Rutt’s Hot Dogs

Rutt’s Hot Dogs are made at Rutt’s Hut restaurant in Clifton, Passaic County, New Jersey. The restaurant is a deep red brick building of various heights, and three sections: bar, restaurant and take-out counter. The restaurant has achieved minor fame owing to the vocal, loyal fan base they have built up over the decades because of their method of cooking the wieners: by deep-frying, which causes the wieners to crack and split.

The wieners are now sourced from Thumans in Carlstadt, New Jersey. They are 60 percent beef, 35 percent pork and 5 percent cereal filling. They used to be from an independent butcher. ^[1]”The original dogs were made by a butcher. Upon his dying bed, the Rutt’s begged him for the recipe, but he took it to his grave.” Rutt Hut History discussion. EGullet. 2003. Retrieved September 2010 from http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?/topic/22507-rutt-hut-history/ The wieners were apparently once deep-fried in beef tallow, but now apparently vegetable oil is used at 176 C / 350 F. ^[2]”Deep Fried Hot Dogs, they call (Rippers). Travel Channel video posted 13 December 2008. Retrieved September 2010 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJojiniNgT8&feature=related

The wieners are served on a plain white hot dog roll.

Rutt’s offers its own in-house relish as a condiment, made from cabbage, carrot and onion, with a mustard base. In 2008, they went through 120 US gallons of it a week, and only 5 people knew the recipe: the four partners in the business, and the chef, who was also a family member. ^[3]Gus Chrisafinis interviewed in: Footlong pt19 Rutts Hut. Posted May 2008. Retrieved September 2010 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKwNVgsbkP4. The relish recipe has been attributed to the German mother of the restaurant’s founder.

It is less known that Rutt’s also offer a chili sauce which they make. You can put it on the hot dogs, or you can order the chili by the bowl or by the coffee mug, with or without meat. They also sell onion rings made from Spanish onions, coated with their own batter recipe. The sit-down restaurant part of the building also serves full, regular meals.

Rutt’s Hut has been on TV several times: in various Food Network programmes, in a TV commercial for “Horizon Blue Cross and Blue Shield of New Jersey”, and in the 1999 PBS special, “A Hot Dog Program.”

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Ruttshut

Some Rutt’s Hut vocabulary

Wiener Cooking Stages

• in n outer – rare; when the wieners are first put in, they sink to the bottom of the frying oil. When they rise to the top, they are at the “in and outer” stage.
• medium ripper – cooked a minute or two longer;
• weller = well done wiener, cooked longer;
• creamator – fried till the wiener is black in spots

Sides and drinks

• birchie – Birch Beer (Boylan’s)
• burger ng fo = hamburger, no gravy with fried onions
• burger with = hamburger with raw onion and the burger always gets gravy unless you say ng
• dd = double dip of gravy
• Frenchie – Fries
• gorilla = grilled cheese
• howdy = orange soda
• leaded or unleaded — the chili is offered two ways: with meat (“leaded”), without meat (“unleaded”)
• Mavis / Marvis – (“Mavis chocolate drink” was made by the Mavis Bottling Company of New York State in the 1920s. Now Rutt’s serves the Yoohoo brand, originally founded in New Jersey)
• medium – moderately well-cooked
• pc = paper cup of coffee
• pc black ns = paper cup of coffee no milk, no sugar
• pcns = paper cup of coffee with milk, no sugar
• ripper – until the skinbursts
• taxi on the fry = one fry and one onion ring
• travelin -Take out
• twins – a pair of rippers

History Notes

Rutt’s Hut was founded in 1928 by the husband and wife team Royal “Abe” and his wife, Ann Fedorchak Rutt. It started as a one room building, thus the name “hut.” In the 1940s, they also would roast a pig for BBQ pork sandwiches. They used to serve beer by the pitcher; they had Rheingold Beer on tap.

The Rutts sold the business to Nicholas Karagiorgis in 1975. Abe died circa 1983, confined to a wheelchair for the last few years of his life.

As of 2008, two of the co-owners are Gus Chrisafinis and John Karagiorgis.

In 2009, the price for a Rutt’s Hut hotdog was $1.99 US plus tax.

Sources

Facebook. “I Love Rutt’s Hut” Discussion page. Retrieved September 2010 from http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2208043231&v=app_2373072738

Forester, Jonathan M. Get Ripped at Rutt’s Hut. SlashFood. 21 June 2008. Retrieved September 2010 from http://www.slashfood.com/2008/06/21/get-ripped-at-rutts-hut/

Rutt Hut History discussion. EGullet. 2003. Retrieved September 2010 from http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?/topic/22507-rutt-hut-history/

Schumer, Fran. HOT DIGGITY! DOG DIGGITY! — RESTAURANTS; Two Rippers, P.C., With Relish Mother Made. New York Times. 24 May 1998.