Boston's Fenway Park Uses A Clever 2-Step Process To Keep Hot Dogs Juicy

The best way to cook hot dogs is a matter of some debate. Although many people opt for grilling, the downside with grilled hot dogs is that they can burn and dry out easily. In fact, I'm not sure I've ever had a home-grilled one that wasn't either dry or charred. But there is a way to make grilled hot dogs great, and it's something that's been adopted by hot dog vendors at Fenway Park (home of the Boston Red Sox). The two-step trick involves boiling before grilling and gives grilled dogs the perfect snap.

Many ballparks and other venues will choose to do either one or the other: boiling or grilling their hot dogs (but not both). Adding that extra step, as Fenway vendors do, lets the hot dogs stay plump and juicy but allows them to take on a bit of smoky char as well as a firmer texture. If consumption numbers are anything to go by, fans seem to appreciate the technique. Fenway Park sells an average of 8,791 Fenway Franks at each game, and with the Sox playing 81 home games per season, they're moving nearly three-quarters of a million hot dogs each year.

Fenway Franks aren't the most expensive hot dogs in Major League Baseball (that honor likely goes to the ones sold at Petco Park — home of the San Diego Padres), but they're not the cheapest either. For the 2025 season, they were selling for $6.25 per hot dog, but even at that price, they received high marks for customer satisfaction. The Action MLB Hot Dog Experience Campaign, which rated all 30 ballparks for best overall hot dog experience, ranked the Red Sox at number eight. It's not just the cooking method or the price that makes Fenway Franks so satisfying though; there are several other factors at play.

For one, the hot dog itself is delicious. The hot dog supplier is a long-established Boston-area company called Kayem Foods. When Kayem landed the hot dog concession in 2009, it spent a long time developing and testing a new recipe that was slightly spicier than earlier versions but still proved popular with customers.

Fenway Franks also have a bun style unique to the region. One reason hot dogs always taste so much better at the ballpark is because of the steamed buns, but Fenway also uses square-cut New England-style hot dog buns. For this reason, fantasy sports news and betting company Rotowire selected it as one of the top five "bun-tastic" hot dogs available at MLB stadiums.

The condiments mostly run to plastic packets of mustard, relish, and ketchup. (Unlike Chicago, Boston doesn't freak out if you use tomato-based toppings on its hot dogs.) Still, even the fact that Fenway Park doesn't need to disguise its dogs under piles of peppers or boatloads of bacon speaks to their natural flavor.