Last Wednesday, the NY Times published a notice that Alan Geisler , the food chemist who invented the red onion sauce sold from NYC hot dog carts had died. They published a link to a site that had recreated this top secret recipe. (See Roadfood.com for a thread about it.) Of course, I had to try it.
If you’re not familiar with the sauce, it consists of onions stewed in a reddish clear sauce. Not tomato sauce, not chili, not especially tangy or hot or oniony, it has always been my second choice for hot dog toppings–mustard (always on the dog first) and hot sauerkraut. The second dog gets red onions. Chili and onions are reserved for non-NY dogs in places where asking for sauerkraut gets you a puzzled look. And as far as red onions go, forget about it.
I’ve tried to duplicate it over the years. Is the red paprika? Tomatoes? How long to cook the onions to duplicate it–paprika? tomato sauce? Never got close, and, now, close to 40 years out of New York, I don’t know if I remember the taste clearly enough to clone.
So I bought some reduced fat Hebrew Nationals, a jar of Ba Tempte Half Sours, some sauerkraut as a backup and made the recipe. My wife and I always disagree about recipes. I tend to think of them as guidelines; she is a slavish follower the first time, after which she cuts loose and does things to her taste. Anyway, I’ve been unhappy with a lot of my improvisations these past few months so I followed the recipe as slavishly as any timid cook.
Corn syrup? 4 cups of water cooking down to a sauce? 1 medium onion? 1 1/2 hours cooking time? Feh, the recipe was terrible. The onions simmered to ghosts, no texture or flavor there. The sauce refused to cook down, and I was reduced to draining it and boiling it down. I like hot pepper, but there was too much of it for this sauce and the vinegar stayed in the front, raw tasting and never melded with sauce. A major disappointment. It’s sitting on top of my compost pile, slowly freezing into a silent accusation of waste.
It isn’t over yet. I think I can start with the recipe and tweak it into something. (1 cup of water, three TBS of vinegar, hot paprika instead of pepper flakes, no corn syrup for a start. And a 15 minute simmer to start. Then look for needed salt, sweet, or sour.) Perhaps it won’t be a dead ringer for the onions any hot dog cart in Manhattan can pull off on a daily basis. But it will be good.
