A fransk hotdog (say it fransk HOT-dog; fransk is Danish for “French”) is a hot sausage pushed into a hole bored lengthwise through a piece of baguette-style bread, with the dressing squeezed into the hole first. There is no split bun and nothing on top. That is the whole difference from the hot dog most readers know.
It is the closed, one-handed cousin of the ristet pølse, the Danish hot dog served in a split bun under its toppings. This version needs four things: bread, a sausage, a dressing and the handle of a wooden spoon.
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Recipe
Fransk Hotdog (Danish "French" Hot Dog)
Ingredients
Method
- Bring a pan of water to the boil, take it off the heat and add the sausages. Leave them until hot through, keeping the water below a boil so the casings do not split. Or grill or fry them. Pat boiled sausages dry.
- Cut each baguette in half crosswise, or in thirds if the sausages are short. Warm day-old bread in the oven for a few minutes.
- Push the handle of a wooden spoon into the cut end of each piece and twist it to bore a hole as wide as the sausage. Stop short of the far end.
- Squeeze the dressing into the hole first, from a bag with one corner snipped off.
- Push a hot sausage into each hole and serve at once, with napkins.
What a fransk hotdog is
A fransk hotdog is a Danish hot dog eaten inside the bread rather than on it. The bread is a short white baguette-style roll with a hole made through its middle, the sauce goes into the hole, and the sausage follows.
The rolls are made for the job in Denmark. Schulstad, a Danish bakery supplier, lists its French hotdog baguette at 190 mm long and 60 g. Outside Denmark, half an ordinary baguette does the same work: ICA counts two baguettes for four hot dogs, and Freestyle Cookery simply cuts a baguette in half.
Nobody has a settled answer for the name. Skandibaking calls the history unclear and notes that the same way of eating a hot dog is also popular elsewhere in Europe, including Austria. It is sold from hot dog stands and kiosks and eaten standing up, which is why it is built to be held in one hand.
Fransk hotdog vs ristet pølse
The fransk hotdog hides everything inside a closed roll; the ristet pølse puts everything on top of an open bun. The choice is mostly about how much you want to carry.
| Fransk hotdog | Ristet pølse | |
|---|---|---|
| Bread | Closed baguette-style roll with a hole | Soft bun split along the top |
| Sauce | Squeezed into the hole before the sausage | Spread on and over the sausage |
| Toppings | None, or almost none | Several, on top |
| Eating | One hand, walking | Two hands and a napkin |
For the split-bun version with all its toppings, see the ristet pølse recipe. For another way to wrap a sausage in bread, there are pølsehorn, sausage rolls baked in dough.
The bread: baguette, roll or homemade
Use a white baguette with a thin crust and a soft, close crumb. A very open, airy sourdough baguette tears when you bore through it, and the dressing runs out through the holes.
Half a baguette per hot dog is the usual cut. If your sausages are short, Skandibaking suggests cutting the loaf in thirds instead so the sausage reaches nearer the end. Day-old bread can be warmed in the oven for a few minutes before you fill it.
Homemade rolls are possible, but there is no single recipe to agree on. Skandibaking bakes an enriched white dough with milk and butter at 175 °C (350 °F); Dansk Mad på Engelsk uses a water dough with some graham flour, brushed with egg and baked at 200 °C (390 °F). Both shape the dough into long logs and bake them closed, with no slit.
The sausage
Any good hot dog sausage or frankfurter works; one sausage makes one hot dog. Choose one roughly the length of your bread, or cut the bread to fit the sausage.
Heat it gently. Freestyle Cookery brings water to the boil, takes it off the heat and leaves the sausages to steep until hot through. Dansk Mad på Engelsk keeps the water just under a boil, because a hard boil splits the casings. Grilling or frying is fine too, and both Skandibaking and ICA allow it.
Dry a boiled sausage on kitchen paper before it goes in, or the water soaks the inside of the bread. Serve it hot all the way through, not just warm on the outside.
The dressing
At a Danish stand the usual choices are ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise and a ready-made fransk hotdog dressing. Skandibaking lists ketchup, mustard, fransk hotdog dressing and fried onions as optional fillings. Pick one or two; the hole only holds so much.
The bottled dressing is creamy and mustardy, and it is not easy to buy outside Scandinavia. Two published home versions are below. They differ in base but share Dijon mustard and a little sweetness.
Yoghurt dressing (Dansk Mad på Engelsk, enough for 10)
- 8 tbsp (about 1.2 dl) plain Greek yoghurt or skyr
- 2 tsp sweet Danish mustard
- 2 tsp Dijon mustard
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp sugar
Stir everything together, spoon it into a small food bag and snip off one corner. Sweet Danish mustard is the hard ingredient to find abroad; Swedish or German sweet mustard is the closest substitute.
Mayonnaise dressing (ICA, enough for 4)
- 1 egg
- 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
- ½ tsp honey
- 1 tsp white wine vinegar
- 1½ dl (about 2/3 cup) rapeseed oil
- 2 ml salt and 1 ml pepper
- 1 shallot, finely chopped
Put everything except the shallot in a tall, narrow beaker, stand a stick blender on the bottom and blend, lifting it slowly as the mayonnaise thickens. Fold in the shallot. This dressing uses raw egg, so use pasteurised egg if you are serving anyone pregnant, very young, elderly or unwell, and keep it in the fridge until you fill the bread.
Fransk hotdog, step by step
Heat the sausages in hot water, kept below a boil.- Cut the baguette into halves.
- Squeeze the dressing into the hole first.
- Push the sausage in; a long one shows at both ends.
Getting the hole right
The hole should be as wide as the sausage and stop short of the far end. A closed end is the floor that keeps the dressing inside the bread. If the sausage is longer than the bread, you can bore right through and let it show at both ends, as in the photo at the top; the dressing then sits around the middle, so eat it over a napkin.
- The bread splits along the side: the hole is too wide or the crumb too open. Twist the spoon handle gently instead of forcing it.
- Dressing drips out the bottom: the handle went all the way through. Use that piece for ketchup only, and stop earlier on the next one.
- The sausage will not go in: widen the opening with a small knife, as Skandibaking does, and push with a slight twist.
- Sauce ends up at the bottom and on your hands: the sausage pushes the sauce down ahead of it. That is how the dish works, so hand out napkins.
Variations
- Ketchup and mustard: the plainest stand version, squeezed in one after the other.
- With fried onions: a spoon of crisp fried onions into the hole before the sauce, one of Skandibaking’s optional fillings.
- Homemade rolls: bake long closed logs of white dough and cut them to length, as described above.
- Remoulade: the ristet pølse’s sauce works here too, piped in like the dressing.
Serving and making ahead
Assemble each fransk hotdog just before it is eaten. Once the sausage is in, the bread starts to soften from the inside.
Everything else can be ready in advance: the dressing in its bag in the fridge, the bread cut and hollowed, the sausages kept hot in water below a boil. Then filling takes seconds per hot dog. For the rest of a Danish table, see the guide to traditional Danish foods.
Questions people ask
What is a French hot dog?
A French hot dog is a sausage pushed into a hole bored through a baguette-style roll, with sauce squeezed into the hole first. In Denmark it is called a fransk hotdog.
What are Danish French hot dogs?
Danish French hot dogs, or franske hotdogs, are sold at hot dog stands and kiosks in Denmark. The bread is closed and the sauce is inside, so they can be eaten with one hand.
What is a French baguette hot dog?
It is the same thing: a piece of baguette hollowed lengthwise, filled with dressing and a hot sausage. Half a standard baguette makes one.
Why is it called a French hot dog?
No one knows for certain. The bread is baguette-style, which is the usual guess, but Skandibaking describes the history as unclear.
What sauce goes in a fransk hotdog?
Ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise or a creamy fransk hotdog dressing. The two home dressings above use yoghurt or mayonnaise with Dijon mustard.
Can I use a normal hot dog bun?
Not for this version. A split bun has no floor to hold the sauce, so it becomes a ristet pølse instead. Use a closed roll or a piece of baguette.
