Hot Wieners, a New England tradition.

Right down the street from our new house is a little wienie joint my dad used to take me to when I was little. I can remember sitting at the counter, watching the cook in awe. If you have ever been to a wienie joint you will know exactly what I am talking about, the cook will stick his arm out and line up wienes to his elbow. Then he'll ladle on the meat sauce plop them down on some parchment paper throw on the fixings and wrap them up all in the matter of minutes . If you don't live on the East Coast you might not know what a hot wiener is. Picture a steamed bun with a thin grilled hot dog, the kind that probably has ingredients you don't want to know about in it. Smear the dog with yellow mustard and top it with a flavorful meat sauce, kind of like a bean less chili, and you have a hot wiener. Ask for one "all the way" and get diced onions and a sprinkling of celery salt added.
This weekend I had some spare time and a big package of ground beef so I decided to try my hand at making homemade hot wiener sauce. Finding a recipe is not that easy since each different joint has their own top secret version. I decided to try this one from allrecipes: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/New-York-System-Hot-Wiener-Sauce-I/Detail.aspx

The few modifications I made were because I did not have allspice or ginger root. I just substituted 1/4 tsp of cinnamon and ginger powder.

This was allot easier to make than I thought, all you do is brown the beef, add in the seasonings, ketchup, soy, Worcestershire and cook low and slow. I cooked my wienie sauce for a little over 2 hours.
The verdict: It was really good! I used a all beef hot dog and that was the one thing that stood out to me as different. The sauce pretty much tasted exactly like something you would get from a joint. I portioned the left overs into containers and froze it. I figure it will be something great to take to a BBQ or have handy when we have company.