The Rochester White Hot

In Rochester, NY, and throughout the Western New York State area, a specialty is made of White Hots--white-colored hot dogs, sort of like brats in a hot-dog size, cooked on a griddle. To make a reasonable facsimile, you can use brats. Or you can get the real thing, the Natural Casing White Hot Dog, by contacting www.zweigles.com

Now, once you have your griddled White Hots, you're going to have to do them justice by serving them in the Rochester style. As any member of the Kodak family can tell you, you need to put that dog on a bun, top it with mustard, chopped raw onions.....and a few tablespoons of meat sauce! Yes, it's a little odd--a thin, pebbly, spicy meat sauce on top of the dog. But it has its own wacky logic, and a White Hot wouldn't be a White Hot without it. So here's how to make the sauce:

Meat Sauce for Rochester White Hots
Makes enough for 8 hot dogs

1/2 lb. ground beef
1 tablespoon minced onions, plus extra for garnishing dogs
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
dash of crushed thyme leaves
1 1/4 cups water

1. Place the beef, 1 tablespoon of the onions, the paprika, black pepper, chili powder, cayenne pepper, cinnamon, salt and thyme leaves in a small saucepan. Pour water over all, and mix well. Place saucepan over low heat, cover, and cook for 1 1/2 hours; the mixture should be very slowly simmering during that time.

2. Remove cover from saucepan. Simmer very slowly for another 1 1/2 hours. When the time is up, the meat sauce should be a thin gravy, a little watery, not dried out.