Mountain Views News          Saturday, June 29, 2013

A10

FOOD & DRINK

 Mountain Views News Saturday, June 29, 2013 

 
Over seven billion hot dogs will be eaten by 
Americans between Memorial Day and Labor 
Day. During the July 4th weekend alone (the 
biggest hot-dog holiday of the year), 155 million 
will torpedo our stomach.

 Every year, the typical American will eat an 
average of 60 hot dogs. The cylinder wrapped to 
a blanket is consistently one of the countries most 
beloved and most misunderstood of the comfort 
foods.

 Like most great events in History, there are varying 
accounts of how it all began and who started it. 
The history of the Hot Dog is no different. You will 
find many references throughout history to the 
origins of a Hot Dog-like thing called a sausage. 
Here are a handful of the most entertaining 
accounts of how the Hot Dog was born.

 One of the earliest references to the Sausage, 
appeared in Homer’s Odyssey (an ancient Greek 
tale of adventure and heroism) in 850 BC. Another 
legend is that the popular sausage (known as 
“dachshund” or “little-dog” sausage) was created 
in the late 1600s by Johann Georghehner, a 
butcher living in Coburg, 

 The invention of the Hot Dog, is often attributed 
to the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition. 
However, similar sausages were made and 
consumed in Europe, particularly in Germany, as 
early as 1864, and the earliest example of a hot dog 
bun dates to New York City in the 1860s. German 
immigrants appear to have sold hot dogs, along 
with milk rolls and sauerkraut, from pushcarts 
in New York City’s Bowery during the 1860s. The 
Hot Dog’s association with baseball also predates 
the 1904 World’s Fair. Chris von der Ahe, owner 
of the St Louis Browns, sold Hot Dogs at his 
ballpark in the 1880s.

 In 1987, the city of Frankfurt celebrated the 
500th birthday of the hot dog in that city. It’s said 
that the Frankfurter was developed there in 1484, 
five years before Christopher Columbus set sail 
for the new world. However, Vienna, came up 
with protests against this German celebration. 
Because the people of Vienna (Wien), Austria, 
point to the term “wiener” to prove their claim as 
the birthplace of the hot dog. 

 Who’s Served the First Hot Dog? Also in doubt 
is who first served the first Hot Dog. Wieners 
and frankfurters don’t become Hot Dogs until 
someone puts them in a roll or a bun. There 
are several stories or legends as to how this first 
happened. Specific people have been credited 
for supposedly inventing the Hot Dog. Charles 
Feltman and Antonoine Feuchtwanger were a few 
of note.

 In 1867, Charles Feltman, a German butcher, 
opened up the first Coney Island hot dog stand 
in Brooklyn, New York and sold 3,684 dachshund 
sausages in a roll during his first year in business 
He is also credited with the idea of the warm bun.

 In 1880 a German peddler, Antonoine 
Feuchtwanger, sold hot sausages in the streets of 
St. Louis, Missouri. He would supply white gloves 
with each purchase so that his customers would 
not burn their hands while eating the sausage. He 
saw his profits going down because the customers 
kept taking the gloves and walking off with them. 
His wife suggested that he put the sausages in a 
split bun instead. He reportedly asked his brother-
in-law, a baker, for help. The baker improvised 
long soft rolls that fit the meat, thus inventing the 
hot dog bun. When he did that, the Hot Dog was 
born. He called them red hots.

Although the exact origins of the Chicago Dog are 
not documented, Vienna Beef of Chicago claims 
the “Chicago-style” Hot Dog was invented by two 
European immigrants at the Chicago World’s Fair 
and Columbian Exhibition in 1893.

 What’s in a name? Another story that riles 
serious hot dog historians is how the term “Hot 
Dog” came about. Some say the word was coined 
in 1901 at the New York Polo Grounds on a cold 
April day. Vendors were hawking hot dogs from 
portable hot water tanks shouting “They’re red 
hot! Get your dachshund sausages while they’re 
red hot!” A New York Journal sports cartoonist, 
Tad Dorgan, observed the scene and hastily drew 
a cartoon of barking dachshund sausages nestled 
warmly in rolls. Not sure how to spell “dachshund” 
he simply wrote “hot dog!” The cartoon is said 
to have been a sensation, thus coining the term 
“hot dog.” However, historians have been unable 
to find this cartoon, despite Dorgan’s enormous 
body of work and his popularity.

 Another legend credits the1893 - The 1893 
Chicago World’s Fair, also called the Columbian 
Exposition, which brought thousands of visitors 
who consumed large quantities of sausage sold by 
vendors. People liked this food that was easy to 
eat, convenient, and inexpensive.

 Calendared to that same year, it is claimed that 
sausages became the standard fare at baseball 
parks. Some historians claim that Chris Von 
der Ahe (1851-1913), owner of a St. Louis Bar 
and the St. Louis Browns major league baseball 
team, introduced sausages to go with his already 
popular beer. He was a colorful character himself. 
A large man who wore loud, checkered clothing, 
Chris sat in a special box behind third base with 
a whistle and binoculars. He used the whistle to 
get the attention of players, or for someone to get 
him a beer. He purchased the Browns in order to 
put himself in the limelight and to advertise his 
saloon business.

 Historians my quarrel with the genesis of the 
hot dog and I know this appears impossible for 
some Dodger fans to stomach but the love of 
the hot dog 
and baseball 
did not 
commence 
with the 
Dodgers, but 
we still have 
Vin Scully 
to story tell 
our games 
as we enjoy 
the invention 
of that most 
suitable 
companion, 
the Hot Dog.

Join me on Saturday July 6th at 
the Dog Haus restaurant in Old 
Pasadena for their annual Hot 
dog eating contest. 12 noon to 4 
PM

Biergarten 93 E. Green St. (626) 683-0808, free 
to watch

Tune into 790 AM KABC Sunday afternoons for 
Dining w/Dills

WITH FOURTH OF JULY JUST A FEW SIZZLING DAYS FROM 
OUR DOORSTEP, NATIONAL HOT DOG MONTH IS SERVED. 

A TRUE JULY 4TH 
TRADITION

TABLE FOR TWO by Peter Dills

thechefknows@yahoo.com

Old-Fashioned Homemade Ice Cream

• 6 eggs 

• 2 cups sugar 

• 1/4 teaspoon salt 

• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract 

• 13-ounce can evaporated milk 
(1-1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons) 

• 1 gallon whole milk 

• chipped ice 

• rock salt 

In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs. Add sugar gradually, stirring 
constantly. Add salt, vanilla and canned milk. Add about a pint of the fresh milk and 
mix. 

Pour mixture into ice cream freezer can. Add enough of the remainder of the milk to 
fill can to the middle of the top board of dasher. (If the freezer can has a "fill" line on 
it, fill no higher than that line.) 

Assemble the ice cream freezer. Add alternating layers of chipped ice and rock salt to 
barrel around freezer can. Crank freezer until ice cream begins to freeze (cranking 
will become harder as ice cream freezes), adding more ice and salt, as needed. When 
handle becomes difficult-to-impossible to turn, remove turning mechanism, and 
carefully remove top from freezer can; remove dasher. Replace top. Cover can with 
more ice and salt. Cover ice with an old towel, allowing ice cream to "cure" for at least 
1 hour. If yours is an electric freezer, follow manufacturer's directions, but the curing 
step is essential. 

Makes about 5 quarts of ice cream

Have A Wonderful Holiday!