Hot Dog Ratings
We went to a few local grocery stores and purchased nine popular hot dog brands to include in our taste test. Each of these brands should be readily available nation-wide. Before we tell you about our testing, we should take a moment to introduce Matt, the newest member of our testing team. Matt also works with Kevin and Mitch as a Quality Assurance Engineer.

The following brands were included in our test: Vienna Beef Franks, Nathan's Famous Beef Franks, Klement's Beef Chicago Brand Hot Dogs, Hebrew National Beef Franks, Johnsonville Stadium Style Beef Franks, Best's Kosher Beef Frankfurters, Boar's Head Natural Casing Beef Frankfurters, Oscar Mayer Deli Style Beef Franks and Ball Park Bun Size Beef Franks.

The idea behind our testing was to make it as close to a blind taste-test as possible. For curiosity, the length of each dog was measured and recorded prior to heating. Each brand was assigned a number for identification purposes and carefully kept track of while they were heated to perfection on a Weber charcoal grill. When the dogs were ready, we conducted our testing. Each brand was rated independently by all three of us on the following criteria: Taste, Texture, Appearance, Snap and Juiciness.

After pouring over the test data and compiling our test results, we chose the top four brands. A couple of weeks later we treated our co-workers to a true Chicago Style lunch featuring our top four dogs. This gave us the opportunity to do a real-world test and pick our winners.  Drum roll please... 

Our Conclusion: Top three winners in order of preference - Best's Kosher Beef Frankfurters, Klement's Beef Chicago Brand Hot Dogs, and Oscar Mayer Deli Style Beef Franks. All three are excellent and highly recommended.

Brand	Description / Review	Rating
	Best's Kosher Beef Frankfurters are our #1 choice. They have a great flavor that sets it apart from the rest. They are juicy and not as salty as some of the others. The Best's Kosher brand will help you create the perfect Chicago Dog. We prefer the jumbo size version!	Excellent
	Klement's Beef Chicago Brand Hot Dogs are our #2 choice. They have a nice mild taste, are juicy, but not greasy. They have a tougher skin compared to the other brands. Klement's is headquartered in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.	Excellent
	The Oscar Mayer Deli Style Beef Franks were our #3 choice. We were pleasantly surprised that Oscar Mayer ranked this high. They have a mild, smokey/garlic flavor. They are juicy, but not greasy and are long and large in size.  Oscar Mayer is headquartered in Madison, Wisconsin.	Excellent

So, where's the Vienna Beef? Believe it or not, Vienna didn't even make it into our top five. We were totally shocked! Our only explanation is that there must be a recipe difference between the what is available to the consumer versus commercial retailers. Bottom line...if making Chicago Dogs at home there are certainly better choices than Vienna brand.

While the majority of the brands we tested were rated as "Good", Hebrew National and Ball Park Franks stood out as two of the least liked. Both these brands received a "Poor" rating and cannot be recommended. Other noteworthy items: If you like a thick natural casing, Boar's Head would be a good choice. Nathan's was good, but we all agreed that they taste more like a Polish Sausage rather than a hot dog.

The surprise of the day definitely had to be the Oscar Mayer Deli Style Beef Franks. We were pretty sure that the Oscar Mayer contender would end up near the bottom of our reviews. Instead, we were pleasantly surprised that they ranked in the top three. We have never been a big fan of Oscar Mayer hot dogs, but their Deli Style Beef Franks are awsome.  Now that we have a new found respect for their Deli Style Franks, maybe Oscar Mayer will give us a ride in the WeinerMobile!

Sport Peppers
Our Conclusion: The Dell'Alpe, IL Primo, Alpino and Marconi brand sport peppers are our favorites.