Brian in the Kitchen Recipes
BRIAN IN THE KITCHEN brought to you by Stittsworth Meats
August 20 2026
Spiralized Hot Dogs
Image From seriouseats.com
For a long time, I resisted spiral cutting my hot dogs—it felt a little childish and twee. I couldn’t help but picture the cookouts of my youth, where my practical mother, resistant to purchasing two types of bun, would hasselback a frank and coil it onto a hamburger bun like a grub.
But spiral cutting has benefits beyond aesthetic novelty. First, the method—which involves slicing the hot dog all around into a coil—lengthens the dog, meaning it can run edge-to-edge in the bun, which saves you from naked bites of bread. Second, it creates grippy little pockets where condiments can settle, suffusing flavor in each bite. Third—and most importantly—it increases the dog’s surface area, allowing for additional browning and caramelization.
But why stop at a skinless frank? If spiral cutting works so well for hot dogs, why not other types of sausage? I decided to try spiral cutting five types of sausages: a skinless hot dog, a skinless chicken sausage, an andouille sausage, an Italian sausage, and a bratwurst. The hot dog and chicken sausage were precooked, while the other three were raw.
A small, common-sense voice in my head said: If you cut into a raw sausage, it will fall apart. It will weep fat onto the coals and enrobe your dog in a blanket of soot.
But a louder goblin voice said: What if you just…see?
How to Spiral Cut a Sausage
Spiral cutting a sausage is dead-simple, but can be hard to visualize. A video guide helps, but I’ll do my best to walk you through it here. First, skewer the sausage lengthwise through the center. Then, position your knife at an angle near one of the ends, and cut down until you hit the skewer. Slowly rotate the sausage away from you as you cut, keeping your knife at the same angle. Carefully remove the skewer, and your reward will be a sausage that looks like a telephone cord.