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We're breaking down the history of the hot dog for #NationalHotDogDay on this episode of Food History. Where do hot dogs come from? (It's surprisingly contentious.) What is in a hot dog? (It might not be as bad as you imagine.) And why do we call it a hot dog, anyway? (You'll have to watch the video.)
Hot dogs may be as American as apple pie, but they could be German or Austrian as well. The history behind hot dogs is on the menu in this episode of Food History.
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The Disputed History of the Hot Dog | Mental Floss
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0:00
Nathan's Famous in Coney Island, New York is home to the world's biggest hot dog eating
0:04
contest, but no one really knows how it got started. According to Nathan's website, it originated in 1916 from a bet between four immigrants
0:13
Each one claimed to be more patriotic than the others, and they allegedly settled the
0:16
argument by holding a hot dog eating competition at Nathan's on the 4th of July
0:21
But this story is likely a load of bologna, or a load of beef, natural flavoring sodium
0:27
phosphates, hydrolyzed corn protein, and paprika, as the case may be. In 2010, a public relations
0:32
professional who worked with Nathan's told the New York Times that the story was merely a piece
0:37
of marketing made up in Coney Island Pitchman style. Some of the first reports of a hot dog
0:42
eating contest at Nathan's are from 1967, when, supposedly to celebrate the 100th anniversary of
0:48
the hot dog, which, spoiler alert, it wasn't, newspapers reported that truck driver Walter
0:53
Paul downed 127 hot dogs in one hour. That said, some sources speculate that Paul didn't even exist
1:00
and it doesn't help that Nathan's has since given differing years and total number of hot dogs to
1:05
Paul. There were hot dog eating contests happening in New York at least as far back as the 1920s
1:10
A piece in the New York Tribune from December 1922 discusses a parade in lower Manhattan
1:15
As the piece tells it, after the parade, the participants adjourned to their headquarters
1:19
to witness the Grand Frankfurter Devouring Contest. The contest was won by the redoubtable Val Menges
1:27
who consumed 51 hot dogs, both nude and in doe kimonos. Doe kimonos? I'm speechless
1:34
The modern contest at Nathan's is thought to have emerged in 1972
1:38
but even back then it's being described as the 23rd annual, so it's a bit hard to be sure what's real and what's being said
1:46
in Coney Island pitchman style. Regardless of its origins, the event is famous today, and people travel from across the world
1:53
to take part. The current reigning champion is competitive eater Joey Chestnut
1:57
who consumed a gut-busting 76 hot dogs at 2021's contest. For that, he won a prize of $10,000
2:04
Nathan's coveted mustard belt, and hopefully some antacid tablets for the road
2:08
Hi, I'm Justin Dodd. Welcome to Food History. Hot dogs have a surprisingly complicated
2:13
and controversial history. What's in a hot dog? Why do we call it a hot dog? And
2:19
is it a sandwich? Oh god, we're not doing this again, are we
2:28
The story of this quintessential American food begins with the invention of sausages
2:34
thousands of years ago. A sausage is a product usually made from seasoned
2:38
processed meats, and different versions are eaten around the world. They can be fresh or
2:43
cured smoked or dried making them an important form of food preservation in many cultures Some of the first records of sausages come from ancient Mesopotamia roughly 4 years ago Texts from this era describe meat stuffed into intestinal casings which is how many sausages continue to be made today
3:00
An early reference to what very well may be some kind of blood sausage also appears in Homer's Odyssey
3:06
When Odysseus returns home from his journey and finds his home flooded with suitors
3:11
he expresses his annoyance, at least in one translation, by rolling from side to side as a cook turns a sausage
3:17
The line between hot dogs and other sausages isn't always clear, which makes the hot dog's
3:22
origin hard to identify. Germany claims to be the birthplace of the modern hot dog. One story
3:28
traces their invention to Frankfurt in the late 15th century, just a few years before
3:33
Christopher Columbus landed in the Americas. The city even celebrated the Frankfurter's 500th
3:38
birthday in 1987. The German town of Coburg disputes this provenance, however, and claims
3:44
that a butcher living there in the 1600s invented the hot dog before importing his creation
3:49
to Frankfurt. To make matters more complicated, Vienna also insists that its Wienerwurst
3:54
was the world's introduction to hot dogs. No matter where they originated, food historians agree that German immigrants were responsible
4:01
for popularizing hot dogs in the United States. Back in the 1800s, after moving to New York
4:06
City, many Germans sold sausages out of push carts to make a living. This was the start
4:11
of the hot dog's connection to both street food and the Big Apple. Here in the States
4:15
we view hot dogs as quintessentially American, but their reach extends across the globe
4:21
The Sonora Dog, from the Mexican state of the same name, consists of a sausage wrapped in bacon
4:26
and stuffed inside a balillo bun. It's topped with pinto beans, onions, tomatoes, jalapenos
4:31
mayo, and mustard. In Thailand, the Kanam Tokyo hot dog is served in a thin crepe
4:36
the aforementioned Kanam Tokyo, with either sweet or savory ingredients. One of the most
4:41
popular interpretations of the food may be salchipapas, which are found in Peru, Ecuador
4:46
and other Latin American countries. The dish does away with the bun altogether and opts for fried
4:52
sausage slices served on top of french fries. So when did the name hot dog become associated
4:57
with the street meat? One legend traces its etymology to cartoonist Tad Dorgan. In this
5:03
origin story, Dorgan was attending a Giants game in 1901 where hot Frankfurter sandwiches
5:08
were being sold. This inspired him to later draw a cartoon of a dachshund on a roll. Because he
5:13
couldn't spell the breed's name, he wrote Hot Dog instead. It's a cute story, but it has a few
5:19
issues. Though Dorgan did eventually draw a hot dog cartoon, it appeared in 1906, and it was in
5:25
connection to a bicycle race, not a Giants game. There's also the pesky fact that the term hot dog
5:30
was already popular by the time Dorgan allegedly attended the baseball game
5:35
Sorry, Dorgan, you just got dogged, which is a new verb I'm trying out
5:39
Another theory credits a food vendor named Thomas Francis Javier Morris Originally from the Caribbean Morris toured Europe as a strong man before moving to Patterson New Jersey There he started a business selling frankfurters and adopted the nickname
5:53
Hot Dog Maurice. Though it's difficult to prove, his marketing strategy may have helped the name
5:58
catch on in the late 1800s. There is a third origin story that is much less wholesome than
6:04
the first two. It's also, I regret to inform you, the story that's most widely accepted by food
6:09
historians. It's that hot dogs were once thought to contain actual dog. In 19th century Germany
6:16
consuming dog meat was not unheard of. This led to rumors about the true contents of the
6:20
mystery meat tubes that German immigrants were selling on street corners. Prejudice against
6:25
German-Americans, who made up one of the largest immigrant groups in the country in the 19th and
6:30
early 20th centuries, likely stoked these fears. According to writer and sometime etymologist H.L
6:35
Mencken, the belief was so widespread by 1913 that the Coney Island Chamber of Commerce
6:40
banned the word hot dog from signage so that guests wouldn't get the wrong idea about
6:45
the food's ingredients. So what are hot dogs made of if not actual dog
6:50
It depends. Pork and beef are the most common meats, but we're not necessarily talking prime cuts
6:57
Typical hot dogs start as ts, which is an industry euphemism for the parts left
7:01
over from meat production. Once the ts are pre-cooked to kill bacteria, they're emulsified into a meat paste
7:08
ground up, and forced through a mesh sieve. Next, flavorings and preservatives are added
7:12
and the whole thing gets pureed a second time. Finally, the meat amalgamation is cooked in
7:18
tubular casings to give it its signature shape. But rest assured that hot dogs approved by the
7:23
U.S. Department of Agriculture are not made from earthworms. This urban legend originates with
7:29
sodium erythorbate, which is used in curing processed meat products. Due to similarities
7:34
between the word earthworm and erythorbate, rumors spread about the true nature of the hot dog
7:40
ingredient. The USDA reportedly gets a lot of questions about sodium erythorbate's true source
7:46
and they insist that it is not made from ground-up creepy crawlies. According to some, a hot dog's most important ingredient is its bun. Merriam-Webster describes
7:54
hot dogs as usually being served on long, split rolls, which could make the fluffy vehicle
7:59
a distinguishing factor between hot dogs and other sausages. It's unclear where the hot dog bun originated, but many food historians point to Coney Island
8:08
In the 19th century, an Austrian-born baker there named Ignaz Frischmann developed an
8:12
oblong Vienna roll specifically for holding hot dogs. Prior to this innovation, Boardwalk's sausages were typically served between two slices of
8:20
bread, which for some reason horrifies me. Frischman supplied his unique rolls to vendors around Coney Island, and when he died in 1904
8:29
he was credited with the invention of the hot dog bun in his New York Times obituary
8:33
The introduction of the bun eventually led to an inflammatory question is a hot dog a sandwich If you ask the California legislature the answer is yes The tax code mentions hot dog and hamburger sandwiches served from sandwich stands or
8:47
booths, which means a hot dog is legally a sandwich in the state of California
8:52
Oscar Mayer and Merriam-Webster also fall on the pro-sandwich side of this debate
8:57
Among those arguing that hot dogs deserve their own category is the National Hot Dog
9:01
and Sausage Council. In 2015, the organization said that limiting the hot dog's significance by saying it's
9:07
just a sandwich is like calling the Dalai Lama just a guy
9:12
According to their statement, a hot dog is an exclamation of joy, a food, a verb describing
9:17
one showing off, and even an emoji. It is truly a category unto its own
9:22
My own feelings on this matter, along with my very grip on reality, were shaken to the
9:27
core when I posed this question back on our video about ketchup and mustard
9:31
YouTube commenter Sean Collins suggested that a hot dog should be properly categorized as
9:36
a taco. And I have not been the same since. Perhaps just as controversial is the New York vs Chicago dog debate
9:44
Like New York, Chicago saw an influx of German immigrants in the 19th century, and those
9:49
transplants brought sausage recipes from their home country with them. By the early 1900s, hot dogs were an important part of the city's cuisine
9:57
But the Chicago dog as we know it didn't become popular until a bit later
10:01
A traditional Chicago hot dog that's been dragged through the garden comes with yellow mustard
10:06
onion, tomato, relish, sport peppers, celery salt, and a pickle spear, all served on a poppy seed bun
10:13
That bun, incidentally, originated with Sam Rosen, a Polish immigrant who brought his baking
10:17
skills to Chicago in 1909. French's popularized yellow mustard as a hot dog condiment at the St
10:23
Louis World's Fair in 1904. The other toppings that make Chicago hot dogs unique came out of
10:29
immigrant community of the city's west side. Adding unique flavors to their dogs was a way
10:34
for vendors to appeal to the diverse tastes of different ethnic groups. This style of hot dog
10:38
really took off during the Great Depression. Cash-strapped Chicagoans needed cheap food
10:44
but one hot dog wasn't necessarily filling enough to make a meal. Vendors met this need by adding
10:49
ingredients to the hot dog. This item was still affordable, and the extra toppings made it hearty
10:54
and nutritious enough to sustain customers. As for whether the Chicago dog's role in history
10:59
makes it better than the Coney Island version, I can't say. I personally have no dog in the race
11:05
pun very much intended, because I am, and I'm sorry for this, not the biggest hot dog fan. But
11:10
my best friend lives and dies by the Chicago hot dog, so I guess I'll throw my hat in for the
11:15
Windy City. I mean, which is truly better? Are hot dog sandwiches? I don't know. I don't even
11:19
know who I am anymore. Am I a taco? It's impossible to say. For our next video, we're going from the
11:25
hot dog to hot sauce. If you've got a burning question you've always wanted answered about
11:30
the spicy condiment, drop it in the comments below for a chance to be featured in that episode
11:35
We'll see you then
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