In Praise of the Onion Sauce of NY Hot Dogs
Finally, someone from the MSM wrote about that wonder that is the semi-sweet hot dog onion sauce that is cooked in a tomato base that is only found in New York hot dog stands.
I travel to NY frequently and at lunch time always gravitate to a Sabrette stand. For $1.50 you get the bomb of a delicious boiled dog with the onion sauce. Sadly, the mastermind of that brilliant sauce died last week. From the NYT:
Sometimes a food becomes so pervasive, so accepted, so much a part of New York life, that you forget that once upon a time, it wasn’t there. That is the case with that tangy red onion sauce that is slathered over hot dogs in New York alongside sweet relish and sauerkraut. Similar to the frumpy oversize black-and-white cookies, lifelong New Yorkers may never realize that it’s something that is native to this city.
The man behind today’s sauce, Alan S. Geisler, died last week at the age of 78, as The Record of Bergen County reported. Half a century ago, hot dog vendors went through the time-consuming process of making their own onion sauce, but Mr. Geisler’s version — made the the behest of a hot dog and bun supplier who later became his partner — superseded all of those. It you are slurping up the red onion sauce in New York (and likely elsewhere), chances are the sauce was made by Sabrett’s, the supplier behind Katz’s Delicatessen, Gray’s Papaya, Papaya King, the legendary Dominick’s truck in Queens and the “dirty water dog” carts.
The sauce — which is made from vinegar, onion, tomato paste and other ingredients– is the subject of much speculation and longing by displaced former New Yorkers.
Over the last 20 years, the sauce has been manufactured in places ranging from eastern Pennsylvania to Jersey City to its current location in the Bronx. Unfortunately, that factory is scheduled to shutter. “The plant where the onion sauce is moved will ultimately be moved from Hunts Point section of the Bronx to Fairlawn, N.J.,” said Boyd Adelman, the president of Marathon, the parent company for Sabrett’s. “It’s just a matter of efficiency for us.”
A food technologist trained at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Mr. Geisler first came up with the sauce at the request of Gregory Papalexis, who was a close family friend of the Greek immigrant founder of Papaya King, Gus Poulos. The onion sauce became a hit, and Mr. Geisler and Mr. Papalexis later went into business together at Tremont Foods, which after some mergers and various names (including House of Weenies), has been absorbed into Marathon Enterprises. Mr. Geisler lived in New Jersey, but passed away in Florida.
On a side note, most New Jersey natives do die in Florida.
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Bobby
