian or vegan diets.
It’s not merely meat, of course, but a mix of the most disgusting cuts of cheap, fatty meats from things you might not want to eat even if you eat meat — pigs’ nostrils, cows’ ear lobes, probably ground-up chicken beak and bull anus, and the infamous pink slime, etc.
Replacing the meat of a wiener with a pickle sliced the long way is cheaper, with far fewer calories, and contains nothing disgusting. You certainly can taste the difference, and I won’t pretend you can’t, but I honestly wouldn’t say it’s worse, or better than a hot dog. It’s different is all, but very tasty.
For me, it’s all about the condiments you put on a weenie. Whatever condiments you’d put on a hot dog, dress a pickle dog exactly the same. I usually use peanut butter, sauerkraut, and mustard. Extra-fancy pickle dogs might include onions, ketchup, lettuce, garlic powder — whatever!
I slice the pickle once, the long way, because an entire pickle is too much pickle. If it’s an especially huge pickle, or if I’m especially poor, I might slice it twice, meaning the pickle part of each pickle dog is one-quarter of a pickle. I’ve gone down to 1/8 of a pickle, and it still tastes fine. You can stretch the budget as thin as you can slice a pickle.
You’ll notice from the picture that I use toasted bread instead of buns. My wife disputed me on this point, but I’ve never liked or understood hot dog buns — they’re too bready, never seem to open easily, and they can fall apart, leaving your pickle or meat on the carpet. It never tastes as good after it’s been on the carpet.
Depending on what brand of dogs you’d buy, you can save 20¢ to a dollar or more per dog, and 100 to 300 calories. With the low-calorie bread I eat, this lunch of four pickle dogs is only about 200 calories.
Caution is advised if you don’t like pickles.
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