Ye Olde Oak Hot Dog Sausages

The Hot Dog. An Alien would think us rather cruel cooking dogs, or is it a dog that's been left in a car a long time. No of cause not, it’s our American cousins name for a sausage in a long bun. Usually smothered in mustard, tomato ketchup and other dressings plus a large portion of cooked onion. On film and TV we see them as large pink sausages that overlap the bun and have you ever seen an actor finish one? They always get a call if they are police and throw the dog in bin accompanied with look of disgust on their face. Now is this because they could not finish it. No my friends, it is because it must taste terrible.

We in this country seem to prefer the smaller hot dog. There are of cause big ones as well. We can get them at the funfair, concert or a sporting event sold to us at a terribly inflated prices. One other thing we seem to get in our bun a lot of the time is the humble British banger and not the soft pink one.

In my supermarket there is a large section of tinned and bottled hot dog sausages. I only keep a tin in for young visitors who seem to like them more than I do. My last purchase was a can of Ye Olde Oak Hot dogs and a bag of small soft rolls.

Cooking could not be easier as they only require warming on hob for about five minutes. You can of cause do them in Micro but the can does not give any instructions for this. I give them a minute on medium power. If not hot enough, then give them another minute. They should be cooked in the brine that they come in. When cooked they should be eaten within two days of opening and do not store them in the can, use a suitable dish. I do not recommend eating the sausages straight from the brine as they don't taste very nice this way. Drain and wash in hot water before serving.

The sausages are about 10 centimetres long and the can has six dogs in it. So I find it wasteful for one person or you have to eat a lot of them to use them up. You could use them in other ways other than in a bun. Try cut up on a salad or pizza.

Now to the taste. They have a not unpleasant taste but a totally different texture to our banger. The hot dog is made from pork and chicken with the usual preservatives. There is about 48% pork and 12% mechanically separated chicken. They are soft and do not require a lot of chewing. I find that I cannot taste the sausage if covered with all sorts of dressings, so I like them plain.

Ye Olde Oak make several different types of hot dog. There are the ordinary ones and there is a tin of American Style. They also do minnie ones suitable for the buffet. The tin has a handy ring pull opener so need for the dreaded tin opener.

Now the price. I purchased mine at Asda for 48p.

For more information go to www.enquires@yoo.co.uk