This weekend, consider the Dodger Dog. On Thursday, our baseball boys in blue returned to Chavez Ravine for the 2025 MLB season.
But the game also marked the return of one of the world's most legendary stadium eats: the Dodger Dog, an icon since 1962, which features a 10-inch pork hot dog that's either grilled or steamed. Whatever your preference, it's always a nostalgia trip.
Its recipe, of course, has changed over the years. For most of its life, the dog itself was made by Farmer John in Vernon, which called for more than 5,000 pounds of meat, spices and corn syrup in a single batch. In 2021 Papa Cantella's — also based in Vernon — took up the meaty mantle and remains the current maker. At the stadium, there are corn-dog variants, plant-based spins, bacon-wrapped iterations, kosher versions, chili-topped options, fried dogs, gluten-free alternatives and more.
The glut of glizzies is never-ending because, contrary to L.A.'s reputation as a green-juice-guzzling collective of health fanatics, this is a hot dog city.
According to the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council's latest published records, Los Angeles was the country's top consumer of hot dogs in 2023, eating more than 30 million pounds annually. That same organization found that Major League Baseball fans consumed 18.3 million hot dogs in 2019 — with Dodger fans eating 2.7 million of them.
Whether the Dodger Dog is a great hot dog is a decades-old debate among Angelenos, but one thing is certain: This hot dog is undeniably a part of the city.
Tommy Brockert with handfuls of hot dogs in La Sorted's Chinatown. (Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
"I don't think anyone thinks it's a good hot dog and that's OK, you know?" said restaurateur Tommy Brockert, a lifelong Dodgers fan. "But it's nostalgic, it's part of the experience. It doesn't have to be good, it just feels right."
Brockert owns La Sorted's, a popular Dodgers-themed pizzeria. After operating in Silver Lake since 2021, last fall he debuted a Chinatown tavern that's plastered with memorabilia near the stadium. He added hot dogs to the menu at this location in honor of the Dodger Dog and occasionally serves a Dodger Dog-inspired pizza, which tops a sauce base of yellow-mustard béchamel with mozzarella, provolone, sliced hot dogs, fried onions and cornichons.
This season, he's also planning on offering a Japanese hot dog, plus a rotation of glizzy specials themed to whatever the visiting team's regional hot dog might be. (This weekend, La Sorted's ran Coney chili dogs in a nod to the Detroit Tigers.)
La Sorted's pizzeria in Chinatown features vintage posters, trading cards, programs, ticket stubs and other memorabilia collected by owner Tommy Brockert throughout his life. (Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
A hot dog "is a part of the baseball experience, you know?" Brockert said. "I think that it kind of made sense, being the brand that we are."
The restaurant serves a Vienna all-beef frank, as opposed to Papa Cantella's, which is traditionally all pork. La Sorted's slides its dogs into potato buns, and splits the franks down the middle for extra char. Brockert's preferred toppings — called "Tommy's Way" at the Chinatown pizzeria — are equal slicks of Dijonnaise and Philippe's hot mustard.
Dodger Stadium proudly squirts Morehouse mustard and basic ketchup from its condiment dispensers, but at your own grill you can be the flavor MVP and mix it up like Brockert. Here are a few ways to spruce up hot dogs for home(-viewed) games.
Eating out this week? Sign up for Tasting Notes to get our restaurant experts' insights and off-the-cuff takes on where they're dining right now.
Make-Your-Own Hot Dog Cart
When feeding a crowd, it doesn't get more festive — or L.A.-appropriate — than re-creating one of the city's street-vendor icons: the roving hot dog cart, with its scent of bacon, hot dogs, jalapeños and onions thick in the air. Former L.A. Times Test Kitchen director Noelle Carter crafted her own makeshift version for home parties, and you can too. "Bacon-wrapped hot dogs," Carter wrote, "They're the unofficial street food of Los Angeles. It's all but impossible to escape their seductive aroma after a sporting event, concert or night on the town."
Get the method.
(Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)
Homemade Hot Dog Buns
This recipe can be made by hand, mixer or bread machine, and leans on optional ingredients like malt powder and sesame seeds to customize the hot dog bun of your nostalgia. Here, cookbook author and recipe contributor Marcy Goldman shares her bun how-to (and a few memories of coaching her sons' baseball team) with the L.A. Times.
Get the recipe.
Cook time: 2½ hours. Makes about 10 buns.
(Anacleto Rapping / Los Angeles Times)
Curtis Stone's Tomato Sauce (Ketchup)
Australian chef Curtis Stone whips up his own "tomato sauce," or ketchup, for sausage rolls, but this condiment is versatile and delicious on just about anything that calls for a dip or spread (I've even used it atop meatloaf). Certainly there are Heinz purists, and if ever a cause called for the bottled stuff, it's a traditional hot dog, but if you're looking to take your dogs to new gastro heights, opt for Stone's take. It's got sweet, roasty notes from caramelizing onions with tomato paste and depth from chipotle, which all find balance thanks to the subtle bite of apple cider vinegar.
Get the recipe.
Cook time: 1 hour plus chilling time. Makes about 1½ cups.
(Stephanie Breijo / Los Angeles Times)
Hard Cider Mustard
A simple yellow mustard does the trick for most dogs, but sausages — and any grilled meats, truly — are often bettered by the tang of a sharper mustard. Carter, our former Test Kitchen director, crafted a recipe for a mustard that uses hard cider, apple cider vinegar and fresh apples for a fruitier edge, but one that still packs a punch. If you're making this recipe, be sure to let the mustard sit a few days before use, as it takes time for the flavors to mellow and coalesce. "Once you've perfected it, you'll want to make a larger batch to share," Carter writes. "Homemade mustard makes a great gift. And no one has to know how easy it was to make."
Get the recipe.
Cook time: 15 minutes plus chilling time. Makes about 1⅔ cups.
(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)
Corn Dogs
Fluffy-battered and fried to a golden crisp, corn dogs are nearly as iconic as their more straightforward glizzy brethren. Get Goldman's recipe here, which calls for a few simple ingredients and comes together quickly. Just don't forget the wooden skewers.
Get the recipe.
Cook time: 35 minutes. Makes 10 corn dogs.
No comments:
Post a Comment