If you tell your kids not to eat hotdogs would it be a reasonable thing to explain, perhaps even show them what a hotdog is? Perhaps they saw the buns could they eat them? Maybe just the wiener but not both together? Or dry would be OK but with mustard an absolute no? What say you?

If you're going to allow it at all, it seems like with mustard would be acceptable.

Imho...

There are worse things you should not let your kids do...

Hot dogs are really the least of your worries.

Wait, are we talking Hot Dogs or Franks? Because only one of them is permissible, but I forget which one.

Actually, I don't think we're talking about hot dogs at all.

Being from Chicago, I think teh whole premise bites.

If we were indeed talking about hot dogs, let me ask this: what is the real difference between a Wiener and a Frankfurter?

If you get all worked up about that question, you're a real wiener.

But it's a legitimate question. I've noticed brands offering both here in Germany, but I've never been able to determine any difference through Internet research.

I thought maybe someone here might know.

OK, since none of you helped me out, I went to Wikipedia. (As if.)

According to the articles: the frankfurter is a sausage from Frankfurt that dates back to the middle-ages. (Of civilization, not citizens of Frankfurt.) But in the 19th century, a guy named Johann Georg Lahner moved to Vienna (which in German is called "Wien"; a "Wiener" means a "Vienner"; but an "Amerikaner" is actually a kind of pastry. But I digress.) So Herr Lahner was a butcher who brought the "Frankfurter" to Vienna, and he sold it as a "Frankfurter". But he changed the recipe a bit. He added beef to the pork. Back in Germany beef and pork were strenuously separated. (By law, I mean. Though I suppose if you want to keep the hogs away from the cows it's not particularly strenuous after you've knocked 'em dead.) His changed recipe eventually became known as a Wiener.

So the answer, my friends (if you can trust the German Wikipedia), is that a true Frankfurter sausage is made entirely out of pork, and a Wiener sausage is made with a mix of pork and beef.

The USDA might have other definitions, of course.

Then what about "All beef franks," chicken dogs, turkey dogs, or corn dogs? Everybody knows that a soy dog is called a Portlandfurter.

I imagine that nowadays there are just sausages in the frankfurter/wiener style, no matter what's in them--chicken lips or whatever.

It's interesting that the vegetarian bratwursts I eat are pretty good, but the vegetarian wieners are strangely rubbery. I wonder what's in them?

As with the meat kind, it's best not to know.

Right. Carrot lips and asparagus testicles and God knows what from the ole genetically engineered soy bean. Don't wanna think about it.

I actually used to have a book that talks about the process of turning soy into fake meat. It wasn't appetizing. But neither was the slaughterhouse that used to be down the road. All hot dogs are gross if you think too hard. That's why we have ketchup.

All killing is gross if you really think about it.

We suffocate fish. They writhe in pain drowning and no one bats an eye.

But... I don't see people really thinking too hard about it.

Ahhh... That's the trick.

If you want to eat it, don't overthink it.

At least that's what I think.

Yeah, but they have it coming. They urinate and defecate in the Worlds oceans, lakes, and streams. Screw them!

That is exactly why we shouldn't drink water.

I never touch the stuff. Unless it's been purified by going through the brewing process.

My friends old lady makes the best home brew ever. Last night when I couldn't sleep I made here a fake "stout belt" certificate in the art of Brew-Jitsu.