The New Hotdog Cookbook

The New Hotdog Cookbook
by Mettja C. Roate

"Kids love them - adults adore them - and they're so easy on the budget!"

1st Paperback Edition, 1968


Think of a Hotdog


Detail from cover illustration.
Just look at that amazing spread!

This quirky cookbook is a real gem. It's got so much going for it. First of all, it's all about cooking with hotdogs. It treats hotdogs as an ingredient! That, in itself, is pretty awesome. And all through the text it talks about how hot dogs are made of "fresh lean meat", only the finest ingredients, and so nutritious and delicious. "Delicately seasoned and delicately smoked." Perhaps all that was generally truer back in 1968 when this book was written. Somewhere along the way the hot dog seems to have fallen from it's pedestal.

Of course the book is full of hotdog-centric recipes, but it also gives a history of the hotdog, which is quite entertaining. One story tells how Nathan Handwerker (of Nathan's Famous Coney Island Hot Dog Stand) "hired a group of handsome, wholesome looking young men, dressed them in starched white coats, (and) put a stethoscope in each outside breast pocket...  all these young men had to do for their wages was to cheerfully munch Nathan's five-cent wiener sandwiches in front of his stand. Naturally, people noticed these young wiener-munching 'doctors' and the rumor got around that if the doctors ate and liked the five-cent wiener sandwiches, they had to be good and be good for you."

Also, according to this book, Americans eat on average 80 wieners per year. "Enough to make about three round trips to the moon if they were laid end to end."

Some particularly intrguiging sounding recipes are Hot Dot Cheese Rarebit, Dog and Yam Casserole, Jellied Hot Dog Loaf, Wilted Lettuce made with Hot Dogs, and of course Hot Dog Surprise (no kidding!)

Even if you're not sold on cooking with hotdogs, this book is fun to read.
Pick it up at Amazon through this link: The New Hotdog Cookbook