Dog cooking on Teflon, SS, cast iron, MW?

Cooking hot dogs (Hebrew National's Beef Polish Sausage) on teflon, stainless steel, or cast iron grill, fry pan, or large pot?
How does cleanup trade off with durability?
Do you use olive oil in a stainless fry pan or electric fry pan?

I've noticed electric fry pans and portable electric "burners" go on, then off, rather than staying even at "medium" on an electric range.
I think hot dogs would do much better with the constant medium temp control.

How does one clean, season, oil, a large commercial grill?
I guess they are cast iron, about an inch thick.

Do you use a microwave to initially cook, or to warm up a pre-cooked dog, or prep a dog before grilling?

My understanding is that initial boiling before grilling will plump up a hot dog mainly due to the fillers absorbing water.
The Hebrew National Jumbo Beef Franks and the Beef Polish Sausage (1/4 lb) do not plump up. So I decided that initial boiling prep just didn't do enough. I have considered starting out the fry pan with a little water, to evenly distribute the oil that comes out of the dogs to initiate cooking. Then when the water is gone, the warmed dog will grill in there own oils. Is this all wet, or will it work?

Thanks for all the dog gone good knowledge provided in these groups.
I'm new to all this, and would be gratefull for links to other dog cooking resources.

WildWalker,
Walking the Wilderness, Wilding edible plants.

Can you just steam them or keep them warm in a steamer until you need to take them out for a "finishing" grill before serving?

quote:

Originally posted by Lone Star

Can you just steam them or keep them warm in a steamer until you need to take them out for a "finishing" grill before serving?

What type of steamer? I see in CostCo disposable large aluminum trays (size of turkey roaster pan) called "steaming trays" for setup with sterno underneath. How could I use such a steamer?

Unfortunately, I lost a volunteer, so until I can recruit another, it's just me to handle the money, server food to customers, and cook.
So I can not go to the commercial kitchen during serving hours.
This week I used a teflon electric skillet on the table where I serve up the food to customers.

I fumbled with first use of equipment, which caused problems.
I bumped up against switches on the power strip...and accidently turned if off, not realizing...as I waited for next batch of dogs. Now I have brought home the equipment so I can test out possible solutions.
Here are some of my ideas:

1) Arrive early, and cooked up a batch on the grill to be done just about when I want to start serving. Then take them up to a stainless "box" with lid and place that on a warming tray. The box will hold about 25 of the 1/4 lb Hebrew Nationals. To my taste, the HN Kosher Beef Polish Sausage only improves with gentle heating. Noticeable continuous improvement for the first hour, and then I think the improvement will be more gradual. So to keep temp low enough to not burn, but high enough to be melting the fats and developing color and oiliness, I think long slow cooking will be fine.

Heating the buns is another matter. Personally, I would accept a room temperature bun. I don't want a bun that is dried out, or so soggy it disintegrates. I have had some of these jumbo buns break from being too moist when I heat them by placing them on top of the grilling dogs.

2.) There is a portable electric burner that plugs into 110 v.
The temp dial on the hot plate controls a thermostat. When it's on, it's very hot, when it's off...it's not. So I am going to dig out my old cast iron skillet I used to take car camping. That should even out the heat,and could be grilling more dogs, or warming buns.

I guess I could use a bit of water in a large stainless vegetable steamer I have. That would hold lots of buns.

3.) I have a residential bun warmer. This has a small gap between the outer pan and an inner liner. Used at home, dry, and patience to warm dinner rolls. I tried adding a bit of water to the space.
But the size, slowness, just are not up to warming 25 jumbo hot dog buns.

Thanks,
WildWalker

Professional equipment is your answer.

quote:

Originally posted by Brahma Bob

Professional equipment is your answer.

The professional way would be to tow a hotdog cart, and wheel it in.
They seem to have arranged it so that wouldn't be possible.

Then there is option of professional equip in the commercial kitchen.
Then it requires at least two staff.

It's possible to wing this, but it sure is not easy to wing it and satisfy all the demands.

Don

Maybe you'd consider a counter top unit like this one:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2590698772&category=46591

quote:

Originally posted by Brahma Bob

Maybe you'd consider a counter top unit like this one:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2590698772&category=46591

That looks like a bargain. I remembered that Sam's sells the same thing: http://www.samsclub.com/eclub/main_shopping.jsp?coe=0&oidPath=0%3a-23541%3a-28666%3a-28671%3a722766&mt=a&n=0&BV_SessionID=_SC_1339419491.1075082448_CS_&BV_EngineID=ccdcadckhjkfiffcfkfcfkjdgoodfkh.0

I'm enjoying reading of your progress; keep reporting back. I've been hitting taco trucks and wagons of late. It's amazing what I'm observing. Some of those custom trucks can cost hundreds of thousands, but there are people working out of home-made trailers using equipment bought at WalMart.

My dream of late has been to operate a chili wagon .

My Nat's get cooked in a splat of butter in whatever fry pan I pull out, usually t-fal, sometimes cast iron.

What about one of those like in convienent stores that have the rollers on top and a bun warmer underneath? Wrap the bun in foil wrappers ahead of time add hot dog, then condiments.

Calling John Fox. It sounds like WildWalker needs your assistance.

quote:

Originally posted by Brahma Bob

Maybe you'd consider a counter top unit like this one:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2590698772&category=46591

These are fun to look at. I have several problems. One of which is that I come in, set up, serve, take down, go home. So stuff has to cool and be transported relatively quickly.

Second, I'm having fun, learning, solving the challenge of the puzzle doing it better. But the reason I'm doing this, is it's too cheap an operation to have paid the fees of a professional caterer. The cafe owner next door refused the offer to take it on. This may be a money loser, and I may just have to scale back or give up at some point.
Hence, it's too soon to invest money.

For today, I have much more equipment lined up than last week.
I have a warming plate on which I can place the hot dog box, and a large stainless pot with veg strainer at bottom, it will easily hold about 26 buns...what I sold last time. Perhaps I will add just a drop of water...don't want too steamy as these buns dissolve, and that's disaster.

At CostCo I got the portable steamer kit ($16) with large dispossable trays, half size trays, rack, sterno. I'm wondering about using it.

I have experimented using 10.5" trifold wax paper inside a 12" sq tin foil. This holds the bun very securely as I added 1/4 lb sliced cornell chicken and mushrooms. Gads this was so delicious, I struggles to get every bit into my mouth. This seems to work OK, and it uses supplies that are already on hand.

So tonight will be another evening along this learning path.
I'm rearranging the table setup, so I will have a table behind me...out of customer reach...for my custom dog dressing...and asset security.

Well, I have to start some cooking today,and packing, and last minute menu printing.

Wild Walker

WildWalker: You have done a ton of work and I appreciate your efforts. I sincerely hope you have the oportunity to earn some cash cause you sure earn it. It appears to me that you have to sell a ton of hot dogs on a daily basis to make ends meet.

I wish you luck cause it does not look easy to me.

I have watched you sweat on a daily basis regarding trying to do a good job. Good luck, but if I were you, I would do something else.

Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

quote:

Originally posted by Sundancer7

WildWalker: I wish you luck cause it does not look easy to me.

Good luck, but if I were you, I would do something else.

Paul E. Smith
Knoxville, TN

Thank you Paul for the well wishes and thoughtful advice.

I started volunteering when it was, at most, a 4.5 hour effort. I've explored creating a more tasty and healthy menu. Now I will be exploring public food service, commercial kitchen, public health issues. Soon, I hope to get a volunteer crew together and see my own hours return to reasonable level.

I cooked on the yard square grill last tuesday. That was an experience.

WildWalker

Kids (or adults) don't try this at home....EVER!:

Take an electrical cord with a plug at one end. Split the cord about 10 inches, and attach each electric lead to a fork. Stick one fork to one end of the hot dog, the other fork to the other end of the dog.
Plug it in until the dog is done.

I saw that in a movie once, it looked cool, but I'm not foolish enough to try it.

quote:

Originally posted by Edwaste

Kids (or adults) don't try this at home....EVER!:

Take an electrical cord with a plug at one end. Split ...

I did this as a kid, not so folish as an adult.
My experiment turned out an uneven cooked dog.
I was uneven spatially, in that cooked dog is a better conductor than uncooked dog. So the cooking is unstable. Where the dog begins to cook, it cooks even more,which then cooks even more. So there was this "cord" of very cooked dog about 3/16 in diameter running down the length of the dog, leaving the surrounding part of the cross section much less done.

I was spacially unstable. At first it didn't do so much, then started cooking faster and faster. So parts could be uncooked, as other parts were getting ready to explode from the bolt of electricity flowing through the narrow arc.

Conversely, the way I like to cook my hot dogs is to cook them slow, and evenly get them juicy, and browned all over, cooking from the outside in, rather than the converse.

WildWalker

Getting wild with electricity.