6/29/06 | Jennie-O Turkey Franks
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Helloooo Sodium Nitrite fans. In honor of the upcoming July 4 holiday, I decided to feature hotdogs here at Cheap Eats. But not just any hot dog. No, these are Jennie-O Turkey Franks that I picked up on impulse the other day.
Well, the main reason I picked them up is because they were only $1.00 for a pack of 10 hot dogs. I haven’t had the Jennie-O brand of turkey hot dogs before, but I have bought their packages of ground turkey quite often in the past. I’ve been pleased with the quality of the turkey. We usually used the ground turkey as turkey burgers or in lasagna or tacos.
Hot dogs are just one of those things that you have every so often even though you know how bad they are for you. It’s a nostalgia thing for me… baseball games, beach cookouts, etc. I haven’t had hot dogs for quite awhile now. I’d certainly forgotten how small the supermarket type have shrunk too. These turkey wieners are fricken TINY. Now I’m usually not one to make a big deal about wiener size (huhrr, huhrr…) but as you’ll see below, they sort of get lost in the bun. By the way: Big Buns and Small Wieners, gosh the jokes. The fun never stops, ey?
My biggest beef with hot dogs is actually not that they’re made of unknown “parts”. (For entertaining unknown mystery sausage parts, try looking at the ingredients for chorizo: beef lymph nodes, beef cheeks, beef arteries bleahhh…) No, it’s the fact that there’s so much darned salt in there. I realize you need to preserve the food but hey, I want a hot dog, not a salt lick.
So the quality of these Jennie-O Turkey Franks were pretty decent. I mean, with supermarket hot dogs you’re not going to get any transcendental meat experience anyhow. So as long as it tastes like what you expect a supermarket dog to taste, who cares if it’s turkey? Indeed, I really couldn’t tell the difference… well, maybe these are a little less juicy and fatty tasting which is probably a good thing.
Since the hot dog looked a little forlorn, I decided to nestle him in the bun with a twin. Double hot dog mania… you saw it here first.
Oh, I haven’t even mentioned condiments yet. I’m not going to get into the Chicago style hot dog versus New York style hot dog versus Monkey style hot dogs. (Although, that Venezuelan potato chip style hot dog I saw on Food Network was very interesting.) But anyhow, I just put ketchup on mine because there was nothing else in the house. And don’t even mention mustard. Don’t even go there. No Mustard!
Price: $1.00 for pack of 10
Found At: Albertson’s
Cheap Eats Score: 5/10
June 29th, 2006 at 1:33 pm
BTW, Wal-Mart sells Jennie-O jumbo turkey dogs for like $3…maybe $3.50 for a pack of 20 or so, I believe. Anyways, I buy those and they are awesome. They are def jumbo!
June 29th, 2006 at 3:35 pm
Soy hot dogs are almost good for you, at 50 calories each, on average, and 12grams of protien or so–actually, the turkey dogs might be high in protien and low in calories as well, to cancel out the sodium/bad hot dog nutrition associations.
For people who like to gussy up their dogs, I know wrapping them in biscut dough is popular, rather than using rolls. Although given that my grocery store gives away hot dog rolls around the 4th for free, I guess using the rolls for, I don’t know, peanut butter sandwiches or whatever, would be the ultimate cheap eats.
June 29th, 2006 at 4:46 pm
I’ve had these too, they’re pretty good. I got Oscar Meyer Light dogs on sale last week for $.99. They are made with turkey and pork (90 calories, 380 mg sodium). I haven’t bought regular hot dogs in years.
But DUH, Chicago style are THE BEST. The pickle, the celery salt, the sport pepper? Nothing better.
And I don’t care what the hell is in chorizo, I love it madly.
June 29th, 2006 at 7:18 pm
What’s a Monkey style hot dog?
Nice will power on the jokes that were SO there for you, although you touched ‘em vaguely
June 29th, 2006 at 7:23 pm
KETCHUP?!?!?!?!?!
::head explodes::
June 30th, 2006 at 11:02 am
Vanessa - i’ll have to keep an eye out for the jumbo turkey dogs, but they don’t have a walmart near me. amazingly.
heartofglasss - I was actually eyeing the soy dogs at the market, but they had the turkey franks in front of it with a big sign. hey, marketing works! Re: wrapping in biscuit dough. Most of the chinese bakeries near me sell a “hot dog danish bread” that is fairly interesting… I guess you don’t have to refrig it because of all the salt in the dog? P.S. thanks for your cheap eats suggestions. interestingly, there are a number on that list that are already “in the post queue”…
peggasus - i’m actually a big fan of chorizo. i don’t know why i made the mistake of reading the label. i swear though, it said “Beef Lymph Nodes”. The pork chorizo said “Pork Lymph Nodes”…
Skibs - i would teach you the monkey style hot dog, but then i would have to kill you…
ace - yes, Ketchup. at least it’s not mustard… I actually like chili cheese onion hot dogs the most. There are a bunch of greasy spoons around here that make great ones.
July 1st, 2006 at 3:06 am
I read somewhere that if you put a lot of condiment on your hot dogs, it sort of negates the bad things about it. I think spicy deli mustard has something in it that makes it healthy. Ketchup is made out of tomatoes which are good for you. Also, lots of onions are good for you. I’m not sure about relish though.
July 1st, 2006 at 5:31 am
My wife and I are n opposite side of the mustard battle, I love it-She hates it. I buy these all the time because I have cholesterol issues and the salt doesn’t effect me, so these are good for me (Yeah right!).I gotta say the kosher turkey dogs in the markets near me are full size and they are actually really good. I end up eating HD’s once a week or so. They are cheap and quick.
July 4th, 2006 at 9:57 pm
marvo - hehe… I think that is wishful thinking. Though I know that tomatoes and onions ARE supposed to be good for you.
aaron - that’s funny about the salt, because I was just telling my brother who has high cholesterol but no high blood pressure that at least he can still eat salty stuff. and yes, a big Yeah Right! The other day I saw some larger turkey dogs 8 for a dollar at the market. Was SO tempted to get them, but I think i’ve passed my hot dog quota for this year…
July 6th, 2006 at 1:00 am
Bah humbug on turkey franks. Civilization rests on three things: bread, beer and sausage. Turkey franks are on the same level as Wonder “Bread” and Bud. Products like these will eventually undermine our way of life. Luckily I live in the Pacific Northwest where decent microbrews, good bread and Bavarian Meats weiners and other sausage products are widely available.
Regards, The Palatine Boor
July 6th, 2006 at 9:18 am
Wow that double dog in a bun actually inspired me. I’ve never thought about doing that before, but it looks really good.
BTW another really small dog is the Ball Park individually wrapped ones. Surprising since Ball Park is supposed to “plump when ya cook ‘em”, but those are tiny too… and I love Chinese bakeries but I hate the hot dogs they use. The bread is great though, nice and chewy and sort of sweet.
July 6th, 2006 at 1:47 pm
john - you shall be happy to know that just this past 4th I cooked up some Bratwurst in Beer. Excellent. So I’m not ALL SoCal wimpy. Now, I just have to address this Starbucks addiction that I have, and then you and I can be pals…
chowgirl - I sort of like the hotdog bread even though the hotdog does taste pretty blah. I think next time i’ll try for the 8 to a pack dogs instead of the 10 pack ones. Because there’s only 8 buns usually anyhow…