Homestyle Flint Coney Sauce Recipe
Often mistaken for the "original recipe" with an assortment of varying claims, Flint Journal Food Editor Joy Gallagher first published this recipe prior to 1974.
Equipment
- Skillet, 12"
- Colander
- Meat grinder, manual
- Glass dish, 8" x 8"
- Sauce pan, 2 - 3 quart, with lid
Ingredients
- 1-1/2 lb 80/20 ground chuck
- 5 each Koegel Viennas or Coney Franks or other natural casing frankfurter
- 1 Tbsp Shortening or lard
- 1 Tbsp Butter not margarine
- 1 tsp Garlic, minced
- 1 Tbsp Mustard, prepared yellow
- 6 oz Tomato sauce
- 6 oz Water
- 3 Tbsp Chili Powder, mild
- Kosher salt
- Pepper, black, ground
Instructions
- Brown the ground chuck in the skillet till itʹs nice and tender. Dump it into the colander and let it drain. Push on the browned meat in the colander with the back of a spoon until most the grease is out, and then dump the meat into the sauce pan.
- Grill the Viennas or cook them in a dry pan. Let them cool.
- Install discs onto the front of the meat grinder for a fairly small grind and grind the hot dogs into the glass dish. After digging the rest of the ground hot dogs out of the inside of the grinder, add the ground hot dogs to the browned meat.
- With the exception of the chili powder and the salt and pepper, add the remaining ingredients to the sauce pan and mix it all as completely as possibly. Start heating the sauce on the stove over medium heat. When it comes to a simmer, cover the saucepan, set the burner for low heat, and let the sauce simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent scorching. Add the chili powder to the sauce and stir it in well. Check the flavor of the sauce and add the salt and pepper to taste.
- Cover the sauce again and let it simmer another 10 minutes to let the flavor develop before serving on grilled Koegel Viennas in natural casings on decent (not wimpy) steamed buns, all topped with a squiggle of a rich yellow prepared mustard and some chopped onion … or on nacho chips with cheese and jalapeños.
Notes
- The hot dogs you grind up will affect the flavor of the finished sauce. Using Koegel Viennas for this makes the most sense.
- Yes, tomato sauce comes in 8 oz cans. Use 6 oz for this recipe. Just drink the rest, itʹs good for you.
- Donʹt use garlic powder instead of minced garlic. Throw that powdered stuff away … itʹs not the same. However, granulated garlic is an excellent substitute for minced garlic.
- While itʹs possible to grind the hot dogs in a food processor (on slow speed, using the blade labeled ʺshredʺ), a better texture is created by using an old‐fashioned hand meat grinder. These are available in specialty and antique shops, commercial food equipment dealers, and the cooking section of Cabelaʹs in Dundee.
- There are versions of this recipe that say to add onions, not to brown the ground beef first, and to slow‐cook it all day long. Not everyone likes onions, not browning the ground beef first means greasy sauce later, and if you do use a crock pot for this, add the chili powder, salt and pepper much later in the cooking process.