Tales from the Kitchen: Home-Made Corndogs

Home-Made Corndogs

Who doesn’t like a good corn dog? They are a staple of the state fair across the United States.  We love deep fried hot dogs so much, the state fair took it to a new level, and now they deep fry almost everything!  Deep fried bread, deep fried crickets, even deep fried water!  I think we might have taken this deep frying thing a little too far.

So I went old school.  I broke out the old recipe book, and found a way to make myself some corn dogs.  It didn’t hurt that my wife Starr has been saying she wanted corn dogs for a few days.  That had NOTHING to do with my decision.  I decided that a long, drawn-out, complicated process of making food was absolutely the best thing to do on a Monday.

I went to the store, and got a package of Oscar Meyer All-Beef Franks and some corn meal.  I had the rest available:  salt, pepper, sugar, cornmeal, flour, egg, milk, and oil (for frying).

Instructions:

Throw all of these into a big bowl, and mix.

Protip:  Start with the wet ingredients (egg and milk), then add in the dry ingredients.  That way you can keep control over your batter.  Mine came out a little thicker than I wanted, due to putting in the dry first, then adding the wet.  Don’t do what I did.

And, of course, inserting the chopsticks (I didn’t have bamboo skewers) into the hot dogs.  It’s not easy to keep the hotdog perfectly straight on the stick, so I didn’t try.

So the batter is made, and it’s super thick.  It’s supposed to have the consistency of ‘slightly thicker’ than pancake batter.  I ended up with “slightly thinner than concrete” so the batter didn’t stick very well, or evenly.  Also, drying off the hotdogs might be a good idea before trying to dip them in batter.

Speaking of dipping, several suggestions from the internet said to put it in a cup for easier dipping.  So I did.  The cup turned out to be the perfect length for my soon-to-be corndogs.

I put the oil into my deep fryer, and set the temp to medium high.  The directions all said to get the oil to 375 degrees – but alas I have no kitchen thermometer that goes to 400, so I had to just eyeball it.  Fortunately, I have some experience with frying stuff, so I got the oil up to the right temp, and prepared to fry.  Once it was up to temperature, it was time to coat, and fry!

Once I dipped the hot-dog-on-a-stick into the batter, I tried to let it runoff for a nice even coating.  Didn’t happen.  I ended up using a ‘swirlie’ technique to try to get the thick, concrete-like paste to release the hot dog, but I eventually used a spatula and some serious elbow grease to try to make it work.

So, dip the hot dog, try to keep the batter evenly coating the hot dog, and insert into the boiling oil.  I had the pot filled pretty high, so I didn’t work with more than 1 or two in the oil at a time – but you can certainly do up to 3-4 at the same time to save yourself some work.

The first one out was good.  The batter hasn’t fully set into place (much like working with quick-set concrete), so I wanted to work quickly.  Unfortunately, the hot dog going in was cold, so while the batter turned a nice, golden brown like it was supposed to, the hot dog inside was still cold.

 The real secret to a successful corn dog turns out to be 45 seconds to 1 minute in the microwave (depending on your microwave).  It gave the hot dog a nice warm internal temperature before cooking, so when it came out it was perfect.  Leaving the hot dogs out until they got to room temperature might also have worked – but who has time for all that?  So, a short microwave trip (there were still 6 hotdogs at this stage, so they didn’t over cook), and they were ready for batter and oil.

 After all that work, here is how they turned out:

As you can see, the batter turned nice and golden brown on the outside (possibly a little dark on one or two, due to distracted cooking).  It was crispy, and flavorful, and absolutely exactly what I wanted from a corndog.  The hotdog inside had a good internal temperature, and wasn’t cold or barely-warm as the first test one (or two) were.

FINAL WORDS

The chopsticks worked perfectly for skewers, but a real bamboo skewer might have been easier to work with, and perhaps a better choice.  The batter was perfect, just a little thick.  That made it tougher to coat evenly, and to even get it on the hot dog.  Using the cup was an ideal solution, except when you got low on batter.

The recipe said it was enough for 16 corndogs.  I had enough to make 8 corndogs.  Yes, there was batter left over – not just in the bowl but in the cup.  If it weren’t so thick, I could probably have made a few extra corndogs, and it would have been more evenly coated.  But, I’m still not convinced it was enough for 16.  Maybe if my batter hadn’t been nearly-concrete?  Who knows.

This made a very good corn dog.  If you’re ever in the mood for a state fair corn dog, but the fair isn’t in town, or you just don’t want to deal with the crowds and questionable products – do what I did, and try this at home!