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What does a guy have to do to get a kosher, organic, nitrate-free hot dog?

by Eric Schulmiller · January 3rd, 2008
Eco-Kashrut, Grocery, Holidays, Kosher, Organic, Rant!

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As a card-carrying Jewish professional, I have the maddening responsibility of thinking two holidays ahead at all times. So while I am trying to put the finishing touches on our second annual (Fair Trade) Chocolate-Covered Tu Bishvat Seder, I’m also looking for a more sustainable vendor for the hot dogs for our Purim carnival. I can’t believe that after several years of serious progress (especially on the krunchy-kosher koasts), no one is selling a kosher organic hot dog yet. Even with some serious google-fu, this is the best I could come up with. Kosher organic chicken dogs. Blech. Maybe we’ll just go with these.

Any thoughts?

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5 Responses to “What does a guy have to do to get a kosher, organic, nitrate-free hot dog?”

  1. Tovah Says:
    January 3rd, 2008 at 11:58 pm

    Those chicken franks look great- I had no idea Wise made franks, I’m very psyched to try them out when I can find them in a store. I may end up ordering them online. that’s how excited I am to find organic nitrate-free kosher franks of ANY sort. Being gluten-free, I can’t eat most veggie dogs (except Tofu Pups) since they’re all made of wheat gluten. And I like Chicken and turkey dogs a lot. I think Wise deserves some support, they may be too large-scale to be as sustainable as some of us would like, but they sure are heads and shoulders above most kosher meat producers.

  2. Silverbrow Says:
    January 4th, 2008 at 4:26 am

    I imagine one of the biggest problems in getting kosher organic hot dogs is the skins they’re in.

    I have yet to come across any kosher natural sausage skins i.e. made from animal stomachs. The only kosher casings you can get in the UK are collagen based, manufactured things. These monstrosities are used for everything from sausages to viennas. I reckon you’d be very hard pressed to get organic collagen based products.

    Couldn’t you have turned some of that goat into sausage?

    Also, is organic that important? Might it not be easy to get hold of excellent quality sausages from free-range animals, without necessarily having the organic stamp of approval?

  3. Shev Says:
    January 4th, 2008 at 8:45 am

    The chicken looks better than the tofu! That list of ingredients is scary. Perhaps skip the whole deal and stick with something less processed? What with our body being our temple an’ all.

  4. Eric Schulmiller Says:
    January 4th, 2008 at 10:01 am

    I think I should apologize for not giving Wise their props for producing a more humane hot dog, even if it is a chicken dog. Also, I’d be happy with any variety of sustainable beef hot dog - grass-fed, free-range, organic, nitrate free - anything is better than the ones offered by Rubashkin & co.

    In terms of abandoning the ‘dogs all-together, one of my volunteers the other day talked about the “80-20″ rule - where you eat sustainably 80% of the time, but the rest of the time (restaurants, ball-parks, carnivals, etc) you give yourself a free-pass to eat what’s available. Not sure how I feel about that, but I understand the sentiment.

  5. Michael Croland Says:
    January 6th, 2008 at 2:07 pm

    If you’re willing to go for something vegetarian, I highly recommend Tofurky sausages (particularly the beer brats and kielbasas). They’re much tastier than the Yves veggie dogs! Grill ‘em and they’ll turn out sensational. All Tofurky sausages are vegan, kosher (KSA), and organic. Even if you don’t go 100% with the Tofurky sausages, I recommend having them as an option at the very least.

    http://www.tofurky.com/products/sausages.htm

    (Tofurky also makes frankfurters. But they don’t taste as good, and the sausages will fit in a hotdog bun … so why not?)

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