What is a Hot Dog?
A hot dog is a stuffed sausage, served in a long bun. It’s one of the most popular snacks in the US. You could go to any state, and you’ll find their very own hot dog variants that they think are the best. Hot dogs come in chicken, turkey, vegan, pork, and beef variants. Most manufacturers use “frankfurter” sausages in their hot dogs, but every brand has its own taste, and not all of them are good.
It doesn’t take much to make a hot dog go from the best to the worst. A good hot dog is supposed to be made just right. It shouldn’t be too soft or mushy. It will cast a strong casing that doesn’t break until you bite into it, and it has to be packed with flavor. On the contrary, the worst hot dog brands will have the opposite of these characteristics.
Top 10 Hot Dog Brands in the US
To make it easy for you to find the perfect sausages, we’ve put together this top hot dog brands list. We researched most hot dog brands, read their ingredients, conducted taste tests, and read user reviews to create this complication.
Five Star Brand Meats
Five Star Brand Jumbo Beef Wieners
Five Star Brand sticks perfectly to its slogan that says, “taste the difference.” Their jumbo beef wieners are the finest beef hot dogs you can buy. Their size is perfect for filling out the buns and your stomach. The taste is so pleasant that you’ll keep asking for more. It is one of the leading hot dog brands with natural casings. Their wieners use the same old fashion natural casing when they first started making deli items in the 1960s, bringing their customers the traditional hot dog taste they can’t find anywhere else.
Ball Park
What started as a small hot dog supplier at the Tiger Stadium in 1959 quickly became one of the most popular hot dog brands in the US. Their Ball Park Beef hot dogs are one of the top products they make. Free of added nitrates or fillers, this brand uses 100% beef in the whole sausage. The meat is seasoned with natural species before they’re cased, ensuring that no artificial flavoring is used in the entire process.
Boar’s Head
Boar’s Head raises its farm animals in the most humane manner. Being free of hormones and antibiotics, these animals provide organic, grass-fed beef for the production of hot dogs. They don’t add salt to the food, keeping the natural saltiness that the beef already has. The meat is firm and has a subtle taste that works well with almost all toppings and is easy to customize.
Kirkland Signature
Kirkland Beef Hot Dogs – Costco Wholesale Corporation
If you’ve ever been to the Costco food court, chances are you have seen a long line of people waiting to get the $1.50 hot dog and soda combo. The Kirkland beef hot dogs are those hot dogs that most people would wait for hours to get their hands on. This hot dog brand has an impeccable, classic taste, and unique flavor. Their casing is not too soft but not too sturdy either; it is just right, so when you bite into it, you get a clean bite without feeling like there was an actual casing holding the meat.
Diestel
If you want to buy from companies that are sustainable and make a big difference for the world overall, you can’t get better than Diestel. They have what they call “thoughtfully raised, carefully prepared, Diestel family turkeys,” meaning their farm animals are treated like their family. On top of it, they make sure they’re not leaving a massive carbon footprint on the earth with their regenerative farming.
Their uncured turkey franks are one of the most famous sausages out there. You’ll notice that they’ve carefully put together a few spices in the meat, creating a sausage that is subtle but has its own little kick – that might just be perfect for Thanksgiving!
Beyond Meat
A lot of us don’t eat meat. When someone switches over to a plant-based diet, one of the things that they really miss is the snacks and meat flavor. The plant-based, non-GMO hot dogs from Beyond Meat allow you to go beyond the meat but still enjoy a meaty flavor. So you can enjoy these vegan, protein-laden, and gluten-free hot dogs without any guilt.
Applegate
Applegate does not inject its farm animals with any antibiotics and hormones. The company strictly adheres to raising their animals the ethical way, in a way that they don’t even get sick in the first place. Their animals are grass-fed and live a happy life.
Applegate’s uncured chicken hot dogs are the perfect sausages for white meat lovers. Made from 100% organic chicken, this sausage brand does not contain any added sugar, making it perfect for people sensitive about their sugar intake.
Hebrew National
When it comes to Kosher beef sausages, there aren’t many options out there. The leading brand in this niche is Hebrew National. This brand keeps everything 100% kosher, including the salt. In all the years that it has existed, the brand has stayed true to its traditional spice blend. They are a favorite of many people, thanks to their consistency, reliability, and unchanged taste at great prices.
Oscar Mayer
Oscar Mayer has been around since the 1800s. They’ve been producing high quality, great-tasting meat for centuries now. The Oscar Mayer cheese dogs are like a pinata in the form of a hot dog. When you bite into it, it has the perfect snap. The meat is packed in a sturdy way and the cheese is sure to surprise you. It melts perfectly in the mouth, and the light flavors compliment it really well.
Sabrett
Sabrett produces the classic street-side hot dogs that are famous all over New York. They have retained the classic taste since the brand’s founding. The products are made with carefully chosen beef cuts, all organic spices, and no fillers and extenders. When you’re grilling hot dogs, it’s common for the casing to burn and ruin the overall taste, but that isn’t the case with this brand.