Forget the sauerkraut, the chili and the catsup. A true Chicago-style hot dog is the perfect, complete meal in a bun.And you don't have a real Chicago dog unless your bun is encasing a Vienna meat product.
Or could you substitute a Red Hot Chicago product and never know the difference?
Would that be legal? According to Vienna Beef, long-time maker of the quintessential Chicago-style tube steak, a grandson of one of the company's founders is either guilty of stealing the family recipe, or he's lying to the public about his Red Hot Chicago dogs.
Recipes being proprietary assets, there are laws to forbid Scott D. Ladany from lifting the ancestral recipe and moving it away from Vienna Beef.
Once the Ladany clan sold their interests, they were supposed to erase the hot dog recipe from their memories.
How easy would that be for Mr. Ladany, who was raised in an atmosphere of ground meats, casings and savory smoke. Perhaps he wanted to keep up the family's traditions. Perhaps he wasn't happy with the direction Vienna Beef's quality took after he left.
Red Hot Chicago has not been in existence for 118 years, but the website's banner trumpets the age of this "family tradition' which happens to match that of the original Vienna Beef. To Jim Bodman of Vienna Beef, that's misleading, it's misappropriating the Vienna name, and it's grounds for a lawsuit.
If you were looking for something to do this weekend, why not get a group of friends together. Chop some onion, slice some tomato, lay in a supply of bright green relish, and run a little taste test.
Is it the same recipe? Or is Mr. Ladany just trying to cut into Vienna's market share by suggesting that his product is more true to the Vienna Beef of Granddad's day than anything rolling out of Vienna Beef's factory today?
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