Ever have those thoughts that jump right to the forefront of your brain unhindered by whatever you are engaged in at the moment? They can be about bills, high school memories or, heaven forbid, a food dish from your past. Food memories, those are my favorite!
One of my most favorite and often memory is of a hot dog. Not just any hot dog, but the one I used to eat during lunch in downtown Charleston, South Carolina. This goes way back to the late 1970’s when I used to work part time for a book store on King Street. The sandwich shop was a couple of blocks away and I would always rush in there and order two Saint Bernards to go.
The Saint Bernard “dog” was a steamed wiener on a steamed bun, sealed in with strips of melted Swiss cheese and lathered with mayonnaise and catsup. The Swiss flavor comes through and gives the hot dog a subtle bite against the mayo/catsup sweetness. By the way, you can cook your dog any way you want if you are not a steam fan. That’s it, simple and yet–different. Now go grab a cold, crisp kosher dill pickle spear and some chips to go with it.
I have searched the Internet repeatedly and have yet to find any reference to this Saint Bernard Hot Dog recipe. Please leave a comment if this sparks a memory for you or if you have a particular food memory you would like to share.
John Kilgallon, Restaurant Recipe Secrets
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I am your soul mate. I worked at Huguley’s in the 70s and loved those St. Bernard hot dogs. They were the best. They were served at Patrick’s on King Street. On Saturdays, our entire crew would order these to go for lunch! The food editor at the ost and courier tried to find the recipe for me but was unsuccessful. Thank you for publishing the contents-I could not rememebr what was in it except for the swiss cheese, but it was “The Bomb!”
I am so glad to finally have the recipe for the St. Bernard dogs. Just a few weeks ago, I contacted my local paper’s food editor to see if she could get this recipe. No luck there, but I would google it every now and then and finally found the recipe here. What a great website!
The Saint Bernard Dogs are a big hit-everybody I serve them to at our cookout went nuts over them and are dismayed at how easy they are to fix and what ingredients are involved. As for your fiasco with the Bessingers-style onion rings-I tried it and my family says I succeeded, but I think that’s because I used self-rising corn muffin mix with 2 T. added sugar and made a cookie sheet full which I let set up in the fridge for about four hours. I also used Vidalia onions which are really sweet. I had to fry them about 5-6 at a time in a large pot, but I was able to keep them warm in a 175-degree oven.
Thanks, Sharon! Glad everybody liked the hot dogs! As for the onion rings, I w\Will try it this way as soon as I can get to the spare fridge in the basement! Workers have it blocked during the repairs to our house from a busted water feed pipe.
Thanks for your support! John.
Hi
Today I came across your blog. I have gone through your posts you have made here and like your effort and expertise.
Regards
Joy Chakraborty
I too have searched on and off and today thought I would try again. It was great to find the hot dog I was remembering AND the actual location where I had them. I remember it as swiss cheese mayo and relish. Either way I think you hit it on the head…it is the swiss that gives it the cause for memories of it decades later. The info on the steaming process was nice to learn as well.
Mar, I, too, remember it with relish. The recipe John gives is accurate but I do add relish underneath the cheese. Glad to see another person remembers this great dog!