EAT THIS, NOT THAT! – Whether you’re firing up the grill for a weekend barbecue or grabbing a quick bite for lunch, not all hot dogs are worthy of your money and fridge space. While hot dogs are an easy go-to comfort food, many franks are filled with junk ingredients and loaded with salt.
“Across brands, hot dogs are loaded with sodium, nitrates, and saturated fat, and regular consumption is linked to cancer and heart disease,” says Bess Berger, RDN, the founder of Nutrition by Bess, located in NJ.
There are red flags to watch out for, according to Nutritionist Rania Batayneh, MPH, author of the bestselling book, The One One One Diet.
- Mechanically Separated Meat: This processing method leads to a pasty texture instead of a firm, meaty bite.
- Corn Syrup, Sugar, or Sweeteners: A hot dog with added sweetness often tastes out of place and unbalanced.
- Very Long Ingredient Lists: More fillers and additives usually mean less real meat and weaker flavor.
- Low Protein per Serving: A good hot dog should have around 6 to 8 grams of protein. If it is much lower, the product is mostly fillers.
- Odd Appearance or Texture in the Package: Sliminess, pale coloring, or dogs that feel too soft often cook up mushy or chewy …
READ MORE: 7 Worst Hot Dogs To Stay Away From Right Now
Best Hot Dog Brands Ranked
By FOOD REPUBLIC, Sam Zwick Aug. 31, 2024
EDITOR’S NOTE: Hot dogs in general are not a healthy choice. However if you still choose to indulge in the occasional wiener, you might as well pick a relatively good one.
Chicago Style, Seattle Style, covered in chili, slathered in ketchup, grilled, microwaved, boiled — seems like there are a million ways to prepare a hot dog, and none of them are wrong.
Of course, there are also tons of hot dog brands in stores, and deciding which brand to buy is important. To help alleviate the stress of picking the perfect frank, Food Republic sent me on a quest to choose the best hot dog out of 10 common national brands. [HEADLINE HEALTH is sharing his top three picks.]
3. Hebrew National Beef Franks
The type of meat used in a hot dog is important when it comes to creating the flavor. This may seem obvious, but there’s a stark difference between an all-beef frank and a sausage comprising multiple kinds of meat. Hebrew National Beef Franks are the former and are tied for the shortest ingredient deck of anything on our list: Kosher beef and water.
That’s it. No additives, no extra flavorings, just meat and water (and 2% or less of other ingredients) and the taste reflects it. These franks are juicy and have a great internal texture. Once again, the casing leaves something to be desired, but it’s not chewy, so that’s a plus. Hebrew National Franks are long and thin, giving them a distinct look compared especially to the numerous jumbo dogs on the list.
In order for meat to be labeled Kosher, it must be butchered in accordance with Jewish dietary law. Only certain cuts of meat are allowed to be used which, in the case of cattle, come from the front half of the animal. Numerous other requirements, from what the animal eats to the slaughter and preparation of the meat, also define Kosher meats, and for Hebrew National, 100% Kosher is key. The result is a juicy hot dog that lands in my top three.
2. Ambassador Old Fashioned Wieners
Pork is often the second or third meat listed in the ingredients, but Ambassador flipped the script by making pork the centerpiece of their wieners. Joining pork is water, beef, and dextrose in a neat and tidy ingredient deck.
The first bite is what catapulted the Ambassador Wiener up my rankings. There was a distinct snap, almost a crunch, to the hot dog’s casing, and from there, the unique taste of the dog sprung forth. Across the board, the beef hot dogs I sampled were saltier than their chicken and turkey-based counterparts.
The Ambassador’s pork-forward frank perfectly straddles the middle ground between the two. It’s juicy and flavorful with a texture inside that’s smoother than beef, but more meaty than mechanically-separated poultry. It’s also lighter in color than any of the others, giving it a look, taste, and feel more akin to a kielbasa than a more traditional wiener. In a world full of beef and poultry-based dogs, the Ambassador went pork first and is all the better for it.
1. Kirkland Beef Dinner Franks
While some pictures are worth a thousand words, this one is worth at least six: This is a huge hot dog. Made famous by Costco’s food court, where you can snag one for just $1.50, this is one of two Kirkland-branded hot dogs.
I chose to review the Beef Dinner Franks because they’re a bit different from the other test subjects thanks to their size and notoriety. Plus, they’re sold in a 14-pack, rather than the 36-count that the Kirkland Beef Hot Dogs come in — and I already have more than 70 hot dogs in my fridge; I did not need an additional 22.
Kirkland Franks are made of beef, water, dextrose, salt, spices, sodium lactate, garlic, sodium diacetate, sodium erythorbate, paprika and extractive, and sodium nitrite. Kirkland Beef Dinner Franks check all of the boxes.
They’re juicy, provide a lovely snap as you take a bite, and are oozing with flavor. If there’s anything to complain about, it’s that they’re on the saltier side of beef franks, but thanks to their sheer size, it’s hard to imagine eating more than two at most in a sitting.
