Hartmann's Wieners

[John]

Recently a guy who attended one of the New Jersey Hot Dog Tours posted on another forum about hot dogs that are available at Wegman's. I live in New Jersey, but there are several Wegman's supermarkets throughout the state. Wegman's is an upstate New York (Rochester maybe?) supermarket chain. It's the only place I know of in N.J. where you can get such New York brands as Zweigle's, Hofmann's, and Sahlen's. Each store is different, so what is available at one may not be available at another. I would call ahead of time.

I was asked by this guy my opinion of Hofmann's and Hartmann's. I never had a Hartmann's, so I couldn't comment on them. Hofmann's is good, but a little mild, Zweigle's (red and white hots) are very good, and Sahlen's are my favorite of the three. A quality beef and pork dog with a nice flavor and subtle underlying peppery taste. These dogs are great on the backyard grill. They are served at the popular Ted's chain near Buffalo. A family member also opened a restaurant in Tempe Arizona. These dogs taste great with Ted's Texas sauce (a type of relish) or alone with just mustard.

Depending on your personal taste and spice preference, you might like these dogs better than the other fine German style franks. I would put this dog as a favorite beef/pork dog along with Thumann's and Kocher's Continental Provisions in Ridgefield Park, N.J. They are only available in the summer months at the Bridgewater Wegman's.

My friend posted after trying the Hartmann's. He said that they were delicious and comparable to Thumann's. They were described as smokey. Well, I made the trip to Bridgewater to pick up a package. I was also able to get the guy at the deli counter to sell me a single Thumann's for the sake of comparison. At Bridgewater the franks are sold in packages. At Woodbridge, you can get what they sell there in packages, but they also sell Thumann's, Hofmann's German franks, and Hofmann's Coney's loose behind the deli counter, so you can get as little as one.

When I got home I prepared a Thumann's and a Hartmann's, I'm cutting back on my food intake (I'm doing real well) so I enjoy a dog or two about once every two weeks. Being lazy and feeling a bit under the weather, I heated the dogs in water and then put them in my cast iron skillet rather than going down the basement and dragging out my griddle. The Hartmann's wiener is a natural casing beef and pork dog that comes 6 to a lb. Thumann's is the same. Hartmann's also makes a 4 to a lb dog that they call a frankfurter.

Well, the Hartmann's were delicious as described and also had a nice smokey flavor. The taste reminded me a little of kabanosy, a flavorful German/Polish sausage that is like a thick slim jim, only made with quality beef and pork, and in my opinion best enjoyed cold. For years it's been my opinion that Thumann's griller is the best (at least my personal favorite) German style beef and pork dog. I'm a little biased as this dog is made in my home state of New Jersey. But the Hartmann's wiener was as good, if not better. Based on my friend's recommendation and the description on the website; http://www.hartmannssausage.com., I expected to like this dog. But I didn't expect to like it as much as I did. I'll have to repeat this tasting again using my griddle to see if I get the same results. I may have enjoyed these dogs as much as I did since it's been about two weeks since my last dog. Which is a long time for me.

I don't remember ever hearing of Hartmann's before this past week, which is surprisng given how good these dogs were. Well worth checking out. A little expensive at $7.49 a pound, but worth it. These dogs are made from quality ingredients, no fillers or msg, and naturally smoked in a smokehouse.