Hot Dogs in Sunday Sauce??!!

[Molise53]

Heard the most bizarre thing last evening.  Guy told a group of us that his grandmother's secret weapon in a pot of homemade sauce was a few hot dogs.  Sounds like complete and utter blasphemy.  Has ANYBODY else ever heard of this??  

[Tere]

I had to search what you meant by Sunday sauce. This sort of thing?

 

http://www.esquire.com/food-drink/food/recipes/a6230/pasta-sauce-recipe-0909/

 

I am guessing there are as many recipes for this as cooks. This one does use sausages, but ones that are a far cry from hot dogs I would think, lol.

[gfweb]

Sounds ugly.. But it would add smokiness, garlic and rosemary. 

Edited April 14, 2016 by gfweb (log)

[Tere]

I'm curious, did she grind them up or just chop them up into it?

[IndyRob]

I was recently researching (Detroit style) Coney Island hot dog sauce and found a mention of putting ground up hot dogs in the sauce.  I don't think that's traditional based on my other research, but it sort of makes sense in context.  Perhaps this is an idea that escaped the hot dog world.

[AlaMoi]

okay okay okay.

 

depending on who-where-when--what-why-how

 

a ground up hot dog likely may not be different than bologna.

I once had a discussion with a dude who insisted that a 'sauce bolognaise'  was totally utterly meat frree.

 so - any undefined 'sunday gravy / sunday sauce' could have some / all / any kind of yum-yums included.

 

there are / is exceedingly few "foodstuffs" of any kind which have one and only one definition.

Edited April 14, 2016 by AlaMoi (log)

[Thanks for the Crepes]

Not in mine, but if grandma and those she cooks for like it, why not? 

[Molise53]

16 hours ago, Tere said:

I had to search what you meant by Sunday sauce. This sort of thing?

 

http://www.esquire.com/food-drink/food/recipes/a6230/pasta-sauce-recipe-0909/

 

I am guessing there are as many recipes for this as cooks. This one does use sausages, but ones that are a far cry from hot dogs I would think, lol.

 

yes, Italian Sunday Tomato Sauce (the reason I posted in this Forum).  thousands of Italian American families grew up around pots of homemade sauce and pasta every Sunday as part of the family dinner.  have heard of everything from ground veal/beef/pork, meatballs, lamb or sausage being added to simmer in the sauce for hours.  but never - never - hot dogs.

[Hermann Morr]

Looks like a french twist to the italian recipe.

Might be interesting to know what kind of hot dog was used.

[Duvel]

Could you elaborate why the addition of an Hot Dog would be considered "French" ?

[Anna N]

Is it possible that this is just a concession by a loving grandma for her Italian-American grandkids? Hotdogs they know…  Italian not so much. 

[Katie Meadow]

Let's face it: Americans have some weird ideas about food. Personally the thought of dropping a hot dog into a glamorous and lovingly tended Sunday Gravy is sort of wicked, or at the very least passive aggressive, but stranger things have definitely been done. Especially to hot dogs. And especially for children with limited eating habits. The same people who would like that probably put ketchup on their hot dogs too.

 

 

[IndyRob]

As this has sunk into my thick brain, it really is beginning to make sense.  I have seen Italian cooks crumble (Italian) sausage into their sauce.  In fact, the link Tere posted includes this.  As Italian-American cooking adopts local ingredients, and an Italian grandmother may find hot dogs the only readily available sausage, I could see this happening.  Even if the first time was an emergency case.

 

Ground or minced, hot dogs are simply seasoned meat (maybe all pork).  If the seasonings in the sauce are corrected, the hot dog meat may simply melt into the background.  And a good cook (perhaps that's the essential ingredient we're ignoring here) could make it a winner.

 

An alternative theory is that an Americanized youth saw grandma putting sausages into the sauce and didn't know an Italian sausage from a wiener in his pot.

[Martin Fisher]

I wonder if, maybe, someone was pulling someone's leg.

Sounds revolting! 

 

Having said that, the folks eating it are certainly free to add whatever suits them. 

[Jaymes]

I definitely wouldn't say it was my "secret ingredient" but, when the kids were small, I often put hot dogs into my Sunday Gravy.

 

I've written here before about the challenges of raising a large family on a small budget and toward the end of the month when money was tight, hot dogs found their way into quite a few of my meals.  Including noodles and Sunday Gravy.

 

I'd drop a couple of pork chops into the simmering sauce pot for my husband, and the cut up wieners for the kids.  I don't see anything wrong, or even "weird" about it.  They're basically a pork sausage, you know.  Pork and spices, including plenty of garlic.  My kids loved them.

 

I don't know if the wieners improved the sauce, but they sure didn't hurt.

 

And they were a lot quicker than meatballs for a busy working mother.

 

Eh....you do what you have to, you know.

 

Whatever suits the occasion.

 

And, at the time, hot dogs did.

 

Upon rereading some of the posts, feel the need to add that my kids never were what anyone would call picky eaters. And today, they're all in their forties, and are excellent and adventuresome eaters and cooks. 

 

So it didn't seem to have stunted them much.

 

And if they were upset about it, they've forgiven me.

 

 

 

Edited April 16, 2016 by Jaymes (log)

[Hermann Morr]

22 hours ago, Duvel said:

Could you elaborate why the addition of an Hot Dog would be considered "French" ?

 

I was thinking about a sunday gravy \ cassoulet hybrid.

So wondered if it was plain hot dog or some smoked kind.

[Duvel]

4 hours ago, Hermann Morr said:

 

I was thinking about a sunday gravy \ cassoulet hybrid.

So wondered if it was plain hot dog or some smoked kind.

That does actually raise more questions than it answers. Why would the addition of Hot Dogs imply a cassoulet-type dish ..?

[Katie Meadow]

Oh yeah, hot dogs in cassoulet. Doesn't everyone do that? Duck confit is so yesterday.

 

Jaymes, I totally agree with everything you said. Life is short, indeed, and in the end a hot dog in Sunday gravy is something we can all live with. 

[Thanks for the Crepes]

16 hours ago, Katie Meadow said:

Oh yeah, hot dogs in cassoulet. Doesn't everyone do that? Duck confit is so yesterday.

 

Jaymes, I totally agree with everything you said. Life is short, indeed, and in the end a hot dog in Sunday gravy is something we can all live with. 

 

I agree too with everything @Jaymes said, but I'll take marinara over hot dogs in lean times, please. Hopefully, we have a little parm, even if from the dreaded and reviled green can to up the protein and umami. 

[Paul Bacino]

When  I make Sunday Gravy/ Sugo..btw     This is a longer cook sauce

 

I do a fair amount of digging in the freezer to find what is available  to use.  One criteria  I like to stand by is a bit of bone in the pot with a nice amount of marrow.  I add sausage to my sauce also..  ours is fennel based.

 

Maybe her hot dog addition helps up the salinity    Me..     I dont eat package dogs any more,  so I would not see it  see it.  But Grandma is old style..  as said  early     whats good for Grandma.  you just have to  Bless her heart

 

Cheers

[HungryChris]

My guess, and that is all it is, is that hot dogs were all she had on hand one day and kids, being kids liked it and asked for it again. A tradition was born.

HC

[ElainaA]

I think the important element that is being ignored here is economics. A lot of Italian-American families were (and many are) poor. They could not afford the traditional meats in a "Sunday gravy". My mother in law was Molise - her sauce always included pork chops, beef meatballs, chicken wings and sausage. It was not cheap. Hot dogs are cheap. When you don't have a lot of money you use what you can afford. It is not sacrilege it is necessity. And the American kids probably were happy with it. 

[Lisa Shock]

Yeah, economics plays a big role in getting dinner on the table. You'd never guess where my cheapest, freshest source for TVP shaped like hamburger meat is... Food City! -The local chain of Hispanic markets. They have more of it, at a better price than the health food stores or the pan-Asian markets.

[Norm Matthews]

My son's grandmother made Kimbap (Korean sushi roll) with hot dogs.

[Jaymes]

On 4/17/2016 at 7:56 AM, HungryChris said:

My guess, and that is all it is, is that hot dogs were all she had on hand one day and kids, being kids liked it and asked for it again. A tradition was born.

HC

Yes. Often hubby had dug out all or most of the "good" meat. Still had sauce. End of month. 6:30pm. Everybody tired & hungry. Package of hot dogs in the fridge. Heat up the sauce with a pork chop or two. Add enough hot dogs for kids. Boil some noodles. Toss up a salad. And Roberto's your zio.