Hot Dog! A Guide To New York's Favorite Food

by Bryan Joiner

The Dirty Water Dog is a staple of New York City, even if the contents of a street weiner remain a mystery. There's an old saw that a guy and his vegetarian friend are walking along the street, and one guy says to the other, "Wanna get a hot dog?" "I'm a vegetarian," the other guy responds, to which is his friend says, "Don't worry, there's no meat in there anyway."

What's actually in a hot dog? And where did the name come from? Everything you wanted to know and more in a fun-filled Inquirer Animal Week investigation, after the jump...

The National Hot Dog and Sausage Council of America (www.hot-dog.org) describes it this way:

First, specially selected meat trimmings of beef and/or pork -- just like the meat you buy in your grocer's case -- are cut or ground into small pieces and placed in a mixer. When poultry hot dogs are made, poultry trimmings are used.

High speed, stainless steel choppers blend the meat, spices, ice chips and curing ingredients into an emulsion or batter.

The guys over at howstuffworks.com are a little more specific in their ingredients:

Hot dogs are now made by hundreds of companies all across the globe, and each company has its own secret recipe. In general, however, hot dogs contain:

    * Meat
    * Meat fat
    * A "cereal filler" (bread crumbs, oatmeal or flour)
    * A little egg white
    * Spices (onion, garlic, salt, pepper, etc.)

Whatever's in them, New Yorkers eat a lot of it. According to the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council of America, New York City was the top hot dog-consuming city in the country in 2004, with $105 million worth of hot dogs eaten, followed by Los Angeles, Baltimore/Washington, Chicago and San Antonio/Corpus Christi. NYC finished second to Los Angeles in sausage eating, eating $50 million worth of whatever's in there to Tinseltown's $65 million. (LA's a bit healther too, edging NYC in fat-free hot dogs, $8m to $7m).

The history of the hot dog is muddled, with hot dog historians (!) unclear whether the treat originated, as one of its names suggests, in Frankfurt, Germany in the 15th Century or more recently, in the mid 19th century, gaining popularity at the World Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. The issue seems akin to studying human evolution, as historians try to determine when a certain kind of sausage more closely represented the hot dog of today than it did the traditional German sausage, much like determining when exactly Cro-Magnon man became "human." The name "hot dog," thankfully apropos of nothing, also has a murky origin. The folks over at hot-dog.org say the name may come from the old German name for the treat, "Dachshund sausages," the whoever-it-is over at Wikipedia has a more thorough explanation:

Hot dogs were frequently known as frankfurters or franks, but the name "hot dog" became popular by the 1890s. In the 1830s, it was widely rumored that the dogs that roamed urban streets were regularly rounded up (by "dog wagons") and made into sausages; by the 1840s, the term "dog sandwich" was used. The 1860s popular song "Der Deitcher's Dog" (written by Septimus Winner and known by the lyrics "Where oh where has my little dog gone?") contained:

    Und sausage is goot: Baloney, of course,
    Oh! where, oh! where can he be?
    Dey makes ‘em mit dog, und dey makes ‘em mit horse:
    I guess dey makes ‘em mit he.

The night lunch wagons (popular in cities and on college campuses) that served hot sausages were called "dog wagons" by the 1890s. At Yale University, a "dog wagon" called "The Kennel Club" opened in 1894. The first known use of the phrase "hot dog" (sausage) appears in print on October 19, 1895 in the Yale Record of New Haven, Connecticut which reads: "They contentedly munched hot dogs during the whole service;" two weeks prior, the Yale Record recorded: "Tis dogs' delight to bark and bite, Thus does the adage run. But I delight to bite the dog when placed inside a bun." Hot dog became an extension of the older use of dog to mean a sausage.

Today, Americans eat 1.5 billion hot dogs per year, or enough to stretch from Washington, D.C. to Los Angeles five times. Hot dog towns have their quirks: order a dog with "everything" at Chicago's famous Weiner's Circle and it will come with sliced tomatoes, onions, relish, hot peppers, a pickle spear and mustard — but no ketchup. Chicago is also proof that hot dog lovers like their dogs on the go — patrons at O'Hare Airport eat six times as many hot dogs as those at LAX and LaGuardia combined.

Back in NYC, we have our own favorite hot dog joints, from Nathan's of Jamaica to Papaya King to Gray's Papaya, where two dogs and a drink will set you back $3.50. That's a pittance compared to Yankee or Shea Stadium, where a small hot dog will run you $4.75 and a kosher dog $5.75. Just outside the stadium, the street vendors hawk their products like they do everywhere else — of variable price and quality.

The summer may be over, so it's not exactly hot dog season, but The Inquirer's animal week wouldn't be complete without a look at the venerable food. And remember as it gets colder and colder this winter — there's nothing like a hot dog to warm your bones and fill your stomach. With what exactly, may we remain forever skeptical.

(Originally published 12/8/06. Hot dog consumption numbers from www.hot-dog.org. New York cart image from wessy wes' flickr stream)

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uhhh...what's Nathan's of Jamaica? I thought it was from Coney Island.

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Gerald Cohen and I wrote a 300-page book on the origin of the name "hot dog" that you can find at the New York Public Library. That work on the Wikipedia page is mine. Yes, there are hot dog historians, and thanks for not mentioning my name.

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