The Best Hot Dog Cookers for a Red-Hot American Summer

This is no mere hot dog cooker. This is an Elite Gourmet hot dog cooker, designed in California's City of Industry—names whose epic sweep seems to outstrip all possible meaning. But the ambitions of the hot dog cooker itself are more humble, and so is its price. And so it succeeds. The Elite Gourmet hot dog maker is, at heart, a roller-style hot dog cooker like the one you'll find at any convenience store in America. Every American summer since the 1950s has been hotter, better, and meatier with the help of a roller grill, thanks to the dogged efforts of a crackerjack young engineer named Calvin MacCracken.

In a little less than 15 minutes, this cooker will cook up four hot dogs to a food-safe 165 degrees Fahrenheit (yes, I measured), on heated stainless steel rollers that'll make sure the cooking is even. It'll also slowly warm four buns in the oven space below, well shy of true toasting. Each compartment gets a crumb tray or a drip tray, for easy cleaning. The rollers are best cleaned when still rolling and when still a bit hot, by using a gingerly held wet rag and the magic of steam.

And that's it. Four hot dogs. Four buns. No real problems. It's too small for a big party. But maybe four hot dogs is already a party? Just note that the cheese from cheese-stuffed hot dogs will be hard to get off the rollers, if you let American cheese burn onto hot rollers. At least one truly angry Amazon review behooves me to point this out.

There's something about the particular softness of a steamed bun and a taut-snapped, natural wrapped, kinda wet hot dog—it is a study in American contrast. It is my childhood as lived near bleachers and parking lots, or amid the sawdust and gravel of budget fun. This hot dog steamer is made by a Wisconsin company that literally calls itself “Nostalgia,” and that's precisely what they're selling.

This bright-colored, thick-plastic, triple-tiered steamer feels like a Fisher-Price toy for carnivores. The water goes on the bottom. The hot dogs—28 of them if you double-stack the small ones—go in the middle steamer drawer. The top compartment will hold a tight-packed max of 12 small buns. But don't worry, the buns cook faster than the hot dogs. Turn it on high, and the hot dogs are cooked within about 15 minutes. Don't put the buns in till about five minutes before you want them, or they'll get not merely soft, but wet with steam. Turn it down to warm, it'll hold at a food-safe 160 degrees Fahrenheit or so.

This is a slightly rinky-dink device, with the heft and feel of an old Igloo Cooler. But my family has nonetheless had the same Playmate Igloo cooler since I remember being alive. Keep it clean, and you should be able to hang onto this awhile. Just note that when you pull out the hot dog steamer drawer, a little bit of hot dog water will drip onto the table. If not outside, lay out a couple paper towels before firing this thing up.