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CHICAGO — I’ve discovered the iconic Chicago hot dog, the measure of a deep-dish Chicago pizza, and the ethnic influences that make the Windy City such as mecca for food lovers.

While attending the International Association of Culinary Professionals annual conference here, I tasted an array of foods that have shaped Chicago’s culinary scene. But it was a later phone interview with Bruce Kraig, the association’s scholar-in-residence for the meeting, that really set the record straight.

I learned that a Chicago hot dog never has ketchup on it. And any hot dog cart that advertises the iconic Chicago style should really serve a poppy seed bun.

“Vienna hot dogs (the main company) are not boiled, they are water-bathed,” said Mr. Kraig. Boiling is at 212 degrees; water-bathed is 190 degrees. “They are heated just until hot. Chicago hot dogs can only be kept about 20 minutes for the right texture. For Chicagoans, hot dogs have to have a snap when you bite into them.”

The hot dogs can be either skinless or stuffed in a natural casing. “New Yorkers flat-griddle their hot dogs in New York stands,” he says. Chicago brought out the hot dog in the 1890s, which was parallel to New York, but they were both from the German sausage makers who lived in each city.

The Vienna Beef company made all-beef hot dogs. “The company was run by Jewish immigrants,” says Mr. Kraig. But he notes that today hot dogs made by made many other companies are a mixture of beef, pork, and sometimes veal and chicken.

“They range from 10 to a pound to 4 to a pound for the “monster ones,” but mostly they are 8 to 6 to a pound for about 2 to 3 ounces a piece,” he said.

Chicago's famous deep-dish pizza.
( MCCLATCHEY TRIBUNE )

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Gene & Jude’s (River Grove, Ill.) is one of the famous Chicago-area places where the hot dogs are 10 to a pound. “New York hot dogs are also small,” says the Roosevelt University professor emeritus. “People buy 2 or 3 hot dogs.”

Originally the bun was not necessarily poppy seed. “That came later, after World War II maybe. It reflects the ethnicity of the Polish and Jewish.”

To make a Chicago hot dog, put mustard on first, that bright green relish — “dyed green and no one knows why” — a tradition which arose after World War II. Then chopped onions are added.

“Hot peppers, sport peppers” pickled mildly are added, and then celery salt is optional,” he says. “The celery salt is from the days when celery was eaten with everything. Chicago was a big producer of celery.”

Then you add tomato slices and dill pickles. “If you eat a Chicago hot dog with sweet relish, it is a sweet-sour flavor profile on a platform of meat all encased in one handy package,” says Mr. Kraig, who is writing a book called The Hot Dog, to be published by Reaktion Press in 2008.

Chicago foods
Italian beef is also a Chicago specialty that started in the 1920s and 1930s. “There are no records on these foods,” says the food historian. “These foods are at the bottom end of the food scale.”

Pasquale Scala, an Italian immigrant, established the Scala Packing Co. in 1925, helped develop the idea of thinly sliced roast beef on a bun. “The Italian beef rises from festivals in the Italian immigrant community. For weddings, thinly sliced roast beef was served — it was thinly sliced because nobody had any money,” says Mr. Kraig. The beef was served au jus in a soft bun with a jardiniere — pickled vegetables.

While this unusual Italian beef sandwich is sold around the city, it is rarely seen outside Chicago.

The idea of German open-faced sandwiches called brotchen were introduced at the Berghoff Cafe in the 1890s. “These small rolls represent the German immigrants, but today there are hardly any German restaurants in Chicago,” he says. However Berghoff (Cafe) Restaurant, which is the oldest restaurant in Chicago, is still in business.

Deep dish
Mr. Kraig says the deep-dish pizza was invented in Chicago in 1943 at Riccardo’s, which was owned by Rick Riccardo. His liquor manager was Ike Sewell. Mr. Sewell later started Pizzeria Uno, which had the first deep-dish pizza, and which was located a few blocks from the well-known Riccardo’s on Wabash Street.

The dough is a thin crust pulled up high on the sides of a deep dish pan.

Lou Malnati, who was Riccardo’s associate manager, helped run the new establishment. Malnati’s is now considered one of the oldest family names in Chicago pizza. His first pizzeria opened in 1971; today there are 25 family-owned Lou Malnati pizzerias.

The Blade decided to tackle our own version of Chicago Deep-Dish Pizza using the recipe from American Regional Cuisine Second Edition produced by The Art Institutes (Wiley, $45). With more than 20 ingredients, it took nearly two hours to make at a cost of about $14.50. But the recipe produced very good, hearty pizza with 4 servings. With a spinach salad, you can make a meal. The pizza is also great as a leftover.

We also tested the Popovers recipe from The Marshall Field’s Cookbook: Classic Recipes and Fresh Takes from Field’s Culinary Council (Book Kitchen, $24.95), which was a tradition at many Marshall Field’s restaurants. In 1890, Marshall Field’s was the first department store to sell food on the premises. One of the great traditions was the Walnut Room dining room. Today Marshall Field’s has become Macy’s.

Recipe tester Kay Lynne Schaller found the popovers easy to make. “My kids loved them,” she says. “They thought they were awesome. The popovers are even good for breakfast.”

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View an excerpt from Kathie Smith's conversation with Joanne Weir at the Beirut. Look for more coverage on The Taste of the Nation in Kathie Smith's Morsels column this Sunday.

Ethnic foods
Chicago has long been a destination for immigrants. “Chicago’s Mexican restaurant scene has exploded since 1965,” says Mr. Kraig, noting the area called Pilson around 18th Street and Ashland Avenue southwest of the Loop. “The area was formerly a Czech neighborhood. Chicago’s is the story of new immigrants and older immigrants moving on.”

He says that restaurateur Rick Bayless, chef-owner of Frontera Grill and Topolobampo, “is responsible for upscaling Mexican food and the really good dishes you find in Mexico.” The movement is making the dishes more authentic.

“He trained a lot of people including Dudley Nieto.” Mr. Neito is the chef at XEL-HA (pronounced “SHell-ha”), an upscale-rustic restaurant highlighting the dishes from the Yucatan peninsula.

(Mr. Bayless is host of the public television series Mexico — One Plate at a Time and author of several cookbooks. He is also on the Field’s Culinary Council.)

Chicago is also the second largest Polish city in the world, next to Warsaw. There are a few Polish restaurants on Milwaukee Avenue, including Kasia’s Deli, which was opened in 1982. The deli manufactures pierogi, which are sold frozen in grocery stores throughout Chicago.

The food historian notes that ethnic specialty stores are scattered all over the city. Even the mixture of Asian and Mexican food markets will sell the pierogi and imported Polish jams. “It’s really interesting,” he says.

“The African American influence on food is huge,” he says pointing to the emergence of the word Soul Food in the 1960s. But the migration of African Americans originally began via the railways in the 1920s. Restaurants include upscale BJ’s Market on the South side and Edna’s Restaurant on the 3175 West Madison which began in the late 1950s with food from Mississippi.

Immigrants from India began arriving in Chicago in the 1970s. While many of them joined the professional ranks, some went into the food businesses on Devon Avenue on the north side of the city. “It is one of the most interesting ethnically diverse streets in the city,” says Mr. Kraig, noting the Patel Brothers grocery store at 2542 Devon Ave.

Much of the Indian food in restaurants is a mixture of regional and northern Indian, which is more mainstream.

And there is a long history of Chinese-American restaurants, with traditional Chinese-American dishes such as chow mein and chop suey which began in the 1890s. The original China Town was located where the Daley Center is today. “Now it’s on Wentworth Avenue,” says the food expert. After the 1970s, many Chinese regional restaurants with regional foods opened.

Kathie Smith is The Blade’s food editor.
Contact her at food@theblade.com or 419-724-6155.

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