As a tailgater and a sports fan, it is safe to assume you have eaten a few hot dogs inside the stadium. For some reason and you can’t put your finger on it, they always seem to taste better than the hot dogs you prepare at home or out in the parking lot. Is it because they use special hot dogs and buns you can’t buy at the store? That’s not it. Is it that they just seem to taste better because of the atmosphere you are in and your brain just associates a better tasting hot dog because you are inside the stadium watching a game? That’s not it either.
The reason why hot dogs purchased inside the stadium tend to taste better than the ones you prepare on your own can be summed up in one simple word: Steam.
Hot dogs and their buns are cooked inside the stadium using steam. Trying to replicate that steaming process that the ball parks use at home or at the tailgate has been quite difficult. That is until we discovered a new product called the Steemee Wonder.
The Steemee Wonder takes the process of cooking your hot dogs and steaming the hot dog buns into a simple three step process and produces six delicious ballpark tasting hot dogs in six minutes. The Steemee Wonder is a three pot system with one lid that can be used at home or on the grill out in the parking lot. Here is how it works.
Take the bottom pot of the Steemee Wonder and fill it half way full with water. Place it on your heat source, stove top or grill, and get the water to a rolling boil. While the water is getting hot, place six hot dogs in the second chamber. The second chamber is a pot with numerous holes on the bottom to allow the steaming water below to heat the hot dogs. Once the water is boiling, place the second pot with the hot dogs on top of the boiling water pot and cover. Set the timer for three minutes and while the hot dogs are cooking, place six hot dog buns in the top pot. This pot has four holes in it to allow the steam to get into the buns. Make sure to not cover the holes with the buns so as to avoid the buns from getting soggy and cutting off the flow of steam to the other buns. After the hot dogs have steamed for three minutes, place the pot with the buns on top of the other two pots and let steam for three minutes. After three minutes remove the buns and place the hot dogs in them and allow your guests to top them with the condiments and toppings of their choice.
As you can see in the above gallery, we first tried the Steemee Wonder at home on our stove top. Cut to the chase, these hot dogs tasted identical to the ones you get at the stadium. If you have more than six people who are hungry, the water is already boiling, just place six more hot dogs in the middle pot and do another batch.
The taste of the hot dogs prepared in the Steemee Wonder was uncanny when comparing it to the taste of stadium hot dogs. My girlfriend practically grew up going to Los Angeles Dodgers games and has consumed quite a few Dodgers Dogs in her lifetime. Anyone who has been to Dodger Stadium will probably agree that the Dodger Dog is the end all, be all when it comes to stadium hot dogs. My girlfriend remarked that had she known about the Steemee Wonder years ago, she probably would have save a small fortune by not having to buy a Dodger Dog every time she went to a Dodgers game. Now if that is not a ringing endorsement, I don’t know what is.
But of course this is a tailgating blog where we test products and review them in a real tailgating environment. The Steemee Wonder makes six ballpark style hot dogs on the stove at home flawlessly. But how does it perform on a grill in a tailgating parking lot? That remained to be seen.
We tested the Steemee Wonder on a grill to see how it would perform had it been brought tailgating. The same process as we used when testing it on the stove top was used on the grill. We fired up the grill on high and got the water boiling. It took a little longer to the get the water boiling on the grill because it was not directly over the heat source or the flame on the stove. Most grills you need to heat to 500 degrees before putting on your food and the good news is that you only need the grill to get 212 to get the water boiling.
We followed the same process once the water started boiling of placing the hot dogs on for three minutes and then adding the buns for the remaining three minutes. After a total of six minutes on the grill the hot dogs tasted just like we purchased them at the stadium.
After testing the Steemee Wonder both at home and on the grill, we are going to deem the Steemee Wonder “Tailgate Approved”. It is dishwasher safe and if you buy one, a carrying bag and 50 Hotdog wrappers are included. Currently priced at $29.97, the Steemee Wonder is available on Amazon.com. The Steemee Wonder only has four reviews on Amazon but the positive news is all four are five star reviews and all of the reviewers raved about the product.
For more information you can also visit: tvhotdog.com