Dave’s Diary: Top Tips For The Perfect Hot Dog

It’s the first weekend of Summer!  Can you say “HOT DOG”!!!  To some people a dog is a dog is a dog. To some people dogs are for the dogs.  But to many of us the search for the perfect dog is like a search for the Holy Grail.

According to iStock, there are tips to finding the tip top dog!

 To start, there's the choice of the meat itself, then the cooking method (grilling, boiling, deep-frying), the matter of what to put on top (salty, sweet, cheesy), and how to handle the bun (toasted, soft, handmade). To help us assess the options and learn how to create the perfect hot dog at home -- after all, most of us don't have access to equipment more advanced than a stovetop or a barbecue -- we checked in with masters Randy Watts of Nathan's Famous, Hot Doug's Doug Sohn in Chicago, and Gloria Pink of Pink's in Hollywood, to name just a few.

Grilling was the most popular method of cooking on the East Coast, with steaming and boiling coming out on top in the Midwest -- but otherwise the tips and tricks were unpredictable, even surprising. Why? Because, ultimately, it all comes down to taste buds -- whether you like biting into a charred dog dressed with a single strand of handmade Dijon mustard or a deep-fried version heaped with a mess of coleslaw that spills down your chin. Dig in.