Wherein The Author Celebrates The Corn Dog

Do you like corn dogs? Of course you do. Everyone likes corn dogs. Unless you don’t, and then you are simply wrong. But we have no time for naysayers today, for we have corn dogs to celebrate.

Did you know that Saturday, March 21st is National Corn Dog Day? Of course you did, because you love corn dogs. (And because every dog has its day?)

At least I think it is March 21st. I had to do a little calculating, because the day has been celebrated on the first Saturday of the NCAA basketball championships. That event begins on March 17th this year, and a quick reference to my calendar provided the date. You would think that the people behind National Corn Dog Day would do a better job promoting this special day, so that bloggers did not have to go off doing extensive research, but such is the world in which we live.

The basic, unadorned corn dog, as found in the Wikipedia entry that it so richly deserves.

This is almost certainly unnecessary information (because all of you love corn dogs) but a corn dog is a precooked hot dog on a wooden stick, that is dipped in a cornmeal batter and deep fried. The “on a stick” part is crucial, because it is an established fact that anything on a stick is a perfect food. A perfect food shall be defined as something that does not need tableware to eat, and yet does not need to be handled with the fingers. This is my own definition of perfect food, so please feel free to use it and to send your licensing checks to the P. O. Box I intend to rent for the purpose. Please send any arguments or disagreements to a P. O. Box that YOU can rent for the purpose. And you won’t have to worry about me checking it.

You would think that something as monumentally important to human development and culture as the corn dog would have a widely agreed-upon origin story, but you would be incorrect. It is said that success has many fathers but failure is an orphan. The corn dog is surely a success because seemingly everyone claims to have invented. Except me. I did not invent the corn dog, which I am saying to be clear and to avoid any infringement on the rights of the thousands of people who evidently did.

An actual corn dog stand at an actual state fair. This is probably the vendor who invented the original corn dog. At least one of them. And if this vendor didn’t invent it, he probably got the recipe from the one who did.

Claimants to the prize for having invented the corn dog are are German immigrants to Texas (1920’s), and various restaurants and stands whose claims start perhaps a decade later. Whenever they were invented, they quickly became a staple at county and state fairs all across America, because everyone who goes to a fair loves corn and loves dogs, so how can combining them not be a winner?

I recently got my first corn dog urge in quite awhile. And because there are no fairs on the horizon in my area, I resorted to my local grocer, who happily provides boxes of them in the freezer case. I am nearly though my first (large) box and am trying to decide if my enthusiasm will support a follow-up. The funny thing is that I can take or leave plain hot dogs, and am also not the biggest fan of corn bread. However, it is a happy synergy that the shortcomings of each can be cured by combining one with the other. Suddenly a perfect food emerges.

And no, I was not fooled into thinking that a “State Fair (brand) Corn Dog” is an actual State Fair Corn Dog. Because one requires a trip to an actual State Fair, while the other only requires a trip to your neighborhood store. But when there is no actual State Fair handy, it is the next best thing. And a lot more economical, if not quite as tasty.

So, what does one pair with a corn dogs? Besides another corn dog, I mean. Because nobody should eat just one corn dog. My own recommendation is either baked beans, mac and cheese, or (in a perfect world) both. Some might like a little mustard for dipping, but I prefer mine straight, all the better to enjoy that crispy, golden-brown deep-fried goodness.

U. S. Navy photo (040703-N-3986D-034) of a service member preparing a corn dog feast aboard a ship, as found at Wikipedia. This photo was not entitled “Corn Dogs for Sea Dogs” but should have been. This is the recommended serving for perhaps six normal, hungry adults who are in a mood for corn dogs on National Corn Dog Day.

I have occasionally thought about opening a restaurant that serves nothing but popular “fair food”. Which I might call “Fair Fare”. Or maybe not, given food reviewers’ temptations to rate it as “fair”. I do not live far from the location of Indiana’s annual State Fair, but have not gone in years because it has no great draw on me besides the food. If I could get the food without the rest of the fair experience (including the long lines and the admission ticket), it would be a game changer. Imagine – a menu with those ears of roasted corn dipped in butter, elephant ears, and (of course) corn dogs – all washed down with a big lemon shake-up.

Sadly, there is no such restaurant. And while the other classic varieties of fair food can be a bit of a mess to make at home, frozen corn dogs in a box stand out as the exception. So consider this your encouragement to stock up before March 21st so that you can be sure and have some on hand to celebrate National Corn Dog Day. Because you can’t celebrate Corn Dog Day without corn dogs!

24 thoughts on “Wherein The Author Celebrates The Corn Dog”

  2. A while back I saw a video on the YouTube channel Veritasium about tomato juice tasting better on a plane due to the difference in the air pressure and oxygen levels changing one’s taste buds. I think corndogs have a somewhat similar existence – they taste really good at any time but are amplified tremendously at a state fair.

    You’ve given me an idea. The Mrs. will sometimes make mini-corndogs for when we travel. We will be traveling in the near future. Me thinks you’ve inspired an idea. Eating a mini-corndog while driving down the road makes for a truly enjoyable experience.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • I would imagine that almost everything tastes better at the fair. Maybe it is because fair food is in such stark contrast to the animal smells that are everywhere? Food for thought. 🙂

      I had not thought of mini-corn dogs as a driving snack, but I could see it. And as you say, a corn dog (whether regular or mini) is one of the few foods of its category that are fairly easy to make at home.

      Like

      Reply

  3. The last time I had a corn dog was… I have no idea… I just know it was a LONG time ago. Doesn’t mean I can’t put the flavors together in my mind. You’re right when you say they’re not so appealing by themselves yet combined works well. I think it’d take a state fair to get me to try one again. Something about the atmosphere. Ditto funnel cakes or cotton candy. BTW, couldn’t help noticing “cheese on a stick” on the one vendor’s menu. Wonder how THAT works?

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    • I am amazed at how fair vendors are constantly coming up with new “it foods”, like deep fried Snickers bars or such. Especially when they have such a rich heritage of fair favorites to draw upon.

      I can see how a guy might want to save his corn dog experience for the ultimate version. Some of us are willing to let our standards slide just a bit to enjoy the taste at home. 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  5. I L-O-V-E corn dogs, so much so, that I try to go to the state fair to actually get a “fresh” corn dog, even tho my arthritis keeps me from walking a lot. Smaller county fairs are a better, because they tend to be on smaller grounds, and easier to make my way to the corn dog stand. I’ve tried a number of frozen corn dogs, and some are passable, some are not; none can compete with the fair dog, fresh dipped in corn batter and fried on the spot. A big qualifier here is the quality and type of corn batter. My Mother, from the south, has a “real” corn bread recipe, with zero sugar and flour in it; that’s what I grew up on. If your corn bread is somewhat fluffy and sweet, you’re eating an abomination my Mother calls corn “cake”. As far as she’s concerned, another example of southern cooking made into something else by the “lower echelons” of the culture. Like putting chicory in coffee. I’ve noticed that the worst of the frozen corn dogs are cloyingly sweet and loaded with sugar. I shiver even typing this.

    How much do I love corn dogs? For one of my birthdays, my younger sister snagged an order form at the back of those airline flight magazines, where you could send it your corporate logo, and they would put it on a cheap but serviceable watch. She sent it in with a picture of a corn dog, and I now have a corn dog watch! I wear it to the fair, where I always look at the corn dog lady, point at the watch, and say: “…time for a corn dog!” They always want to know where I got it from!

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

    • I love the corn dog watch story! You, my friend, are a corn dog lover of the highest echelon! And I certainly understand holding off on indulging until you get the best ones you can get.

      I did not grow up with any connection to the south, so have avoided some of the food arguments over certain staples from that region. Really, I never liked plain cornbread enough to get interested in the finer points of the stuff. I am more invested in the “all beef” hot dogs vs. “regular” hot dogs. It always seemed to me that hot dogs are a kind of sausage, and any kind of sausage requires pork. I love my beef, but a beef hot dog always seemed all kinds of wrong to me. I guess this is the midwestern version of the corn bread wars.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      • I am going to defer to the composition of the hot dogs served at Fenway Park here in Boston. They’ve been doing it for 125 years (possibly changing the hot dog water at least once) and the official Fenway Frank is generally a beef/pork mixture. Nevertheless, I tend to buy the 100% beef ones – which are also branded Fenway Franks by the Kayem company…and they’re also sold at the Park at certain stands. Rumor has it that the ones sold by the guys hawking them in the stands are the 100% beef ones, although whatever they are is somewhat debatable…and for that matter likely inconsequential after it’s been touched by an entire row of strangers as it’s handed down the row to you. 🙂

        What a great topic for a Friday where Spring leading to Opening Day is desperately needed.

        Like

  6. My granddaughter eats corn dogs for lunch, I was only sorry I couldn’t have one too. My son and daughter-in-law are raising her right!

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  8. Seems like I don’t like much of anything. As I duck for cover, I will admit that I do not like corn dogs. Unsure why. I grew up less than 3 blocks from the original ‘Cozy Dog’, a Route 66 iconic restaurant in Springfield, IL that created their own form of a corn dog (some claim that they are the original creator of the corn dog), and had a few of their offerings as an unsophisticated child but did not enjoy them. I don’t know what else to say; obviously I am in the vast minority here.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    • Be gone, cretin!

      Seriously, I guess it would be a boring world if we all liked the same stuff. This is how I can coexist with people who like those nasty orange colored yet banana flavored Circus Peanuts. 🙂

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

    • Minority, perhaps; but alone, not really. I too am not a fan of corn dogs; and I even sort of remember around the time I stopped liking them (~3rd grade/8 or 9).

      However… my wife has a killer corn bread recipe and if I were still eating carbs, I’d probably ask her to whip some batter and with wurst of my choice… I might still be convinced. That said, it’d be some way from a genuine-1040-you-betcha county fair corn dog.

      Like

      Reply

  10. Dang, now I want a corn dog. Soon. This is not unlike how you’ve created various other great posts that had inspired sudden cravings for Twinkies, Cracker Jack, and Root Beer Floats, among other potentially problematic foods. (But not Miracle Whip-dressed Fruit, Vegetable and Jello molds. That will never happen.)

    It’s too bad that you likely missed the Indianapolis stop for the nationwide “Monster Truck Jam” tour at the beginning of February. Dollars to donuts (or corn dogs, that are not unlike donuts…with meat, and wooden sticks) that would likely have been a corn dog distribution site. Similarly, there’s a tractor pull coming to town in May. Sadly none of these are coincidental with NCDD. So unless you join the Navy right quick, the grocery store is probably your best bet for the appropriate meat-on-a-stick celebration.

    Maybe that Wikipedia photo of the Corn Dog Feast is from the mess in a submarine. Aside from the fact that I take pause at thinking of a bunch of sailors loading up on corn dogs for dinner within the confines of a submarine, it does seem to be appropriately-shaped food.

    Alright, I’m headed back now to the store for a box of Corn Dogs from My Grocer’s Freezer.

    Like

    Reply

Leave a reply to Chad Wallace Cancel reply