TVWGG Hot Dog Taste-Off: Stray Dog Division

Welcome to the TVWGG Hot Dog Taste-Off!

This is the fifth and final round of our summer hot dog taste-off for 2014. If this is your first visit to the taste-off, make sure to read the first installment for details on how we’re selecting and judging the hot dogs.

Last time, Applegate The Great Organic Uncured beat three rivals quite easily in the Organic Division. This time, we taste three mutts that did not fit easily into our previous division contests.

The Stray Dog Division

The entries in this division include:

  • Bar-S (Sigma): $4.99
  • Armour (Armour-Eckrich): $2.79
  • Kirkland Signature (Costco): $10.99

Bar-S claims to be the #1 best-selling hot dog brand in America. The most popular varieties found in supermarkets in San Jose, California were chicken/pork/beef and chicken/pork, but we kept shopping and eventually found an all-beef variety for our taste test. At $4.99, it was a bit pricey compared to better-known brands like Oscar Mayer and Ball Park.

Armour is an iconic American brand, and those of a certain age will remember the famous jingle about Armour being “the dog kids love to bite”. We searched high and low for this dog and finally found it hiding in a Mexican supermarket. The hot dog itself was on the small side, weighing in at just 1.5 ounces. This is 1/2 ounce short of the 2 ounce criteria we established for hot dogs in the taste-off, but the judges granted a waiver to this classic dog so we could taste it in the competition. At $2.79, Armour was one of the less expensive dogs in the taste-off.

Finally, Kirkland Signature is a popular hot dog brand sold at Costco. Not to be confused with the 1/4 pound version sold in the food court, this is a standard length, 2 ounce hot dog that comes 12 to a package, 3 packages in a bundle. We had to buy 36 hot dogs just to taste 2 samples! However, at $10.99 for 72 ounces of meat, Kirkland Signature represents the best dollar value of all hot dogs in our taste-off.

(Note that in these photos, the hot dogs are always shown in the order listed above.)

The Stray Dog Division – Front view
The Stray Dog Division – Front view
The Stray Dog Division – Rear view
The Stray Dog Division – Rear view
The Stray Dog Division – Without packaging
The Stray Dog Division – Without packaging

The hot dogs were grilled together and served to the judges.

Grilling the hot dogs
Grilling the hot dogs

Once the hot dogs were grilled but not overly cooked, they were brought indoors and immediately judged on appearance, then sampled and judged on taste and tenderness/texture.

Hot dogs ready for judging
Hot dogs ready for judging

The Results

Kirkland Signature swept the warehouse floor with both of its rivals, beating Bar-S by 4 points and biting Armour by 12.6 points. With it’s sub-50 point score, Armour is sent to the doghouse as our second-lowest-scoring hot dog in all five rounds of taste testing.

Here are the weighted scores:

  • Bar-S: 57.1428
  • Armour: 48.5372
  • Kirkland Signature: 61.12
Judges’ Comment Cards
  • Bar-S: Pale color, above average taste, decent texture
  • Armour: Very good appearance, odd baloney-like taste, bland, too soft, virtually no texture
  • Kirkland Signature: Excellent color and sheen, good smoke and spice flavor, snappy texture, hard bits in sample for one judge

So Kirkland Signature wins big in our final round of the TVWGG Hot Dog Taste-Off! Next week we’ll summarize our findings across all 16 entries and offer some closing comments about the hot dogs we tasted.

All Taste Offs