4505 Meat's New And Improved Hot Dog

The hotdog, that summertime staple, is a flawless creation.

But when you're Ryan Farr, the butcher at San Francisco's 4505 Meats, raising the bar is a given. So he created his take on the classic ballpark franks of his youth–with the unconventionally delicious addition of bacon–and may have done the impossible by improving the meaty stalwart.

Farr uses a blend of natural chicken, beef and pork for his dogs, finishing them with bits of Niman Ranch bacon. He precooks the hotdogs in a smokehouse, and when they're warmed slowly over medium heat on a grill–Farr's preferred cooking method–the dogs' casings grow taut and the bacon fat melts. The result: snap, drip, plumpness.

As luck would have it, this creation is the first item that 4505 Meats is selling nationally, shipping weekly in quantities from three to 20 pounds ($7 per pound).

The dogs are beyond fine on their own or with a gloss of yellow mustard. But for an appropriately creative addition, we asked Farr for the recipe for his Money Sauce (click here to download the recipe), a fixture at the stand he sets up at the Ferry Building in San Francisco once a week.

Your summer cookouts are now complete.