So I saw this amazing menu item at the Conch Shack in Key West on Friday night of Labor Day weekend: bacon-wrapped, deep fried hot dog. That’s the sort of food that screams “eat me” on a menu, like venison chili at the Houndstooth pub or blackened …, well, anything.
The overall experience was just okay. The hot dog itself responded just fantastically to the deep fryer, but the bacon was overcooked, extra crispy and too dark, for the same reason.
I realize that this might be gilding the lily, but I think I would prefer the following cooking method:
A. Deep fry the hot dog. This is plainly awesome and probably can’t be improved by mere mortals.
B. Deep fry the bacon, but not all the way.
C. Wrap the bacon around the hot dog, and let the two rest while the fries or whatever else get ready. The bacon should readily absorb any excess heat from the hotdog, keeping it from over cooking while the bacon cooks a bit more and even bastes the hot dog in the Dom Perignon of gravies: bacon grease.
A friend proposed a similar recipe with even further undercooking, so that you could take the bacon/hotdog combo and melt cheese on it under the oven. But I said that’s just taking things a little too far. I mean, it’s a hot dog.
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