Flint's Original Coney Island

Submitted by BETHANY T.

"I've lived in Flint, Michigan my entire life, and I was brought up on Coneys. The recipe has always been kept "top secret", and every restaurant has a slightly different version. But my friend's grandmother opened and ran one of Flint's top Coney Island restaurants for many years, and she gave me this recipe. The original recipe calls for beef kidney, heart and suet. But guess what? That's what hot dogs are made from! That's why ground hot dogs are a good substitution. I've tried and tasted many copycat recipes for Coney sauce, but I'm convinced that this one is the best. Coneys are traditionally served using a steamed hot dog bun, a koegel vienna hot dog (any vienna hotdog will do) then topped with the sauce, yellow mustard and finely chopped onions. Yum! The friend also noted that if it tastes like something is missing.. add more cumin. By the way, Koegel Viennas are now available to order online!"

 

• Ready In: 45mins
• Ingredients: 7
• Serves: 8-10

ingredients

• 1 lb hamburger (not lean)
• 1⁄2 lb beef hot dog, ground up (the cheap hot dogs work best)
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 3 tablespoons ground cumin
• 3 tablespoons mild paprika
• 2 tablespoons chili powder
• 2 cups water

directions

1. Mix all ingredients in a heavy pan and cook over med to low heat until mixture cooks and becomes dry and crumbly.
2. If it seems too wet or greasy, add a few crumbled saltine crackers.
3. Best if made a day ahead and reheated in a frying pan.
4. Freezes well.
5. Note: I grind my hot dogs up in a blender with a little water.
6. I also chop the onions using my blender with water.

Reviews

[Lynn D.]

I'm 70 years old and remember my dad stopping at the Saginaw St. Coney Islands to get 6,8,10, or 12, conies to take home to the family. Double parked out front. Me and my little brother in the back seat, waiting. It was during the 1950's. There was nothing like those coneys anywhere. The smell of conies wafting out of the restaurant. Pure heaven. My father tried for years to duplicate the sauce. He got close. He used the variety meats. For 50+ years I've been searching for a recipe. I've never duplicated the sauce adequately because using the variety meats was too labor intensive and where can you get them these days anyway? Your recipe is the best coney sauce I've ever had outside of the original Flint coney island restaurants. It is spot on and absolutely delicious! Thank you for sharing it with the world. I've lived in the Detroit area for decades and don't get to Flint very often, many of the original coney restaurants are closed or were sold off. The sauce many of these current restaurants produce was changed and isn't good. Thank you also for your recipe TIPS! You even told me how to 'tweak' the sauce to suit my taste. I did increase the cumin to 3Tbsp + 1 tsp. Here's a TIP from me to you and all readers regarding ONIONs for garnish. A original coney is made up of: bun, hot dog, coney sauce, onions, yellow mustard. TIPS: 1) Dice your onions fine and tiny. It makes a difference in how much onion taste you get in every bite. You want to taste the sauce and the dog, with onion and mustard as back-tastes. Big chunks of onion make the main taste onion. 2) Use a SWEET Onion (ex: Vidalia or similar). Regular onions are too strong. If you want even less onion taste you can soak the diced sweet onions in ice water for at least an hour, drain all water away. Your diced onions should not have any excess water when you top your coney with them. With gratitude. Thank you for your coney recipe. It's TERRIFIC and AUTHENTIC.

 

[lunapiercook]

Of course the recipe is good, I've made versions of it myself for decade. However, a few corrections are necessary ... First off, the photo used is misleading. This is my photo (not the recipe author's) from http://micuisine.com/lunapiercook/?p=2345 and only the top coney in the image is of a version of the recipe. Secondly, this isn't remotely close to the original recipe, regardless of what a Brayan "relative" may have written in the comments. The real story of this recipe is at http://micuisine.com/flintconeys/?page_id=935 complete with images of the original articles where it was included and subsequent attempts to debunk the folklore. Yes, use this recipe, people really do enjoy it. But please be honest in how it's presented.

 

[Debra M.]

No. No. No. No. No. The original and legit coney sauce does not use ground up hot dogs. My late mother in law used to work at Angelo’s when it was made onsite. It uses coarse ground beef hearts and ground beef. Abbot’s meats in Flint now distributes the uncooked sauce ingredients, and you can cook and season at home. But NO GROUND UP HOT DOGS.

 

[kjl0115]

I've never had a Flint Coney Dog but my husband is from Flint MI. I made this for him as he always talks about how good the hot dogs were in Flint. He loves this recipe! He says it's a great "dupe" for the topping on the coney dogs there. Great recipe!

 

[Marc L.]

Dunno if I'd make it again, but it tasted very good. Could use pictures to know what color it's supposed to be as everything looks red due to the seasoning. Put it up against koegels sauce and this was better. Makes a lot. Trust me. They mean tablespoons.