In Honour of the Hot Dog

A hot dog at the ball game beats a roast beef at the Ritz.

Humphrey Bogart

I’m with Bogie on that one. Call me a philistine if you will, but one of my favorite things is a freshly-prepared hot dog— a top-class wienie snuggled into a soft white bun, positively drowned in mustard.

I have felt this way since my early boyhood. But for many years I eschewed the humble tube-steak—denying myself much pleasure in the process — fearing its allegedly hazardous ingredients. Lab-coated authorities soberly warned of myriad perils: fat, salt, nitrates, nitrites and all sorts of harmful chemicals.

This may be, but since I’m now in my eighth decade and enjoy robust health, I reckon I can ease up on dietary anxieties a bit. Besides, I think dietary anxiety has consigned more people to early graves than any foodstuff ever did. This applies particularly to my beloved hot dog.

I’m not necessarily recommending you eat hot dogs yourself— but billions of people do, and aren’t about to quit— no matter what. Medically, I guess, we’re taking our chances— but, what the heck— join us if you like; you’ll probably get away with it.

Now why do we call it a “hot dog”, anyway? Well, it seems dog has been a synonym for sausage since the 1800s. That’s because many sausage-makers then used dog meat in their product. A 1907 article in the New York Times noted “consumption of canines is on the increase” in Germany. Note that the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was founded in New York in 1866, so the Times article must have mortified dog-lovers all over town.

And lest we suppose we’re on a higher moral gastronomic plane nowadays, note that dog meat is still consumed in many countries. Why, if you were at the recent Pyeongchang Olympics you could have ordered a nice bowl of Gaegogi Muchim— that is, spicy steamed dog with leeks.

Today, of course, the meat ingredient in the hot dog is a sausage called a frankfurter or a wiener. What’s the difference, you ask? The frankfurter arose in Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany in the mid-19th century, and was mostly made of pork. The illustrious wiener arose in Vienna, Austria in the same era, but was a blend of beef and pork. Neither was kosher, a fact that greatly affected the subsequent glorious history of the hot dog.

There are a number of accounts of how the sausage and bun found one another, but my favorite is as follows. In 1856, Charles Feltman, a fifteen year-old Jewish lad, arrived in Brooklyn from Germany. By his twenties he was making a living selling meat pies from a “pushcart-piewagon” on the Coney Island Boardwalk near his home. The meat pies were messy to handle so he settled on a new idea: how about putting a sausage into a special long bun, which could be eaten on the go?

Charlie called his creation a Coney Island Red Hot. This, believe it or not, was a turning point in food history; the Red Hot soon became the “eating rage” of Brooklyn. Oddly enough, no one really knows who coined the term “hot dog”.

Charlie went on to fabulous success, building an enormous restaurant—Feltman’s German Gardens— right there on Coney Island. By the 1920s he was serving millions of diners a year. He had a full menu, but his patrons still loved his hot dogs, which he continued to sell for the original price— ten cents.
Meanwhile, a young Polish immigrant named Nathan Handwerker had arrived in New York in 1912. He was one of thirteen children of a poor Jewish cobbler. He managed to secure a position at Feltman’s, in the entry-level position of “roll-slicer”.

Nathan quickly tired of this tedious job, so he and his wife Ida borrowed $300 from friends and proceeded to go into the hot dog business for themselves. They saw Feltman making a fortune selling hot dogs for a dime at the Gardens. Nathan figured he could make a profit selling them on the Boardwalk for a nickel.

Along the way, he eliminated pork from his hot dogs, switching to “100% beef.” This, in one stroke, captured the huge Jewish market. His advertising was clever, featuring photos of college students posing as doctors and nurses eating at Nathan’s. This, to me, is a heartwarming example of capitalism in action.

Nathan’s efforts eventually paid off handsomely. He died in 1976, but today Nathan’s Famous hot dog business is going stronger than ever. The flagship restaurant is still on Coney Island. I’ve eaten there— sadly, the dogs are no longer a nickel, but $4.50, and quite undistinguished.

His restaurant is the home of Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest, conducted every July 4th. The 2017 champ of this lunatic exercise is Joey Chestnut, 34, who scarfed down 72.5 hot dogs in ten minutes. Knowing this fills me with wonder, tinged with nausea.

Before I go, here’s some hot dog trivia to dazzle your friends and confound your detractors.

• National Hot Dog Day, an annual event honoring the hot dog, is July 18th this year. It’s put on by the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council (NHDSC) and held on Capital Hill, Washington, D.C. Many celebrities and assorted hot-dog buffs are expected.
• Janet Riley is President of the NHDSC. She is known as “The Queen of Wien.” (Seriously…)
• NHDSC says the proper number of bites in which to eat a hot dog is five.
• If you order a hot dog in Germany (literally, heiBer Hund), they’ll look at you funny. It means a dog in heat.
• Mickey Mouse’s first on-screen words were “Hot Dog!”
• The world’s most expensive hot dog is found at Seattle’s Tokyo Dog restaurant. Its ingredients include wagyu beef, foie gras, truffles and caviar, and sells for $169, before tax and tip.

Naturally, I could prattle on endlessly about my beloved hot dog, but this will have to do. But just for fun, check out the Hot Dog Song by the Arrogant Worms.

Caio!