How to make a veggie hotdog snap like a regular hotdog?

I want the crunchy skin on my veggie dog so it's like a regular hotdog on the grill. Without a discussion on why I shouldn't be a vegetarian (I'm not) anyone have any ideas?

Joey

Oil it before you cook it.

You can start with a pre-grill deep fry.

It ain't vegan, but use a natural intestine casing? I think that is what Koegel's uses.

In reply to pilotbraden: +1 on that.

HTFU and eat a damned hot dog?

turboswede wrote: HTFU and eat a damned hot dog?

I'm already so hard I don't need to eat a tube made of someone else's lips and shiny happy people to get any harder.

I'll try the oil thing. Joey

Yeah, a quick flash fry... should crisp her right up.

Side note: How do veggie dogs taste?

crankwalk wrote: Side note: How do veggie dogs taste?

They're actually...not terrible. You're not going to get the quality "meat" flavor as you would with a Nathans or other equal high quality frankfurter- BUT- spices are vegetables. Most common hotdogs are so overprocessed anyhow they're more nitrates and MSG than animal. Not real hard to make a veggie dog taste real close. The weird thing is the bite. You can't get over the fact that there's no "snap" like in a good intestine cased blended meat food.

crankwalk wrote: Side note: How do veggie dogs taste?

Better than the "real" ones. I ate Veggie dogs for 8 years before going totally vegetarian. (Yes, that menas I spent 8 years eating triple bacon cheeseburgers and tofu dogs).

The Tofurky brand ones, especially the Kielbasa and Beer Brats, are amazing. Field Roast's stuff is all very, very good as well. The "regular" style hot dogs aren't anything to write home about, but neither are meat ones (outside of maybe Kosher Turkey dogs).

As for the OP, we cook them on a cast iron skillet. That makes a nice, solid heat through them and allows you to make the outside crunchy without burning it. Don't even need oil.

As an aside, the best topping is homemade sweet pickle relish. SWMBO canned a ton last fall and I can eat the stuff straight out the can. If you're into home cooking, try it. (I can get the recipe).

joey48442 wrote: I'm already so hard I don't need to eat a tube made of someone else's lips and shiny happy people to get any harder.

Soylent Green is hot dogs?

Javelin wrote:

crankwalk wrote: Side note: How do veggie dogs taste?

Better than the "real" ones.

Better than the pork/chicken/turkey/rat meat ones. Not better than the Kosher/Vienna Beef ones.

joey48442 wrote:

turboswede wrote: HTFU and eat a damned hot dog?

I'm already so hard I don't need to eat a tube made of someone else's lips and shiny happy people to get any harder. I'll try the oil thing. Joey

Lack of protein making you cranky? Just making a berkeleying joke. I make and eat fake bacon nearly every weekend and it comes out nicely crispy. My wife is vegetarian, so I'm well versed in some of the meat substitutes and how bad they can suck (tofurky loaf for example) and how good they can be. The Quorn chicken nuggets are pretty good. I rib her about it all the time and at least she can take a joke, just like she ribs me about enjoying some of the meatless meals she prepares....

turboswede wrote:

joey48442 wrote:

turboswede wrote: HTFU and eat a damned hot dog?

I'm already so hard I don't need to eat a tube made of someone else's lips and shiny happy people to get any harder. I'll try the oil thing. Joey

Lack of protein making you cranky? Just making a berkeleying joke. I make and eat fake bacon nearly every weekend and it comes out nicely crispy. My wife is vegetarian, so I'm well versed in some of the meat substitutes and how bad they can suck (tofurky loaf for example) and how good they can be. The Quorn chicken nuggets are pretty good. I rib her about it all the time and at least she can take a joke, just like she ribs me about enjoying some of the meatless meals she prepares....

I know you were kidding! I didn't take it seriously. I think the forum filter made my reply not as funny as I meant it!

Joey

I'm the omnivore, my wife - we've been together for like 17 years - has been vegetarian for going on 30 years. We generally keep not-dogs, veggie burgers, fake bacon and sausage around.

The fake breakfast meats from Morningstar farms are tasty. If you're going to race them, heads up vs. real delicious bacon and sausage you'll be disappointed, but in the context of something tasty along side your eggs which you and your vegetarian partner (who will spend 3 day double SCCA club race weekends crewing for you in all manner of weather) will both enjoy - they're better than any others we've tried.

Boca burgers are actually tasty - though the same caveat applies as above.

As for the dogs - I've tried grilling, pan frying, more aggressively frying, and have come to grips with the reality: They're not ground up animals extruded into an intestine and smoked. So be it.

So we boil 'em for a few minutes and have 'em on toasted potato buns w/ good kraut, spicy mustard and celery seed. They're not way too far off a dog from a cart then.

Probably our most frequent fake meat is from Chinese and Vietnamese places that have soy or gluten versions of "chicken" or "beef".

Wrap it in bacon.

Put meat in them?

If you're buying pre-made dogs, they chose the casing, which dictates the snap.

As a vegetarian, you've got a quandry. The various true or strict vegetarian casings are all classified as non-edible. Not that you can't actually consume cellulose, just you're not going to digest it and it will be classified as non-edible.

So, within that world, you've got a good bit of variability if you're stuffing your own dogs. Malabar and others list quite a few cellulose casings to chose from, with usefull descriptions to help you decide what you want. Generically, I'd recommend a thin case. If you can find a variety pack though, you may really want that just to see what you consider to be the best balance.

I have always bought Yves vegan hotdogs, they are nothing great but it helps to toast the bun and dog in oil separately.

You can do a lot better making your own, this homemade veg dog/sausage shaped dog is the best I have had in ten years or so. The steaming process is really helps as do the spices. I really find fennel/anise and black pepper to make it more sausage-esk.

I understand being a vegetarian.

I do not understand trying to make eating vegetables be like eating meat.

Duke wrote: I understand being a vegetarian. I do not understand trying to make eating vegetables be like eating meat.

My thoughts exactly.

Javelin wrote: As an aside, the best topping is homemade sweet pickle relish. SWMBO canned a ton last fall and I can eat the stuff straight out the can. If you're into home cooking, try it. (I can get the recipe).

Come one then, share now please

Duke wrote: I understand being a vegetarian. I do not understand trying to make eating vegetables be like eating meat.

Because meat is filling and tastes good?

(Please note, I am not a vegetarian... but I do understand trying to make eating vegetables like eating meat.)

Steak is the tuxedo of meat...........

http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/d856368ff4/jim-gaffigan-on-vegetarians-from-standupfan