hot dog | Trader Joe’s Rants & Raves (mostly raves, a few rants)

Trader Joe’s ORGANIC UNCURED GRASS FED BEEF HOT DOGS

I love a good hot dog but as someone who watches what they eat, hot dogs are something now I will only eat once a year. July 4th. So if I am going to eat one of course I want one that is not only really tasty. I would prefer it also be one that is at least trying to be one of the “healthier”. For me, Trader Joe’s Organic Uncured Beef hot dogs fit the bill.

Most important, yes, they are super tasty. They are made better than many others with less questionable ingredients – something hot dogs are notorious for.

These are made with USDA certified organic beef from grass fed cows. They don’t contain added nitrates or nitrites as preservatives (ie, “uncured”). They use natural ingredients to “cure” them, celery and sea salt. The ingredients are not mysterious. The rest of the ingredients are all organic seasonings, things like garlic puree, minced onion, paprika, and red pepper flakes. “No fillers. No kidding”.

We got these for a July 4th get together this year and these dogs were a big hit. Everyone commented on how good the hot dogs were. Nice and tasty, well seasoned. Garlic-y, the way I like mine.

I pan grilled these hot dogs in butter., and served them on the excellent BRIOCHE HOT DOG buns toasted. Served them with TJ’s excellent sauerkraut and dill pickle mustard.

These were so yummy on those good buns with good sauerkraut.

I can’t wait for next year to enjoy them again!

$5.99 (10 oz, 6 hot dogs)

I would buy these again.

“NO PRESERVATIVES; KEEP REFRIGERATED BELOW 40 F AT ALL TIMES”

Trader Joe’s DILL PICKLE MUSTARD

Trader Joe’s DILL PICKLE MUSTARD

To me, this was one of those Trader Joe’s products which once you try, you say to yourself, “This is something I didn’t even know I needed but now that I know how good this is, I want this in the fridge from now on”.

When I saw this in the NEW PRODUCTS section. Like so many Trader Joe items, you are curious if it’s any good. Well guess what, TJ’s DILL PICKLE MUSTARD is really good. It tastes exactly what the name says it is, mustard with dill pickles. It’s a good classic American yellow mustard with dill pickles in it and a lot of dill flavor. Hitting two good tastes combinations at the same time. If you like dill pickles you will probably love this as much as I did.

I put it on a hot dog and it was so good with this mustard. What if I put this on a cheese sandwich? What about on a melted cheese sandwich? I can even see mixing a little bit of this into mashed potatoes too…?

$1.99 (9 oz bottle) I would buy this again.