RFA Ethanol Podcast

Celebrate the All-American Hot Dog

Cindy Zimmerman

July is National Hot Dog Month and for good reason, since summer time is prime time for frankfurter consumption.

hot-dogThe National Hot Dog and Sausage Council estimates that Americans will gobble up over seven billion hot dogs between Memorial Day and Labor Day! They also say that we eat an average of 60 hot dogs each year – are you eating your share?

The Hot Dog council has lots of fast frankfurter facts on their website, including how the sausage on a bun got its name. The moniker is attributed by some to a newspaper cartoonist who observed a vendor selling the “hot daschund sausages” during a 1906 baseball game in New York City. Tad Dorgan, a cartoonist for a Hearst newspaper, sketched a cartoon with a real dachshund dog, smeared with mustard, in a bun. Supposedly, Dorgan could not spell the name of the dog, instead writing “get your hot dogs” for a caption.

That’s how the story goes, but some hot dog historians say the name goes back even further than that. They say “dachshund” sausages were being called hot dogs on college campuses in the 1890s and that “little dog” sausages were standard fare at ballgames in St. Louis in 1893 when German immigrant Chris Von de Ahe owned the St. Louis Browns baseball team.

According to the council, hot dogs are served in 95 percent of homes in the United States. Fifteen percent of hot dogs are purchased from street vendors and nine percent are purchased at ballparks.

They even have a section on “Hot Dog Etiquette” – I kid you not. That includes the proper way to apply condiments.

Put hot dog toppings between the hot dog and the bun. Always “dress the dog,” not the bun.

Condiments should be applied in the following order: wet condiments like mustard and chili are applied first, followed by chunky condiments like relish, onions and sauerkraut, followed by shredded cheese, followed by spices, like celery salt or pepper.

I never knew that! Are you having hot dogs on the grill this holiday weekend? Let us know in the ZimmPoll.

Food