Nana’s Kitchen: West Virginia Hot Dog Sauce

Nana’s Kitchen: West Virginia Hot Dog Sauce

Greetings, home cooks, welcome to Nana’s Kitchen,

As summer outdoor activities continue I thought I would share a recipe for West Virginia Hot Dog Sauce.
I am a native West Virginian and hot dog sauce is one of those things that is held in high esteem. Usually eaten with mustard and slaw as well as the sauce. The term chili is heard for the sauce in some areas. I have always used the term sauce. 

There are different recipes and some families have closely guarded secret ones. The common theme in all of them is vinegar, apple cider, white, or red wine and sugar, brown or white. Spices do vary. The other commonality is boiling the meat instead of browning. The meat is more tender and the water from boiling the meat is flavored and helps make the sauce. This recipe is easy. You just have to dig around in your spice cabinet a bit.

West Virginia Hot Dog Sauce

Ingredients:
1 pound ground chuck
2-3 cups water
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon cumin
2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 tablespoon dried minced onion
1 tablespoon garlic powder
Pinch red pepper flakes
1 1/2 teaspoon dried mustard powder
1 cup ketchup
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar 

Place the meat in a sauce pan and cover with water. Bring to a boil, breaking up the meat.
When the meat and water come to a rolling boil, lower to a simmer and add the chili powder, paprika, cumin, salt, pepper, onion, garlic powder, red pepper flakes and dried mustard powder.
Stir everything together and simmer, uncovered, for 1.5 hours. Stir occasionally.
In a small bowl stir together the ketchup, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, and apple cider vinegar.
Pour into the meat mixture and stir well to combine AFTER the mixture has simmer the 1.5 hours.
Simmer, uncovered, for 30 more minutes.
Serve and enjoy!

Hints:
The sauce thickens as it cooks but it is a little thinner than some sauces.
The grease from the hamburger cannot be poured off and it shows in the recipe. But it does add flavor.
This sauce has a nice spicy flavor with a hint of sweetness. 
The sauce could also be placed on a baked potato or just on a bun like a sloppy joe.
The end result garnered just under a quart of sauce.
I was out of kosher salt and substituted sea salt. Seemed to work just fine.
This could be made ahead and frozen if needed.
If you forget and add all the ingredients at once instead of adding the ketchup, brown sugar Worcestershire sauce and vinegar toward the end. Do not fret. Keep cooking. It will be alright,although the taste is is a bit more spicy and less sweet. Obviously I have done this. But it is still good to use.
With the price of meat at this time wasting anything is not feasible or necessary.

Have a blessed Sunday.