A few weeks ago I wrote about the new taste sensation that is sweeping the nation: Peanut butter hot dogs, custom made by Palumbo’s Meats in DuBois, PA. My friend Jason and I called up and ordered some, and this last Saturday we decided to have a grill out and see if they were all the hot-dog-crossed-with-unusual-condiment they were cracked up to be.

The sun was shining and the flowers were in bloom in my backyard…

So it was time to fire up the little grill I bought about a year ago. After a little newspaper, charcoal, and copious amounts of lighter fluid, we had a flame!

Here’s the label of the famed hot dogs, lovingly shipped to us all the way from PA– they came with an ice pack, but by the time they reached us they were pretty soft. Not to worry, though– we threw them in the freezer until early Saturday morning when I pulled them out to thaw. As you can see on the label, the first three ingredients are pork, water, and peanut butter. Yum-o! (Apparently Rachael Ray says that all the time. I just learned it).

But before we went at it PBHD Style, we had a whole spread of food to get grilled up first. I had a group of D&D players coming over later in the day, so Chris showed up early and brought some veggies, some brats, and some incredible pork chops with him.

There’s those pork chops. They were tasty! There was also some corn, but I don’t know if it was tasty or not, because I don’t roll that way, yo.

(the corn eating way that is)

But I do eat brats.

Boy do I love eating brats.

Finally, we’d cooked everything, and it was finally time to crack open Palumbo’s PBHDs. The smell of peanut butter failed to fill our nostrils at the point of package opening, but we were very heartened at the sight of the hot dogs actually dripping when we placed them on the grill.

“They’re sticky,” said Jason repeatedly, as he had the honor of actually placing them on the grill. Mostly because he paid for them.

But you’re probably wondering– how did they taste??!? After a few minutes of grilling, Chris took the first bite.

“Not bad,” he said. Gene tried to find the peanuts inside the hot dogs…

But alas, there were none. Palumbo’s used creamy peanut butter to make the dogs, so the weiners were far from.. well.. crunchy. Jason registered his slight confusion.

As for me, I have to say I was a little disappointed…

I’m sorry to report that it doesn’t seem like Palumbo’s used the highest quality peanut butter to make their dogs. I’m a fan of crunchy PB, and while these hot dogs did taste a lot like peanut butter– it was almost uncanny to be eating a hot dog and tasting peanut butter– they didn’t taste like very good peanut butter or hot dogs.

Now, I realize that we weren’t eating them under the ideal conditions. They’d been shipped across country, and I have to report that I wasn’t present at all times during grilling, so we have to trust that Jason and Chris grilled them to their best ability. And Jason later suggested that when we ordered, Palumbo’s was probably swamped with things to do, so it’s possible their minds were not concentrating as much as they usually are on their meat (as they say, “you can’t beat” it). But I have to say that, even though it may have just been my high expectations, I was a bit disappointed.

Nevertheless, I did have a lot of fun grilling them. And after a few bites, you pretty much are so happy that you’re eating peanut butter in hot dog form that you can’t help but break a smile…

The end.