Spiral Cut Dogs

No. Not this kind of spiral cut dog:

These spiral cut dogs from Chow!

Have you seen them before? They were all over the food blog-o-sphere earlier this summer.  I'm just a bit late to the game.

Holy cow!  I don't think we'll ever go back to cooking hot dogs on the grill the ordinary way again.

Mrblocko and I were both a bit skeptical at first.  I mean, last year we tried the marinaded hot dogs where you cut slits in the hot dogs.  Neither of us thought they were really anything special.

However, the spiral cut dogs are a whole 'nother story.  In spiral cutting the dogs you expose more surface area to the grill, so you get more caramelized charred meaty goodness.  Plus, with the slinky effect created by the spiral cut, the hot dog now goes from one end of the bun to the other.  No hot dog-less bit of bun leftovers!

Oh, one more thing...if you are a fan of loading up your hot dogs with condiments, the spiral cut allows for the relish, onions, chili, whatever, to be evenly distributed throughout the hot dog.  On an ordinary hot dog all that stuff just gets piled on top and falls off.  Whatever you put on the hot dog falls into the nooks and crannies between the spirals.  It's a pretty groovy thing.

So how do you make spiral cut hot dogs?
1. Take a skewer and poke it through the center of the hot dog lengthwise.
2. Cut at an angle down to the skewer rolling away from you to form the spiral.
3. Remove the skewer.
4. Grill.
5. Top with desired fixins.
6. Chomp away!