Mountain Views News          Saturday, June 28, 2014

11

FOOD AND DRINK

Mountain Views-News Saturday, June 28, 2014 

HOT DOG!

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 be downed.

Every year, Americans eat an average of 60 hot dogs 
each. They are clearly one of the country’s most loved, 
but most misunderstood, 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 
some stories 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 were have 
been credited for for supposedly inventing the Hot 
Dog. Charles Feltman and Antonoine Feuchtwanger 
were among the few.

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 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.

1893 - The 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, also called the 
Columbian Exposition, 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.

Also in the 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, for someone to get him a 
beer, or for special cops he employed for personal use 
and to keep tabs on his players. He bought the Browns 
in order to put himself in the limelight and to advertise 
his saloon business.

Historians, to this day, have not found any research 
to back up the claim that hot dogs were sold at 
Sportsman’s Park.

Truly, “Necessity is the Mother of invention.” = hot 
dog bun

The popularity of the hot dog and baseball – I know 
this may be very difficult for some Dodger fans but the 
love of the hotdog and baseball did not start with the 
Dodgers. 

Follow me on Twitter @kingofcuisine


TABLE FOR TWO by Peter Dills

thechefknows@yahoo.com

A TRUE JULY 4TH 
TRADITION

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!


Mountain Views News 80 W Sierra Madre Blvd. No. 327 Sierra Madre, Ca. 91024 Office: 626.355.2737 Fax: 626.609.3285 Email: editor@mtnviewsnews.com Website: www.mtnviewsnews.com