Vagaries of the Frankfurt Sausage

For reasons I don't entirely understand sometimes I make myself a frank or two and they're great, and other times I do and they're just not that good. This morning I had a frank for breakfast, like the one I had last night. I did that because the one I had last night was really good. It happens that I usually put them under the broiler on a sheet of aluminum foil. But I'm all out of aluminum foil.

I think it was Wednesday when I last brought provisions at the Duane Reade in the center of town. Among other things, I picked up some franks. All they had was Reduced fat Hebrew national and skinless Nathan's. I like Hebrew National, but reduced fat? Forget it. I'm glad I didn't get them without noticing. I hate when that happens. One time I bought Smucker's Hot Fudge, and didn't realize until I ate it on my ice cream that it was sugar free. Let me tell you, not even sugar can help sugar free hot fudge. I threw it out. But I digress...

So, I bought the Nathan's franks. A decent frank, though I generally would have preferred the traditional  ones that have a proper casing. The ones that I bought also had the other kind of frank shape, the kind of shape that comes perhaps from maybe being formed not as links but through some other process. Anyway, they don't have the shape of the nominal Nathan's frank, but the other kind of shape that is out there. Not a big deal.

I also picked up what I thought were hot dog buns. There wasn't a selection, I got what they had. It wasn't until the next day, when I made myself a couple hot dogs for supper that I realized they weren't hot dog buns per se, they were Delish! brand Brat & Sausage rolls. A little taken aback, I proceeded to use them anyways. They are a bit more toothsome than a traditional soft hot dog bun, a little larger, and are cut open on the top, like Home Pride bread, wherein the commercial year's back they showed them slicing open the top of the loaf before baking and drizzling butter into it.

As I said, I was out of aluminum foil, so I couldn't use the normal method of broiling. I have a gas stove and oven. I opted to heat a couple up in my saute pan on high, turning the oven on high when I began the cooking in order to warm it up. I turned them a few times, and once they were starting to brown nicely, and the pan was plenty hot, I threw the pan in the oven. No oil added here. While they were in the oven I diced up a shallot, and selected my mustard.

I'm all out of Dijon, my go to mustard. I had some Thumann's horseradish mustard that I got for Christmas, maybe the year before last. It's Ok, but I like my Dijon. I had some other mustard choices, but this is what I went with, for various reasons, among which was that I didn't think enough of the other choices. No problem. I split open 2 of the 'buns' and put them under the broiler when the franks were nearly ready. One thing about franks: I like to make sure that they've been cooked through and I like a good deal of browning. I'm not averse to a frank that others might consider burnt. I would rather err on that side. I think that part of the reason some franks that should be good, but for some reason aren't, is because they're not cooked through and through. Of course, these comments mostly pertain to dry cooking methods.

I like to brown the buns under the broiler and I took them out from under it a little too late. One of them was borderline burnt. Not a big problem. Then I put the franks into the buns and put on the shallots and mustard. I found that although the flavor of the franks was pretty good, because they were cooked enough, and although I love raw diced shallots on a frank, the whole thing was a bit overpowering and yearned for a bit of sweetness. I realized before I sat down that some relish would've been nice, but I didn't have any. And the mustard was just too strong to complement the frank and I probably put too much on. Especially with that mustard I yearned for some sweetness. The buns were not bad. I was afraid that they would overshadow the frank and be too hard, but they really weren't. No complaints.

Last night I decided to give the franks another try. I had a bowl of crappy instant Thai Hot & Sour soup from a brand that shall remain nameless, that I also picked up at the Duane Reade the other night. I salvaged it by the use of copious quantities of a certain chinese hot oil product. But I digress, again...

Then I opted to have a sole frank. This time the process would be a little different. Two things occurred to me since the last effort. I put a little olive oil in the pan, and I wanted to find a different mustard, or something with a little sweetness. I found a very small, gift assortment size jar of Lost Acres Sweet and Hot mustard in the fridge. This was also a gift, I think for Christmas, but at least 3 years ago, I'd say. So, looking for something with a little sweetness, I tried that.

I went through the same process, but this time I made sure to check the buns. They take barely a minute. I took them out at the peak of brownness. I put some of this mustard on the frank and no shallots. This was one of the good franks. I did the same thing this morning and it came out just as good. Those buns are actually really good, the frank was cooked perfectly, and the mustard complemented the frank without overpowering it, and with a bit of sweetness. I guess I'm a bit of a minimalist when it comes to franks.

The finished product