Yes, We're Actually Soliciting Ideas On What To Cook With Hot Dog Water

Welcome to Thanks, Commenters!, in which we mine, borrow, and steal ideas put forth by The Takeout's commentariat.

Back in June, we shared the story of a Canadian performance artist who sold "hot dog water" for $38 a pop at a street festival. He intended it to be a commentary on the junk marketing of certain health foods, but really, it just got us thinking about hot dog water. Sorry. Some of our genius commenters had a few suggestions for culinary repurposing of hot dog water:

  • "Use it for the water in a bread dough recipe and make hot-dog-flavored hot dog buns?"
  • "If it were reduced into a more concentrated stock, I'd consider it as a base for a bloody mary mix."
  • "Make proper hot dog stock. Boil a package of hot dogs at great length along with, I dunno, some store-bought dry onion soup mix or something, and then use that as the base for a soup. The fancier and more incongruous the intended end product, the better."
  • "Cook cabbage with it. My grandmother used to cook bacon and cabbage by cooking the cabbage in the water used to boil the bacon. It was the only cabbage I'd eat. I reckon hot dog water would be a good substitute. Otherwise, use it as a broth for ramen..."
  • "Use it as brine for marinating chicken then make fried chicken."
  • Guys, these are all not-terrible ideas, but an undertaking of this magnitude—to create something culinarily masterful from hot dog water—requires a full, formal callout for proposals. Consider this a thought exercise, a hypothetical to stretch our creative muscles, even if we never intend on trying any of these. ("Dump it down the sink ya sick bastard" has already been taken.) So, what do you say, Takeout commenters, can we collectively come up with some not-so-crazy ideas?

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