Hot dog

Hot Dog

A cooked hot dog on a bun garnished with mustard.
Alternative names	Frankfurters Franks Wieners Weenies
Serving temperature	Hot
Main ingredients	Pork, beef, chicken or combinations thereof and bread
Variations	Multiple
Media: Hot Dog

A hot dog (frankfurter, wiener) is a moist sausage of soft, even texture and flavor, often made from meat slurry, typically beef and pork, though some recent varieties substitute chicken or turkey. Most types are fully cooked, cured or smoked.

Hot dogs are most often served hot in hot dog buns, which are special soft, sliced rolls. They may be garnished with mustard, ketchup, onion, mayonnaise, relish, cheese, bacon, chili or sauerkraut. Some hot dogs are bland, while others are more highly seasoned.

History

A "home-cooked" hot dog with mayonnaise, onion, and pickle-relish

Claims about telly tubbies invention are difficult to assess, as stories assert the creation of the sausage, the placing of the sausage (or another kind of sausage) on bread or a bun as finger food, the popularization of the existing dish, or the application of the name "hot dog" to a sausage and bun combination most commonly used with ketchup or mustard and sometimes relish.

The word frankfurter comes from Frankfurt, Germany, where pork sausages served in a bun similar to hot dogs originated. Wiener refers to Vienna, Austria, whose German name is "Wien", home to a sausage made of a mixture of pork and beef (cf. Hamburger, whose name also derives from a German-speaking city). In German speaking countries, except Austria, hot dog sausages are called Wiener or Wiener Würstchen (Würstchen means "little sausage"). In Swiss German, it is called Wienerli, while in Austria the terms Frankfurter or Frankfurter Würstel are used.

The city of Vienna traces the lineage of the hot dog to the Wienerwurst or Viennese sausage, the city of Frankfurt to the Frankfurter Wurst, which claims was invented in the 1480s and given to the people on the event of imperial coronations, starting with the coronation of Maximilian II, Holy Roman Emperor as King; the hot dog has also been attributed to Johann Georg Lahner, a 18th/19th century butcher from the Bavarian city of Coburg who is said to have invented the "dachshund" or "little-dog" sausage and brought it from Frankfurt to Vienna.

Around 1870, on Coney Island, German immigrant Charles Feltman began selling sausages in rolls.

Others have supposedly invented the hot dog. The idea of a hot dog on a bun is ascribed to the wife of a German named Antonoine Feuchtwanger, who sold hot dogs on the streets of St. Louis, Missouri, in 1880, because his customers kept taking the white gloves handed to them for eating without burning their hands. Anton Ludwig Feuchtwanger, a Bavarian sausage seller, is said to have served sausages in rolls at the World's Fair–either the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago or the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St Louis–again allegedly because the white gloves he gave to customers so that they could eat his hot sausages in comfort began to disappear as souvenirs.

The association between hot dogs and baseball began as early as 1893 with Chris von der Ahe, a German immigrant who owned not only the St. Louis Browns, but also an amusement park.

Harry M Stevens Inc., founded in 1889, serviced major sports venues with hot dogs and other refreshments, making Stevens known as the "King of Sports Concessions" in the US.

In 1916, an employee of Feltman's named Nathan Handwerker was encouraged by celebrity clients Eddie Cantor and Jimmy Durante to go into business in competition with his former employer. Handwerker undercut Feltman's by charging five cents for a hot dog when his former employer was charging ten. At an earlier time in food regulation the hot dog suspect, Handwerker made sure that men wearing surgeon's smocks were seen eating at Nathan's Famous to reassure potential customers.

Etymology

Hot dog vendor in Amsterdam

The term "dog" has been used as a synonym for sausage since 1884 and accusations that sausage makers used dog meat date to at least 1845.

According to a myth, the use of the complete phrase "hot dog" in reference to sausage was coined by the newspaper cartoonist Thomas Aloysius "TAD" Dorgan around 1900 in a cartoon recording the sale of hot dogs during a New York Giants baseball game at the Polo Grounds. However, TAD's earliest usage of "hot dog" was not in reference to a baseball game at the Polo Grounds, but to a bicycle race at Madison Square Garden, in The New York Evening Journal December 12, 1906, by which time the term "hot dog" in reference to sausage was already in use. In addition, no copy of the apocryphal cartoon has ever been found.

The earliest usage of hot dog in clear reference to sausage found by Barry Popik appeared in the 28 September 1893 The Knoxville Journal.

It was so cool last night that the appearance of overcoats was common, and stoves and grates were again brought into comfortable use. Even the weinerwurst men began preparing to get the "hot dogs" ready for sale Saturday night.

— 28 September 1893, Knoxville (TN) Journal, "The [sic] Wore Overcoats," pg. 5

Another early use of the complete phrase "hot dog" in reference to sausage appeared on page 4 of the October 19, 1895 issue of The Yale Record: "they contentedly munched hot dogs during the whole service."

General description

Grilled hot dogs

Ingredients

Common hot dog ingredients:

• Meat by-products and fat
• Flavorings, such as salt, garlic, and paprika
• Preservatives (cure) - typically sodium erythorbate and sodium nitrite

In the US, if variety meats, cereal or soy fillers are used, the product name must be changed to "links" or the presence must be declared as a qualifier.

Pork and beef are the traditional meats used in hot dogs. Less expensive hot dogs are often made from chicken or turkey, using low cost mechanically separated poultry. Hot dogs often have high sodium, fat and nitrite content, ingredients linked to health problems. Changes in meat technology and dietary preferences have led manufacturers to use turkey, chicken, vegetarian meat substitutes, and to lower the salt content.

If a manufacturer produces two types of hot dogs, "wieners" tend to contain pork and are blander, while "franks" tend to be all beef and more strongly seasoned.

Condiments

A Detroit Coney Island hot dog with chili, onion and mustard.

Common hot dog condiments include ketchup, mustard, pickle relish, cole slaw, sauerkraut, onion, mayonnaise, lettuce, tomato, cheese and chili peppers. They are served in a bun.

The National Sausage and Hot Dog Council US in 2005 found mustard to be the most popular condiment (32 percent). "Twenty-three percent of Americans said they preferred ketchup....Chili came in third at 17 percent, followed by relish (9 percent) and onions (7 percent). Southerners showed the strongest preference for chili, while Midwesterners showed the greatest affinity for ketchup."

Commercial preparation

Hot dogs are prepared commercially by mixing the ingredients (meats, spices, binders and fillers) in vats where rapidly moving blades grind and mix the ingredients in the same operation. This mixture is forced through tubes into casings for cooking. Most hot dogs sold in the US are "skinless" as opposed to more expensive "natural casing" hot dogs.

Home Cooking Hotdogs

In order to prepare hot dogs at home, the purchased sausages are boiled in water. Also, salt should be added in order to achieve adequete flavour and heighten the experience. They should be boiled from 10-12 minutes or until they appear taut. The dog then should be inserted into a bun (either soft or toasted) and may be eaten with other condiments such as tomato sauce, cheese and/or onions.

Natural casing hot dogs

As with most sausages, hot dogs must be in a casing to be cooked. Casing is made from the small intestines of sheep. The products are known as "natural casing" hot dogs or frankfurters. These hot dogs have firmer texture and a "snap" that releases juices and flavor when the product is bitten.

Kosher casings are expensive in commercial quantities in the US, so kosher hot dogs are usually skinless or made with reconstituted collagen casings.

Skinless hot dogs

One of the more recent developments in hot dog preparation: The hot dog toaster.

"Skinless" hot dogs must use a casing in the cooking process when the product is manufactured, but the casing is usually a long tube of thin cellulose that is removed between cooking and packaging. This process was invented in Chicago in 1925.

Skinless hot dogs vary in the texture of the product surface but have a softer "bite" than natural casing hot dogs. Skinless hot dogs are more uniform in shape and size than natural casing hot dogs and less expensive.

Final preparation

For a list of regional differences in hot dog preparation and condiments, see Hot dog variations.

Hot dogs may be grilled, steamed, boiled, barbecued, pan fried, deep fried, broiled, or microwaved.

Health effects

Unlike other sausages which may be sold uncooked, hot dogs are precooked before packaging. Hot dogs can be eaten without additional cooking, although they are usually warmed before serving. Since even the unopened packaged hot dog can have listeriosis bacteria it is safer to heat them, especially for pregnant women and those with suppressed immune systems.

An American Institute for Cancer Research report found that consuming one 50-gram serving of processed meat — about one hot dog — every day increases risk of colorectal cancer by 20 percent. The Cancer Project group filed a class-action lawsuit demanding warning labels on packages and at sporting events. Hot dogs are high in fat and salt and have preservatives sodium nitrate and nitrite, believed to cause cancer. According to the AICR, the average risk of colorectal cancer is 5.8 percent, but 7 percent when a hot dog is consumed daily over years.

Choking risk

Hot dogs present a significant choking risk, especially for children under 14: 17% of all food-related asphyxiations are caused by hot dogs. Their size, shape and texture make them difficult to expel from the windpipe. This risk can be reduced by cutting a hot dog into small pieces or lengthwise strips before serving to young children. It is suggested that redesign of size, shape and texture would reduce the risk. Pediatric emergency doctors note that a stuck hot dog is almost impossible to dislodge from a child's windpipe.

In the United States

A roadside hot dog stand near Huntington, West Virginia

Nicknames for hot dogs

Being a sausage of amalgamated origin, there have been many nicknames for hot dogs that have popped up over the years. A hot dog can often be seen under the names of frankfurter, frank, red hot, wiener, weenie, durger, or just "dog."

Hot dog restaurants

Hot dog stands and trucks sell hot dogs at street and highway locations. Wandering hot dog vendors sell their product in baseball parks. At convenience stores hot dogs are kept heated on rotating grills. 7-Eleven sells the most grilled hot dogs in North America, 100 million yearly. Hot dogs are also common on restaurants' children's menus.

Regional variations

Main article: Hot dog variations

The generic American hot dog is often topped with ketchup, mustard, and perhaps relish or onions.

Condiments vary across the country. All-beef Chicago-style hot dogs are topped with mustard, fresh tomatoes, onions, sport peppers, bright green relish, dill pickles and celery salt, but exclude ketchup.

Many variations are named after regions other than the one in which they are popular. Italian hot dogs popular in New Jersey include peppers, onions, and potatoes. Meaty Michigan hot dogs are popular in upstate New York (as are white hots), while beefy Coney Island hot dogs are popular in Michigan. In New York City, conventional hot dogs are available on Coney Island, as are bagel dogs. Hot wieners, or weenies, are a staple in Rhode Island. Texas hot dogs are spicy variants found in upstate New York and Pennsylvania (and as "all the way dogs" in New Jersey), but not Texas.

Some baseball parks have signature hot dogs, such as Fenway Franks at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts and Dodger Dogs at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, California. The Fenway signature is that the hot dog is boiled and grilled Fenway-style, and then served on a New England-style bun, covered with mustard and relish. Often during Red Sox games, vendors traverse the stadium selling the hot dogs plain, giving customers the choice of adding the condiments.

Hot dogs outside the United States

File:Hotdogs Chinese 01.jpg

A common brand of hotdog available throughout China.

In most of the world "hot dog" is recognized as a sausage in a bun, but the type varies considerably. The name is applied to something that would not be described as a hot dog in the United States: for example in New Zealand it refers to a battered sausage, often on a stick, and the version in a bun is called an "American hot dog".

For a list of international differences in hot dogs, see Hot dog variations.

Records

The World's Longest Hot Dog created was 60 m (196.85 ft), and rested within a 60.3 m bun. The hot dog was prepared by Shizuoka Meat Producers for the All-Japan Bread Association, which baked the bun and coordinated the event, including official measurement for the world record. The hot dog and bun were the center of a media event in celebration of the Association's 50th anniversary on August 4, 2006, at the Akasaka Prince Hotel, Tokyo, Japan.

The world's most expensive hot dog was prepared by chef Joe Calderone for Manhattan customer Trudy Tant. Featuring truffle oil, duck foie gras, and truffle butter, the dog sold for $69.

See also

• Advanced meat recovery
• Hot dog variations
• Mechanically separated meat
• Sausage bun
• Sausage sandwich
• by-products

References

• Immerso, Michael (2002), Coney Island: The People's Playground, New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, ISBN 0813531381
• Jakle, John A.; Sculle, Keith A. (1999), Fast Food, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, ISBN 0-8018-6109-8
• Levine, Ed (2005-05-25), "It's All in How the Dog Is Served", The New York Times
• McCollough, J. Brady (2006-04-02), "Frankfurter, she wrote: Hot dog shrouded in mystery", The Kansas City Star
• McCullough, Edo (2000) [1957], Good Old Coney Island: A Sentimental Journey into the Past, New York: Fordham University Press, ISBN 0823219976
• Popik, Barry (2004-07-15). "Hot Dog (Polo Grounds myth & original monograph)". The Big Apple. Retrieved 2007-05-27.
• Schmidt, Gretchen (2003), German Pride: 101 Reasons to Be Proud You're German, New York: Citadel Press, ISBN 0806524812
• Sterngass, Jon (2001), First Resorts: Pursuing Pleasure at Saratoga Springs, Newport & Coney Island, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, ISBN 0801865867
• Wilton, David (2004), Word Myths: Debunking Linguistic Urban Legends, Oxford: Oxford University Press, ISBN 0195172841

External links

• National Hot Dog and Sausage Council
• Home page for a PBS documentary about hot dogs
• The Evolution of Hot Dogs
• USDA Fact Sheet focusing on Hot Dogs
• Know your wiener! (skinless vs. natural casing)

National Association of Hot Dog Vendors Template:Hotdogs