The hot dog may be America’s most democratic food — served at ballparks, backyard cookouts and roadside stands — but it’s also the butt of endless jokes about mystery meat and industrial food production. More than a century after Upton Sinclair published The Jungle, his exposé of Chicago meatpacking plants, plenty of people still prefer not to think too hard about what’s inside their frankfurter.
There’s nothing mysterious about the hot dogs at 5th Quarter Butcher + Provisions. You can watch them being made at the Waitsfield shop.
That’s important to owner Josh Turka.
“People want to know where their food came from, what farm it came from,” he said.
For Turka, the hot dog is the logical result of ethical butchery. He can always sell the rib eyes and strip steaks from the cows he sources from Snug Valley Farm in Hardwick and Theberge Beef in Sheldon. The challenge — and the philosophy — is using the whole animal. “For pigs, that’s sausages,” he said. “For cows, that’s hot dogs.”
Simple enough in theory, but in practice, Turka, 40, spent a year and a half perfecting his recipe. The obstacle wasn’t flavor. It was texture.
Hot dogs are an emulsion: finely ground meat, fat, salt and water transformed into a smooth paste. “If you do it wrong, the emulsion breaks and it’s so sad,” Turka said, laughing. “It’s very technical. That’s the reason not a lot of people do it.”
The next challenge was achieving the snappy bite that distinguishes a great hot dog from a good one. Turka starts by using natural lamb casings, but getting that satisfying pop when teeth break through skin took months of tinkering.
“You’ve got to have it,” said Nick Frank, executive chef at Hen of the Wood in Burlington.
Frank teamed up with Turka this spring for a maple-themed pop-up event, putting his own spin on Vermont’s sugaring-season hot dog tradition. He poached the wieners in maple sap, coated them in cornmeal batter and fried them. “Smoky lends itself to sweet,” Frank said.
“You can tell the love Josh puts into his products, especially the dogs,” Frank said. “Mass-produced hot dogs just don’t have the same flavor. Josh’s have this peppery finish and tang. And the smokiness.”
Robert Smith III, executive chef at Ferrisburgh’s Starry Night Café, concurs. “These dogs are plump but not chewy, with that ideal snap,” Smith said. “It’s a special dog, and you want to give it respect.”
Smith serves Turka’s hot dogs on the restaurant’s bar menu in a riff on a Michigan dog ($14), topped with beef chili with a subtle hint of cinnamon, shredded Cooper sharp cheddar, diced raw onion and a drizzle of French’s mustard. After sampling one recently, all I could do was dream about having it again.
The toppings are there to complement the dog, not bury it, Smith said: “It’s mild enough that you can take it in a lot of directions, but it’s also got a strong enough flavor that you won’t lose it.”
Turka doesn’t mind how customers eat them. Pick up a 1-pound package of six dogs for the suggested retail price of $16 at his Waitsfield shop or select local stores. Pile on your favorite toppings: May we suggest Flack Family Farm sauerkraut from Fairfield, some chili or, dare we say, ketchup?
Smith wouldn’t go that far himself, and I can relate: My wife of two decades will tell you that the angriest she’s ever seen me is when she got me a dog with ketchup on it at a baseball game.
“Would these hot dogs be good smothered in ketchup?” Smith pondered with a smile. “Sure. But that’s a testament to how good Josh’s dogs are.”
No matter how you prefer them — no judgment, honestly — Turka’s dogs evoke childhood and summer and the pleasures of an all-American meal. ➆
“Small Pleasures” is an occasional column that features delicious and distinctive Vermont-made food or drinks that pack a punch. Send us your favorite little bites or sips with big payoff at food@sevendaysvt.com.
The original print version of this article was headlined “This Wiener Takes All | Hot dogs made by Waitsfield’s 5th Quarter excel at the snap test”
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