Heinz's Chicago Hot Dog Sauce Puts No-Ketchup Rule To The Test

CHICAGO, IL — Chicagoans have earned a legendary reputation for their strict standards when it comes to enjoying certain types of cuisine. For instance, pizza is a dish best served deep in this town, but asking for a hot dog with ketchup might not get you served at all. A few years back, Chicago's deep dish devotion gained national attention after Jon Stewart questioned the superiority of the city's signature pie on "The Daily Show." Now a food company is dogging residents and testing their faith in that sacred no-ketchup commandment.

As a way to celebrate National Hot Dog Day on Tuesday, Heinz unveiled its Chicago Dog Sauce, a condiment for the discerning Chicagoan unwilling to let ketchup (or is it catsup?) defile his or her dog. The new sauce — customers need to pony up $7.50 to have a 14-ounce glass bottle shipped to their homes — is touted as the perfect addition to the traditional Chicago hot dog toppings of mustard, relish, peppers, pickles and celery salt. (Get Patch real-time email alerts for the latest news for Chicago — or your neighborhood. And iPhone users: Check out Patch's new app.)

But the proof is in the pudding — or the hot dog bun, as the case may be. That's why Heinz recorded Chicagoans sampling the sauce on their dogs. Can you guess how they reacted?

In case you skipped over the video, Heinz treats its hearty, Midwest customers like down-on-the-farm rubes — a real weenie move — by revealing that Chicago Dog Sauce is actually … just plain ketchup.

(It's not clear from the video if the hot dogs also were served with powdered H2O to drink.)

While a few of the unsuspecting diners used a hand gesture — albeit pixelated — to express their annoyance at being bamboozled, one aficio-dog-o had the best, most sensible response to being pranked:

"I'm not going to stop eating it because it's got ketchup on it. I'm not a psychopatch."

Now, Heinz, can you get back to more pressing concerns? Such as providing a definitive ruling on whether a hot dog is a sandwich.

Heinz's Chicago Dog Sauce, which is acutally — wait for it — regular ketchup. (Image via screen capture from Heinz Ketchup | YouTube)

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