For the kids, we offered just four options and kept it to the big dogs: Oscar Mayer, Hebrew National, Nathan's and Applegate Farms.

Although the kids were enthusiastic, their comments weren't entirely helpful. "I like the one I can bite with my teeth," said one 4-year-old of his favorite, the Applegate Farms Uncured Beef franks. Another child gave all the dogs a high score of 9, even though she described them disparately.

Once tallied, the kids' ratings showed a slight preference for Oscar Mayer and Nathan's, though, to be honest, all the kids finished all the franks.

The adults were a bit more discerning.

Hot dogs that were soft or mushy were dismissed out of hand, as were those that had a gray or off-putting color that was deemed "unnatural."

Our tasters liked smoky meat flavors but rejected dogs that had dominating spices.

Nathan's was the clear victor on the adult side, finishing a full 2 points ahead of second runner-up Hebrew National.

Ball Park was a distant third, with the remaining dogs falling further behind. Wellshire All Natural Uncured Turkey dogs were rated dead last by almost all of the tasters.

TASTE TEST RESULTS

Hot dogs are ranked in order of preference, with tasters' comments and price information. Most of the franks came in packages of eight (conveniently also the number of buns in a package); the two exceptions were Hebrew National, which come seven per pack, and Oscar Mayer, sold in packages of 10. - Keri Fisher

TOP DOGS

Nathan's Skinless Beef Franks

75 cents per dogeachprice per package divided by #ofdogs.

Tasters liked the "good spice flavor" of these top-rated dogs, calling them "simply delicious."

Hebrew National Beef Franks

86 cents per dogeach

"Balanced" and "flavorful," these kosher franks were deemed by more than one taster to be "salty but pretty good."

Ball Park Franks

54 cents per dogeach