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Posted by Bob Graham New York on April 24, 2008, 3:30 pm
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Michigan Sauce Recipe, courtesy of Bob Graham New York resident and avid cook
Ingredients:
1 package of hot dogs
1 package of hot dog buns
1 pound of ground beef
1 cup chopped onions
1, 8 ounce can of tomato sauce
1, 7.5 ounce can stewed tomatoes
1, 4 ounce can of diced chili peppers drained 2-3 teaspoons (to taste) of chili powder
1 teaspoon of garlic salt
Instructions:
In a large skillet cook meat and onions till meat is brown.
Drain fat.
Stir in, tomato sauce, green chili peppers, chili powder, garlic salt and 1/4 cup water.
Bring to a boil, reduce heat
Simmer for 20 minutes stirring often
Toast or steam hot dog buns while grilling or barbecuing hot dogs.
Pour chili mixture over hot dogs which are seated in the toasted buns. Top with onions and mustard.
Serve and enjoy!
So what exactly is this Michigan? It starts with a hot dog. Clare and Carl’s and McSweeney’s both use Tobin’s First Prize, but other cooks swear by Glazier’s from Potsdam. Then there’s the secret sauce, and I do mean secret. Michigan makers reply with a sneer and a scornful laugh if you have the temerity to request a recipe. We ate in two restaurants for comparison and found the sauces very different: one bland, the other deliciously spicy. Who knows what other variations we might have found, had we larger stomachs! Most people request onions on their Michigan, but some like them sprinkled on top, while others order “a Michigan—buried,” meaning one with the onions buried in the bun under the sauce. We ordered our first one that way, thinking we were very clever to have figured out that we were less likely to lose our onions that way. Ha! We had not yet read the dreadful warning on McSweeney’s menu: “Onions buried may cause sauce to fall off hot dog due to bun crisis of 2002.”
Michigan
1 pound ground round or chuck
1 8-ounce can tomato paste
1 cup water
1 tablespoon prepared mustard
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon curry powder
1 teaspoon chili powder
Garlic salt to taste
1 pound hot dogs (Glazier’s are a local favorite)
New England–style hot dog buns, with the slit in the top
Mustard
Chopped onions
Brown the ground beef, and drain off the fat. The resulting pieces of meat must be crumbled very fine. Add the tomato paste and water, mixing them into the meat. Add the mustard; combine the other spices, and blend them in thoroughly. Steam or grill the hot dogs. Steam the bun. Place the hot dog in the bun and cover it with mustard and a generous helping of sauce. The onions can be buried under the sauce or sprinkled on top.
That statement forced us to consider the final element in the Michigan: the bun. Originally Michigans were served on steamed rolls from the local bakery, Bouyea-Fassett. These rolls were longer and heavier than the hot dog rolls sold today. You could buy them uncut, age them a day to keep them from falling apart in the steamer, then slash them open on the top and proceed with building your Michigan. In 2002, however, Bouyea- Fassett was bought out, and the new company, ignoring the desperate pleas of Plattsburghers, discontinued the buns. Now stand owners must make do with much shorter and shallower New England–style rolls from other companies—sadly more prone to overflow when filled with dog, sauce, and buried onions. The buns are steamed not only to warm them, we learned, but also to make it easier to stuff all those essentials into them.
I never did get to the bottom of the Michigan versus Texas Red Hot question. I guess it doesn’t really matter, though. Anyone from Plattsburgh or thereabouts knows that a rose by any other name smells just as sweetly of onions.
Lynn Case Ekfelt’s Foodways column was published in Voices Vol. 32, Spring-Summer 2006
Great Michigan Sauce Recipe.
Mrs. Brankman’s sauce is:.
Press Republican from 6/30/02 ...
Michigan Sauce
Ingredients
2lbs lbs lean ground beef
1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce
4 teaspoons chili powder
2 teaspoons cumin powder
2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons ground black pepper
2 teaspoons dried onion flakes
2 teaspoons crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon hot sauce
Directions
1 Mix tomato sauce, hot sauce and seasonings in a large saucepan.
2 Add raw ground beef and mash with potato masher while cooking.
3 Cook on medium heat for 30 minutes until beef is browned, then simmer on low for 2-3 hours.
4 (Sauce will be very thick) Serve Michican Sauce over steamed hot dogs in a steamed bun and top with chopped raw onions.
==========
March 31, 2008
The Capital in Annapolis, Md., does a respectable job of heralding spring with a rundown of Coney Dog habits in Michigan and hot dog habits elsewhere.
The article accurately notes that Detroit Coney Dog sauce is creamier than the drier Flint variety and explores a Coney cousin, the West Virginia Hot Dog and our Midwest neighbor, the Chicago dog.
The artcle also includes a recipe for a beanless chili sauce:
CONEY ISLAND CHILI DOG SAUCE
1 pound ground chuck
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 6-ounce can tomato paste
1 cup water
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon prepared yellow mustard
1 tablespoon dried, minced onion
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon celery seed
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin (heaping)
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
Brown ground beef in a skillet, adding onions halfway through. Add minced garlic when meat is nearly done.
Add remaining ingredients; stir well to combine. Simmer over low heat 15 minutes.
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