It’s amazing that a family company that started 127 years ago is now selling in all of these places. We also sell all the hot dogs to Portillo’s, Shake Shack, Freddy’s Frozen Custard and hot dog restaurants all over the city and suburbs. We’re in all the zoos, airports and all of the city’s museums along with all the Chicago Park District’s lakefront concessions and Navy Pier. Wrigley, Guaranteed Rate, Soldier Field, the United Center for the Cubs, Sox, Bears, Bulls and Blackhawks.
“Every single pro sports team and venue in Chicago sells our product. The foundation of the Chicago Style hot dog, Vienna® Beef franks are served at over 1,400 locations throughout Chicagoland for a memorable taste experience unique to The Windy City. Any true Chicagoan says ‘no’ to ketchup on a hot dog.”Ĭhicagoans have a lot of love for the city’s namesake hot dog and the memories that are often part of the package. Adding ketchup on there just masks the flavors we’re trying to get out of this experience.
Vienna Beef alleges that Red Hot Chicago has. We’ve got spicy, we’ve got mild, we’ve got crunch, we’ve got soft and all of these things are going on in the same bite. Vienna Beef has made every effort to maintain the confidentiality of its recipes and production techniques. same ingredients but put together with a little more style. Maybe it's nostalgia, but I feel like the Gold Coast product was marginally better. From the moment Emil Reichl and Samuel Ladany gave Chicago its first taste of Vienna Beef, we’ve been making hot dog history. That’s because all of the condiments on a Chicago Style hot dog work together and don’t fight each other. Vienna Beef has taken over the stand that used to be Gold Coast Dogs and serves a similar menu of charred Chicago dogs, Italian beef sandwiches and breakfast items. We’re not allowed to put ketchup on a Chicago Style hot dog unless you’re still using training wheels on your bicycle. Racks holding the links hit a convection smoking room, where hot air and hickory-chip–fired smoke circulate around the dog to cook and infuse it with a smoky flavor.As for ketchup? Tom says no way. This mixture is transferred to a stuffer machine that squirts the paste into casings, and these long tubes are twisted into big strands of links. The ground beef, flavorings and additives are blended into a thick paste inside an industrial mixer. Larger-size editions of the Vienna dog are stuffed into hog intestines.
The classic dog-stand Vienna is encased in natural sheep casing-a polite euphemism for intestine. It offers franks and sausages, deli meats, condiments, and soups and chilis to retail and foodservice customers. Sodium erythorbate is a preservative that keeps the color from fading and prevents the formation of cancer-causing nitrosamines that can develop when meat is exposed to high temperatures (read: burning on your grill). Vienna Beef is a manufacturer of hot dogs. Sodium nitrite is a salt that boosts the flavor, prevents the growth of botulism and turns the dog pink. Sweeteners corn syrup and dextrose are added to balance the saltiness. Garlic juice, salt and extractives of paprika give the dog some flavor, but trade-secret laws protect the company from disclosing all of the “natural flavoring and coloring” ingredients. The other 25 percent: trimmings from the fatty cuts of beef brisket and beef navel (the cow equivalent of pork belly) Vienna uses to make corned beef and pastrami.
But because words such as sodium erythorbate require just a teensy bit more explanation, here’s an in-depth look at the makeup of a Vienna wiener.Ībout 75 percent of the meat in the frank is ground domestic bull beef-meat from leaner, tougher, older cattle past their calf-makin’ prime. According to Bob Schwartz, the pup purveyor’s senior vice president, Viennas break down like this: beef, water, salt, corn syrup, dextrose, mustard, natural flavorings and coloring, garlic juice, sodium erythorbate, sodium nitrite, extractives of paprika and sheep casing. Let’s be frank: Most people think hot dogs are made of leftover bits and parts, but the ingredients in Vienna Beef’s iconic dog are not as gnarly as you’d think.