Nathan's Hot Dog Ice Cream Is Here Just In Time For July 4th

Some ice cream flavors make sense. Chocolate, vanilla, caramel swirls, a burst of mocha, and even marshmallow fluff are logical additions to this beloved dairy treat. Over the years, however, Americans have been presented with some fairly odd frozen dessert flavors. Take Salt & Straw's Cinnamon and Honey Fried Chicken variety. Ice cream? Good. Fried chicken? Also good. But ice cream + fried chicken? The stomach and the mind are unsure what to think when two seemingly diametrically opposed ingredients come together, no matter how good each one is on its own.

Other odd ice cream flavor combos out there include Kraft Macaroni & Cheese, Granny's Sweet Potato Casserole, Dill Pickle, and Idaho Potato (via Taste of Home). Big Gay Ice Cream once combined Cheetos with ice cream to come up with "Cheat-Oh's," a vanilla ice cream with a smidgeon of cheese flavoring that gets "rolled in Cheetos dust." Ben and Bill's Chocolate Emporium delights lobster lovers in Maine with its lobster ice cream; according to Atlas Obscura, "the buttery vanilla matches the buttery lobster." And the Creole Creamery offers up the Creole Tomato, a cone that Mental Floss equates to "swapping out a sweet indulgence for something that sounds more like a salad."

If you enjoy having a hot dog followed by ice cream for dessert, you may prefer to forgo your entrée and opt for this latest ice cream flavor.

Enter "Let The Dogs Out!" When New York Magazine challenged Brooklyn's The Social, an iconic purveyor of creative ice cream flavors, to devise a hot dog-inspired ice cream for Hot Dog Week, this quirky dessert with a canine-centric name was born. Grub Street describes this concoction as a "toasted buttered bun ice cream with medallions of caramelized Nathan's all beef hot dogs," adding that it is a "surprisingly straightforward interpretation of the assignment." It, apparently, tastes exactly as it sounds — ice cream infused with bits of bun and wiener. 

Grub Street adds that this flavor will officially be unveiled at The Social's Prospect Heights, Brooklyn shop on July 3 — which happens to be the day before this summer's Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest. Yes, you can devote two entire days to eating hot dogs, consuming hot dog-flavored desserts, and watching professional eaters gorge themselves on hot dogs. And when that's all done, you can go home, fire up the grill, and treat your neighbors to some hot dogs too. Why not?