Nice to see Sahlen's getting the love. Did I turn you on to them? There's a couple Sahlens advocates on here (or previously on Warchant).
That's what I grew up on, and what I'm all about. Several years ago when Sahlen's got national distribution through Publix, I had no idea. I was just walking through Publix and saw them on the shelves, my eyes got watery and I almost burst into tears. It elevated my life. We have them about twice a month.
I'm strictly natural casing pork+beef, I just can't get used to the taste and mouth feel of an all beef dog. Before they got Sahlen's here, they started carrying Hoffmans, which is a totally fine hot dog. But before that, I couldn't find a natural casing pork+beef hot dog in the city of Atlanta. For 10+ years I lived off Sahlen's from the freezer from my annual trips to Buffalo.
Back in Buffalo, we had lots of choices. The only other dog for me that competes with Sahlens and I would sometimes choose over Sahlens is a Zweigel's (Rochester) hot, both red hots and white hots.
They haven't gotten national distribution after Hoffmans (Syracuse) and Sahlen's (Buffalo) but I keep hoping. Wardynski's is good too, but just Western NY regional I believe.
I should have mentioned, I got Zweigels from here, the 7lb box wasn’t particularly pricey including shipping.
And if you have a Fresh Market in your area see if they have Feltman’s. Although I listed Sahlens in the natural casing beef category #1 it’s more for the size. Just from a pure taste perspective I like Feltman‘s ever so slightly more and it’s allegedly the original/very first New York hot dog recipe that has been resurrected recently. I’d give Feltman‘s a 10/10 for taste but they’re relatively small hot dogs. The Sahlen jumbo beefs are a 9.5/10 but may be three times the size, certainly at least double.
