By Kalena Reynolds | Arts & Life Editor
For Waco influencer Carrie Burt, hot dogs aren’t just a delicious bite — they are a brand. What started as a COVID-19 pandemic hyperfixation snack has now turned into a social media following of Wacoans eager for more curated cuisine content.
Burt features a variety of hot dog recipes she curated herself on Instagram and TikTok. Some of the recipes include elote dogs, grilled cheese hot dog and a garlic hummus bean sprouts veggie dog. Burt also shares the best local spots for hot dogs.
Q: What inspired you to start this project?
Burt: “It was kind of into the COVID times when I started really getting into hot dogs and hot dog videos and hot dog content.
I heard about the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council doing a nationwide contest to give titles to hot dog ambassadors across the United States. There were like different regions and stuff that you could apply for, and you were supposed to send in a video of why you love hot dogs and all this kind of stuff.
Basically, I created the Instagram, in order to help me get content for that video, for my contest submission. But unfortunately, the year that I was going to actually join, like, enter the contest, they totally stopped it.
I continued with the Instagram because I was like, ‘Well, why not try out all the hot dogs in Waco and then review them, talk about them and then see what hot dogs people around Waco like and go to those places.’”
Q: What is your goal with social media?
Burt: “I started making recipes as just a way of creating more hot dog content and getting more things out into the hot dog world.
I started with using vegetables and stuff that I grew from my garden because it’s stuff that’s there and available and cheap, basically free, because it came from my yard.
So I really just try and use the things that I have available to me to make different recipes because I don’t like to go out and spend a lot of money on buying a lot of stuff, and groceries right now are really expensive anyway.
My main goal is just to use what’s on hand and repurpose it in different ways to make low or cost-effective meals.”
Q: What are your favorite hot dog recipes?
Burt: “I love making elote dogs because street corn is one of my favorite things in the whole world and it’s just corn, a little bit of mayonnaise, some hot chips and lime juice and cilantro.
I also love doing things like macaroni salad dogs or potato salad dogs. If you have something prepackaged or left over, put it on a hot dog, because it’s usually gonna taste good anyway.
My favorite that I made so far was a bruschetta dog. I used fresh tomatoes, basil from my garden and some balsamic drizzle from Aldi or something like that, but any balsamic drizzle will do.”
Q: Can you cook a hot dog if you don’t have a grill?
Burt: “One of my friends mailed me a hot dog toaster, and it’s literally just like a toaster that you put two wieners in, and it has a slot for your hot dog buns, and you just press it down. You can adjust the doneness level, or you can make it super crispy. And it’s just a little hot dog toaster.
I also love a pan-fry method if you don’t want to use a grill or don’t have access to one or anything. You can literally just heat up a pan and add a little oil to it so the dogs don’t stick and then just kind of like roll them around on the pan.”
Q: What is your go-to hot dog brand?
Burt: “I really love the H-E-B brisket hot dogs. They have such a good, smoky flavor to them. Even their old-fashioned frankfurter dogs are really, really good because they have a little bit of skin on the outside, so they snap when you bite into them. They are just all the H-E-B dogs.”
Q: What are your favorite hot dog places in Waco?
Burt: “The top right now is called The Lifestyle, and they are a husband-and-wife duo with this little food truck. They’re not open every day, and they move around a lot, but they make their buns fresh every day, and they source their hot dogs from a farm here in Central Texas.
So everything is literally made in Waco, and they are so good … They do Cali dogs, they do chili cheese dogs. They have a Chicago dog, where they make their own poppy-seed bun.
Dog Haus in Waco is amazing. I love the Hawaiian rolls they use for their buns, and all of their dogs are so big. So they are a little bit on the expensive side, but they’re completely worth it.
I also really love the hot dogs from Katie’s Custard. You wouldn’t think that you would go there for hot dogs, but they have some really good hot dogs.”
