Professor Butter Beard and the “Wienermobile”
“You know what I love best about baseball? The pine tar, the resin, the grass, the dirt – and that’s just in the hot dogs.”
- David Letterman
Oh, David. You aren’t supposed to think what is in a summer hot dog! That ruins the whole experience! For me, hot dogs are major characters in almost all my favorite childhood summer memories. Flashes of steamy summer evenings, fresh from a full afternoon swimming at the community pool my father managed every year. He would drive us home at 4pm for a quick break, fire up the grill, and burn every single hot dog every time to that delicious crispness that would snap with the first bite and spray the ketchup all over your face.
Or maybe the trips to the Cleveland Indians ballpark and the foil-wrapped hot dogs with oddly smooshy steamed buns that tasted so amazing with an icy root beer in a plastic mug. Or the fireworks in Lion’s Park, sitting on the grassy hill, alternating bites of smokey grilled hot dogs and chocolate ice cream cones until you had to lean back because your stomach was about to explode, and the mustard was swimming with the cream that was dripping all over the blanket.
Or maybe it was that wacky dancing wiener that we all knew and sang along with every time he kick-danced onto our television screens. But what really made my childhood smiles explode was the annual arrival of the “Oscar Mayer Wienermobile” that would drive through town on its way to the local Portage County Fair. We would grab our bikes and follow it as far as we could to the edge of town and then race back home to climb into the car that was packed with my mother’s homemade blueberry and cherry pies and head towards a full day of frenzied fun at the fair.
In 1936, Carl Mayer, the nephew of the hot dog impresario Oscar Mayer, suggested that the company could promote its “German-style Wieners” by designing and developing a vehicle that was shaped like one of those now-iconic sausages. Uncle Mayer agreed, and the first 13-foot, all-metal Wienermobile debuted in Chicago later that year.
“The first Wienermobile hit the streets of Chicago as a sales tool to fairs, festivals, and parades, sparking smiles,” writes Ed Roland, the Wienermobile’s senior manager of brand communications. “The Wienermobile is in line with the essence of Oscar Mayer. When the Wienermobile program started, it was a tough time during the Great Depression. People needed something to bring a little joy to their lives. And that's sort of what Carl thought; this was something that could make people smile and brighten their day in some tough times. And we've been around ever since.”
The iconic vehicle has gone through a number of changes, upgrades, and adaptations over the past 87 years (including a “WienerCycle” and a “WienerDrone” and even a Matchbox Weinermobile – which of course I had to have). The first Wienermobile was scrapped for metal in the 1940’s to aid the US Army during World War II, and in the 1950’s Oscar Mayer and the Gerstenslager Company created several new vehicles using a Dodge chassis or a Willys Jeep chassis. These Wienermobiles were piloted by "Little Oscar" (portrayed by George Molchan) who would visit stores, schools, orphanages, and children's hospitals and participate in parades and festivals. More adaptations emerged over the decades, but one thing has remained constant. Ever since the giant drivable dog had a name, it’s been referred to as “The Wienermobile”... until now.
Oscar Mayer announced just last week that it is changing the vehicle’s name for the first time ever, re-christening it as “The Frankmobile” in honor of its new-recipe all-beef franks. The company is deploying a fleet of six renamed Frankmobiles this week, and they’re now being piloted by “Frankfurters” instead of Hotdoggers. Don’t worry, though. The motorized wiener still looks almost the same, save for the name “Frankmobile” between its headlights and a decal on its rear that reads “The All-Beef Frank Frankmobile” and “Please do not lick the All-Beef Beef Frankmobile.” Now that I find a tad disturbing…..
In honor of this wiener revelation, I was inspired to work on a recipe for homemade “buns.” I recently saw an advertisement from King Arthur Flour for a hot dog bun pan and knew immediately it had to be a part of my already overgrown collection of baking pans. I played with various doughs and was happiest when I flavored one of my brioche recipes with the addition of toasted cumin seeds. Toast the buns on the grill alongside the newly renamed “All-Beef Franks” and then slather them with some spicy mustard, ketchup and some pickled red onions. But even more importantly, keep your bike handy so when that glorious “Wienermobile” drives into view, you can hop on and immediately morph into your summer ten-year-old self ready for a day of dizzying fun at the fair.
Professor Butter Beard’s Hot Dog Buns
Ten buns
3 Tbsp cumin seed, toasted and cooled
8 Tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature
2 tsp instant dried yeast
1/3 cup whole milk, heated to body temperature
2 cups bread flour
1 tsp fine sea salt
2 Tbsp granulated sugar (separated)
2 large eggs and 1 extra yolk
1) Toast your cumin seeds over medium heat and set aside to cool.
2) Heat the milk slightly to body temperature. Stir in 1 Tbsp of the sugar and the 2 teaspoons of dried yeast. Set aside to bloom for five minutes.
3) In the bowl of a standing mixer, mix together the bread flour, additional sugar, the salt and cooled cumin seeds. Add the eggs (and yolk) and then the yeast/milk mixture. Switch to the dough hook and mix on medium speed for about 6-8 minutes to form a soft, elastic dough.
4) With the mixer on low, add in the butter, 1 Tbsp at a time, mixing to form a shiny dough that is elastic and soft to the touch. Remove the dough to a greased bowl, cover with plastic wrap and set aside to rise for about one hour (until doubled in size).
5) Gently punch down the dough and stretch into a rectangle roughly 15” by 6” to fit your greased hot dog bun pan (via King Arthur Flour). Cover again with plastic wrap and let it rise for another 30 minutes.
6) Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
7) When ready to bake, lay a piece of parchment paper over the top of the bun pan. Then place an inverted baking sheet over the parchment. Place the two pans into the oven and weigh the baking sheet down with a cast-iron skillet. Bake the buns for twenty minutes and then remove the cast-iron skillet, baking pan and parchment paper. Bake for another 3-5 minutes to complete the baking and evenly brown the top of the buns.
8) Remove the buns from the oven and let cool on a wire rack 5 minutes before turning them out of the pan to cool completely.
9) When completely cool, slice each bun down the middle vertically, without cutting through the bottom, and then separate into ten individual buns.
