Snapdog boasts an Outer Banks pedigree

Behold the humble hot dog, or technically, the sausage. Is this a product that strikes you as something that could be stamped “Made in the Outer Banks?” Or do you think of it as a critic who decries its nutritional value and contents?

Before you read on, shake your head vigorously, get rid of those negative images and then let us tell you about the duo producing our very own gourmet wiener.

The story begins with Harvey Hess Jr., the longtime proprietor of the iconic Capt’n Franks. As you might imagine, Hess has sampled hot dogs not only on a national scale, but worldwide, including Germany.

After three decades Hess determined he “wanted a signature dog that was Capt’n Franks.” Hess didn’t want his new creation to compete with the restaurant’s trademark Oscar Mayer all-beef hot dog. This one had to be special.

Up the road, at the Weeping Radish Farm Brewery in Grandy, Uli Bennewitz operates a craft brewery, a butchering operation and a charcuterie, a French term for cooking and preparing meat products such as sausage, bacon, and ham. Hess contacted Bennewitz with his idea and the two began working on a recipe.

Hess was intimately involved in the process, taste testing every sample, even the raw portions before they hit upon an agreeable formula. A blend of 12 spices is secreted away in an electronic recipe vault in Grandy. All that the creators were willing to volunteer was that salt, pepper and garlic are three of the spices used, along with traditional Bavarian ingredients.

But we can tell you that Capt’n Franks Signature Snapdog is a beef and pork delight with a natural casing (hence, the “snap”) built from scratch by a guild certified master butcher from Germany. Pretty fancy pedigree for a tube steak.

So all you food critics out there are probably worrying about pig’s feet, snouts and cow tails as part of the Great American Hot Dog. Not if the product has Hess’ name on it, and definitely not if a master butcher from Germany — a member of a 300-year old guild (whose name is, ahem, Frank) is putting his name on the product also.

Instead, we have the filet mignon of hot dogs. The beef comes from a family farm near Raleigh. The cut? The same as the roast beef your mom used to cook on Sunday. The cattle are grass fed and free-range. No hormones, antibiotics or nitrates find their way into this cow. The pork is from another family farm near Greenville, and this time it’s part of the butt, the same cut you slow cook on a grill to make barbecue.

There are no fillers added to make the meat go further. No vegetable or bread filler. In fact, this dog is gluten-free.

Uli’s operation will create 400 pounds of hot dogs from one cow and one pig. They make one batch at a time. Thus, each hot dog produced and packaged can be traced to one cow and one pig. The Capt’n Franks Snapdog literally has a pedigree.

The beef and pork are combined, along with the spice formula, into a “ground,” then placed in a large emulsifying vat that whirls at 7,000 rpm. The heat generated is so intense our master butcher must cool the contents down with water from time to time. While all this sounds very modern, the butcher actually decides when this essentially fine pate becomes ready by his sense of touch. Hess says the end product is “beautiful” and this is what he tasted to hit upon his signature formula. When the texture feels right, the sausage is ready for stuffing.

At this stage, the only non-North Carolina part of the hot dog is introduced. To give it the proper snap, the natural casings are sheepskin that Uli obtains from Louisiana. The casings are stuffed and hung in a modern stainless steel smoker using Virginia hardwood chips. When the proper temperature is attained (158 degrees) the stuffed cases are removed, cut into individual hot dogs and Cryovac sealed.

The entire process is overseen by an FDA inspector assigned to the Weeping Radish operation. Once packaged, the dogs enter the smoker again for a second round of cooking at 158 degrees, just to make sure the packaging introduces no bacteria to the already cooked dogs.

After the final cooking, they are boxed and sent to Cap’t Franks, where you can order one to eat there, or buy them by the package from a cooler in the store. Since these dogs are twice-cooked, Hess states they can be refrigerated for 6 to 8 weeks, far longer than your preservative-filled, store-bought hot dogs.

So there you go. A real beef and pork hot dog, made from North Carolina cattle and swine, cooked and packaged fresh on the Outer Banks and available for your consumption right here. The meat is hormone and antibiotic free, free-range and gluten free. Your family doctor would have to endorse this hot dog.

And the fact that the production of these dogs creates local jobs and help North Carolina farmers? Just icing on the cake. Or should that read chili on the hot dog?