Sunday, May 20, 2012

Oh Snap: Trader Joe's Jumbo Uncured Beef Franks



The biggest problem with most hot dogs you get at the grocery store, even "gourmet" grocery stores, is that they lack snap. Snap is that sensation when your teeth break the natural casing of the dog and release the spicy juice inside. It's this snap that hot dog lovers live for, but it's sadly lacking in most supermarket dogs.

Trader Joe's has thrown a bone to all of the hot dog lovers out there with their new All Natural Jumbo Uncured Beef Franks. Made without nitrates, fillers or MSG, these babies have a natural casing that gives you that snappity snap. And jumbo is not an exaggeration. About five inches long and an inch in diameter, they cook up red, plump and juicy, ready to explode with a nicely spiced, slightly garlicky flavor.

You can grill them, but I like to throw them in a covered frying pan with about an eighth of an inch of water so they steam and grill at the same time.

Thanks Trader Joe's, just in time for summer!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

ooh, these look good! I just got some to try out. thanks for the recommendation. By the way, I'm also still seeing the Irish single malt on the TJ's shelves... am tempted to try it based on your post from before, especially for the price.

sku said...

Anon, I would definitely buy the TJ's Irish Single Malt. TJ's gets the whiskey from the Cooley distillery. As you may know, Cooley was recently purchased by Jim Beam and one of the first actions Beam took was to announce they would no longer be selling to independent bottlers. Now, if TJ's has a contract going in to the future, Beam would have to honor that, but if TJ's was a limited release or something they thought they would renew on a regular basis, we won't be seeing more of it.