Howler Hotdogs - Gourmet Mini Original Dogs product reviews

I play video games, it's what I do for fun. But video games need focus, co-ordination and most important of all they need concentration. When I am in the middle of a multiplayer game I can't take off and leave the team short long enough to cook up a feed. I need something that can be made quick and eaten quick. These looked like just the thing.

I was lucky enough to get chosen for some vouchers, which arrived early in the afternoon. A quick trip to the supermarket and I had the bags. Then it was almost time for the campaign to start so I turned the oven on, shook a handful of these and the cheesy ones into the roasting pan, and sat down for a bit of blasting. About 10 minutes later we had a quick breather so I gave the dogs a shuffle in the tray and sat down for another round of snipering. about 10 minutes later I could smell them from the other room so took a quick break to throw them on a plate with a generous squirt of sauce and I was back in the game without anyone noticing.

These were really easy to grab while still playing, and 2 bites each is all it took to get them down, freeing up my hand for more trigger time. As well as being great to eat without interrupting my gameplay, they also tasted pretty good too. I saw on the pack earlier in the day that they had heaps of good stuff and very little to worry about like chemical preservatives and fake colours and stuff. I don't feel even a little guilty snacking down on these, especially since they didn't need deep-frying or nothing.

I have spent the last 20 minutes raving about them to some of my team mates after we finished the main mission, and I am writing this review while the others finish regrouping and upgrading. The guys I have spoken to are also keen to try them, so we're looking at a group shopping trip tomorrow, because I want to stock up the freezer with another few bags. Pricey, but worth it. #kiwimade

Growing up, my favourite thing to get with fish and chips on Friday night was a battered hot dog. It would come in a paper bag, disintegrating from the sauce inside the bag too. Even now I like hot dogs, but I don't get them very often. When I saw these up for review I quickly applied.

In the bag, you get 16 mini hot dogs on sticks. They look really cute and they are truly free-flow in the bag, so you don't have to separate them out at all. You just bake them for about 15 minutes. Both times I cooked these up, I turned them half way through, which was pretty easy to do. The first time I did these, I was providing a platter for a game night. So everyone got a taste.

The feedback was positive. Most of the adults around the table thought that the hot dogs were cute and the perfect snack size. It was felt that they tasted as expected, but weren't greasy. They had a good taste, and were easy to eat. The original flavour went great with sauce, or without.

Surprisingly the kids weren't fans of the taste. One ate all of the batter off these and left the sausage pieces behind. The other took all of the batter off and ate the sausage only. So I really just need to somehow push my kids together into one kid so they will eat the whole thing. Still, the parts they did eat, they liked. They just didn't want the other parts.

These would be great for an event. If we had a movie night or a sports event we were sharing with friends, I could definitely see myself getting some of these as part of the snack table. They would be good for party food too. Because the kids don't like them as a whole product, it would be difficult for me to buy them as a once a fortnight dinner option though.

When I told my daughters (5 and 7 years) that there were mini hotdogs available for review they told me I had to ask for them. We were lucky enough to get both the cheese and the original varieties. One of the things that appealed to me was that they were designed to be heated in the oven. This was healthier and easier than deep frying especially as we don't have a deep fryer.

There are 16 mini dogs in the packet. For our family that should mean 4 each. It didn't. I served it on a platter with cheese sauce, oven chips, fish bites and kumara chips. Miss 7 inhaled the hotdogs. She must have had half the packet herself. She also collected all our sticks in nibbled off the tiny bits of batter. Miss 5 also had her share. Poor Mum and Dad were just grateful there were other things on the platter to eat as we only got a couple each. As we were eating Miss 5 declared "We love Karl (the person we collect all our KIWIreviews products from) he gives us lots of yummy food."

What I liked most about these was the convenience. They are stored in the freeze until you need them. The hot dogs aren't stuck together and the bag is resealable so you can just take what you need.(not that we needed that function with my kids). The instructions say to cook in the oven for 13-15 minutes turning halfway through. I didn't bother turning them and thy cooked evenly. They took 20 minutes to heat through but the oven hadn't finished preheating when I popped them in (the natives were getting restless so I didn't wait).

The price means it is not an everyday purchase but I will be grabbing it when I see it on special. It certainly makes for a great treat for the kids. It would also be popular at birthday parties or when everyone is gathered around the TV for a movie night or to watch a sports match.

I had already tried these hotdogs at a tasting at New World in Te Rapa, so I knew that I would enjoy them. I was happy when they came up for review through KIWIreviews.

Hotdogs are not something we eat very often - we reserve this for school fairs etc. The ones we are used to are greasy, can be slimy in between the sausage and the batter and the sausage is sometimes gritty. Still people pay lots of money for them!!

Howler Original Dogs are quite different to hotdogs from the takeaway shop or school fair. They are oven baked straight from the freezer. In fact, it is much quicker to take a bag of them out of the freezer and pop them in the oven than it is to go to the takeaway shop to buy hot dogs! Our oven is a bit dodgy and we found that 15 minutes wasn't really enough to crisp them up and ensure they were totally hot through. We cooked them for a bit over 20 minutes and they were great. I am not sure if it was our oven that made us need the extra cooking time or if they would benefit from it anyway. Regardless, it was quicker than driving out to get food!

A couple of days ago, we had a rather cold day here. This offered the perfect opportunity to test out these hot dogs for lunch. I popped a couple of hot dogs in the oven for each member of our family. My dad was pretty happy to joining in the treat for lunch as well!

To eat them, we found that they were not slimy or overly greasy. The outside was quite dry, but not in a bad way. I mean that they weren't oozing grease! They crisped up nicely in the oven. We have two young children and the mini size of the hotdogs was perfect for them as they were able to eat one before moving onto the next one. This was much better than eating half a big one and leaving it. I noticed that the children ate the entire hot dog. Sometimes Mr 5 doesn't like the greasy batter on hotdogs and he peels it off and it gets discarded. He obviously enjoyed these ones. The meat inside the hotdog had a much better texture and sense of quality than the ones we are used to as well.

We ate the contents of the bag over the course of two sittings and we found that the resealable seal on the bag was very useful. It is much better than having the hotdogs suffering from freezer burn or having to sort out a seal for the bag.

Overall, our family enjoyed the Original Dogs. While they would still be seen as a treat food in our house, we would consider having some in the freezer for birthdays etc or as an alternative to a takeaway meal.

I was so happy to receive my package of items to review from KIWIreviews to find the Howler Hotdogs - Original Dogs. I cooked these up tonight as a quick and easy dinner for myself and Miss 2 and served them with some fries and vegetables, and of course a side of good old Watties tomato sauce. Rather than using the oven which is the suggested method of cooking on the bag I choose to cook these in my Tefal acti-fry. They worked brilliantly, and were cooked in just 14 minutes, although the acti-fry suggests to add a spoonful of oil when cooking, I choose not to and these cooked amazingly beautiful and hot in the middle and golden and crispy batter on the outside.

These hotdogs tasted fantastic and in my opinion much better, not to mention healthier than those at the fish and chip shop. In the past I have purchased frozen mini hot dogs from the supermarket to cook at home, but was not impressed by these at all, finding them very tasteless and gritty in texture, you'd have to wonder if they really did contain any meat at all! They also cracked very badly when cooked. However these Howler Hotdogs had very pleasant results - they had beautiful crispy, golden brown batter coating on the outside, and the sausage in the middle was very meaty, not gristly or gritty. They actually tasted like you were eating a 'real' meat product rather than that processed rubbish. The ingredients list the meat as beef and venison which I actually believe to be factual! Served with Watties tomato sauce these were fantastic and the sauce did not over power the taste of the sausage, which I found to be quite well seasoned but not over powering at all.

The packaging of the hot dogs is well thought out with a convenient snaplock top to keep the uncooked hotdogs freshly sealed in the freezer, which means there's no need to worry about freezer burn! These would be a great snack to have on hand for watching sports on TV, children's birthday party's and BBQ's served with a variety of different dipping sausages. Were thoroughly enjoyed by both myself and Miss 2, and we will be buying again.

These were so easy to prepare, almost fool-proof as long as you don't over-cook them. Even so, they seemed to be quite tolerant of a few extra minutes, as I missed the timer going off and ended up leaving my first batch in the oven for almost 20 minutes. As you can see from the photo, they were none the worse for it.

The sausage was nice and meaty, without that gritty texture of a sausage full of packers and rubbish fillers. While their price-point stops them from using a gourmet sausage, I didn't feel they were a 'junk meat' sausages by any stretch either.

The batter wasn't bland, but nor did it have a strong flavor that detracted from the meat. While these can be deep-fried, they are designed to be baked for best results. This stops them from going greasy and soft, and is a lot healthier, of course. While I cringe every time my kids eat a hotdog from the local takeaways, I was quite happy for them to have a plate of these.

An easy two-bite snack each, I would be quite comfortable serving these up as hors d'oeuvres , finger food, or snacks for the kids during summer BBQs. These go great with tomato sauce, obviously, but they also held up well being served with aioli, and also sweet chilli sour cream dip.

Overall, a lovely alternative to the usual hotdog from the takeaway store. Delicate and classy enough to be equally at home at a BBQ, or a pot-luck luncheon at the scout den or PTA meeting. The only problem I had was wanting more!

Hotdogs are one of my favourite foods, I love it when we get fish and chips, and there are hotdogs to go with it. So, I was eager to try these when I found out they were up for grabs, and I was not disappointed. Apparently, these are "gourmet" hotdogs, and aren't made from the same stuff as normal hotdogs, less of the scrap meat stuff, and more actual meat, which according to the ingredient listing is a combination of beef and venison.

I must admit these hotdogs did have a different taste to the normal type, it was less starchy, and had more flavour, I was quite impressed. The dogs were easy to cook, all I needed was an oven and a baking dish. The instructions said these needed to be cooked for 13-15 minutes at 180 degrees, but I found that they needed longer, around 19 minutes. Apart from this neccisary adjustment, the cooking was, indeed, quite straightforward and easy.

The bag that held these hotdogs was well designed, the material feels heat-insulating, and it has a zip-lock seal, these two elements make the bag quite hygienic, which considering this is a meat product, is definitely an important factor. I think this is an awesome product, it makes a great snack food, especially considering their size, I think these would be good for movie snacks, and overall I would highly recommend this to anyone, and I mean anyone.