(CNN) – No matter how you like your prepared, grilled, or boiled wiener with mustard, ketchup, or chili, we can all agree on one thing, and that is that hot dogs have become part of a certain American cultural narrative.
And this year, more than ever, hot dogs are red hot; In March, the IRI data firm reported that Sales increased by up to 127%, and that was long before the barbecue season began.
Billions of hot dogs
“Americans eat about 7 billion hot dogs between Memorial Day and Labor Day,” said Eric Mittenthal, president of the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council.
Americans are estimated to eat 7 billion hot dogs between Memorial Day and Labor Day alone.
Courtesy of the National Hot Dog & Sausage Council
But while hot dogs may feel “all-American,” they are somewhat more inherent.
Also known as the frankfurter, this specific style of packaged sausage was originally thought to come from the city of Frankfurt-am-Main in Germany, but hot dog historians argue that the sausage culture, native to Eastern Europe and, particularly, Germany does not have a people of specific origin.
The traditional German hot dog, when it came to the United States, was a mix of pork and beef; The beef hot dog, as we know it now, has its roots in Jewish-American butchers, who, due to kosher restrictions, chose not to use pork in their meat mixes.
“When the Germans came, you have to see where they came from,” said Dr. Bruce Kraig, professor emeritus at Roosevelt University in Chicago.
Kraig is a historian of hot dogs and the author of several books, including ‘Hot Dog: A Global History’ and ‘A Rich and Fertile Land: A History of Food in America’.
“A good number of the first [Germans] it came from the Palatines, “which is a general area surrounding the royal city of Frankfurt, Kraig explains. Frankfurt, Kraig said, refers to the region of origin, although the royal food does not necessarily come from Frankfurt.
July is National Hot Dog Month.
Courtesy of the National Hot Dog & Sausage Council
Brought in by German immigrants in the mid-19th century, hot dogs started their way to the American zeitgeist in New York City hot dog carts, where they were a natural choice for the bullied, sandwich-loving New Yorker, who already preferred eat come on
“They appear with the first German immigrants in the late 1840s,” said Kraig.
“Germans have a sausage culture, so they eat sausages from butchers. They eat them at home. They eat them on the street at fairs and festivals, and at breweries, so when the Germans came to the United States, they installed breweries immediately. “.
Classic street food
Americans, he said, fell in love with the German idea of eating sausages on the street. “There is a lot of evidence that vendors sold sausages, probably in the 1840s, but certainly in the 1860s. Where there are Germans, sausages are sold on the streets.”
Hot dog historian Bruce Kraig says there is plenty of evidence that vendors sold sausages, probably in the 1840s, but certainly in the 1860s.
Courtesy of the National Hot Dog & Sausage Council
That plural is important, actually. After all, Germany is not known for a single sausage, but for its abundance of them, from beef and chicken based weisswurst to pork based bratwurst and beef jerky landjäger.
German sausages are so abundant that it is notable that Americans inherit only one in the common dietary canon.
In 1867, an enterprising Brooklyn baker by the name of Charles Feltman began selling hotdogs in a converted pie cart on Coney Island. “Coney Island started to become a place where people would go to have fun, but there was really nothing there at the time,” said Michael Quinn, co-owner of Coney Island’s Feltman’s hot dog brand, which he and his brother, Joe Quinn, purchased in 2015.
Bun Birth
Charles Feltman developed an elongated hand-cut bun that laid the foundation for the modern hot dog bun.
When popularity increased: Michael Quinn, a Coney Island historian himself, said that in that first summer, the car sold about 4,000 hot dogs. Feltman set his sights higher, entered a restaurant and hotel association, and opened an expanding complex on Coney Island in 1873.
A visit to Coney Island in the summer almost always involves hot dogs and often beer.
Channon Hodge, CNN
“Eventually, it became the world’s largest restaurant,” said Michael Quinn.
Numerous historical sources, including the Coney Island History Project, have acknowledged that, in the 1920s, Feltman’s Ocean Pavilion restaurant served approximately five million customers per year and sold around 40,000 hot dogs a day.
Suddenly, hot dogs were on the national stage, and Coney Island became the accessible epicenter of summer fun for everyone in and around New York.
Coney Island
That stage had already begun to expand when, in 1875, Charles Feltman convinced the president of the Prospect Park Railroad, Andrew Culver, to direct the subway line to Coney Island, offering public transportation to thousands of New Yorkers who had never had access before. to the distant reaches of Brooklyn.
In a way, Nathan’s hot dogs now define July 4th, and are one of Coney Island’s top attractions.
Channon hodge
The combination of the subway line with the massive Feltman complex made Coney Island important, and hot dogs were at the center of this important cultural moment.
Although Feltman’s empire waned over time, and Coney Island became less known for its lavish resort cache and more for its kitsch on the boardwalk, Feltman had unknowingly contributed to the best icon of American hot dog culture, when He hired a bread cutter who would go on to become one of the most famous hot dog vendors in the United States.
“Back then they had no machines, so one of the bread cutters the Feltman family hired was Nathan Handwerker,” said Michael Quinn. “He worked like Feltman as a bun cutter!”
That same Nathan Handwerker would open his own competitive brand, Nathan’s Famous Hot Dogs, in 1916, and that brand would become synonymous with Coney Island hot dogs.
Nathan’s famous on Surf Avenue on Coney Island has been around since 1916.
Channon Hodge, CNN
In a way, Nathan’s hot dogs now define July 4th, which is when Nathan’s famous hot dog eating contest takes place every summer. Hot dogs helped frame Coney Island’s fame.
“They were such an incredible feeling that Charles Feltman finally built an empire of nearly 100 years on them,” said Joe Quinn, co-owner of Feltman’s of Coney Island.
How do you take it?
New York, of course, was not the only place where hot dogs took root in the late 1800s. “Hot dogs spread across the country as immigrants spread to different regions,” said Eric Mittenthal. “The Chicago-style hotdog took over during the Depression, when the stalls would offer a variety of ingredients that people would stack on the hotdog, although Chicago is not alone in offering distinctive dogs.”
Every year on July 4th Nathan’s has a hot dog eating contest.
Channon Hodge, CNN
While coats differentiate dogs from one place to another, one constant is affordability. A hot dog is an access food. That it’s delicious, hearty and cheap, no matter where you are, What city are you in, and that makes it attractive to anyone, regardless of their physical location. (Even vegetarians and vegans can enjoy hot dogs now, albeit from the meatless tastes of Beyond Meats and other brands on the market.)
German immigrants spread their love for sausages to other cities in the United States: Detroit, Milwaukee, and later Los Angeles.
Where the Germans went, the hot dogs followed. New Yorkers, of course, will argue that the specificity of hot dog, a food that is well suited for eating while on the move, works particularly well in their city, making the association resonate, more than a century later.
“The advantage of having a hot sausage on a long loaf is a very New Yorker thing,” said Michael Quinn. “New Yorkers like to walk and eat.”
As for the name, hot dogs were first coined “red hots,” a term that is still used in both Maine and Detroit, sometime in the late 1800s, due to the heat of the grill used to cook them. . But the dog part was really just brash. “Hotdog is a joke word,” said Kraig.
The first thing the word could trace is until 1892, in a newspaper clipping from Patterson, New Jersey. “The identification of sausages with dogs is considerably earlier,” he admitted.
According to Kraig, a popular song in the 19th century, written by Septimus Winner, posed the question: “Where, oh, where has my puppy gone?”, Supposedly a reference to a missing dog in sausage meat. Fortunately, in the age of transparency, we know that the hot dogs we eat today, 7 billion this summer, if not more, are all hot, not dogs.
That’s a bit of a relief, for those looking to celebrate National Hot Dog Month in July. Take out the mustard.
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