Hotdogs are as delicious as they are terrible for you and that means they are REALLY delicious! They're like a good friend who will make you laugh super hard but then kill you in your sleep. Here's some weird facts about my favourite food... none of which are health related cause we all know they are the fingers of the devil.
1. There is such a thing as a hot dog historian.
Yes and there is more than one. Both Bruce Kraig, Ph.D. and Barry Popick are actual hot fog historians at Roosevelt University in Illinois. Even though these guys have devoted large swaths of their lives to studying all that is hot dog history, very little is actually known about the exact origins of this magical food.
2. Hotdogs were named after an actual breed of dog
The connection between live dogs and hot dogs can be traced back to the German immigrants of the 1800s. These sausage saviours not only came with sausages with them but also dachshund dogs. The "hot dog" name is likely to have started as a joke about those small, long, thin dogs but the moniker caught on.
On a darker note, before heading to America in the 1800s, it was not uncommon for germans to cook with actual dog meat so the suspicion that sausages may contain dog meat was not entirely unjustified on occasion.
3. Yale students may have invented to name "Hot Dog"
Hot dog historian, Barry Popick says in America, the word "hot dog" began appearing in college magazines in the 1890s. Yale University students called the wagons selling hot sausages in buns outside their dorms "dog wagons." Popick found the first reference to "hot dogs" in an article published in the October 19, 1895, issue of the Yale Record which referred to folks "contentedly munching on hot dogs."
4. The first hot dog sales happened in New York City.
It's thought to be true that the very first hot dog was sold in the 1860s by a German immigrant out of his family restaurant located in Coney Island, New York. Feltman sold over 3,600 of those bad boys that first year and the trend was set.
Nathan Handwerker, a Polish immigrant who worked for Charles Feltman as a bun slicer decided to open his own Hot Dog business and charged half the price of Feltman's. This eventually made Feltman's go bust. Handwerker capitalized on the closure and became famous. By the time the 1920s rolled around, Nathan’s hotdogs became "Nathan's Famous Hotdogs" and hotdog history was made.
5. Queen Elizabeth ate her first hotdog in 1939
In 1939 the hot dog finally made its way onto a White House menu. To discuss how to address issues with the Nazis, King George VI of England and Queen Elizabeth made the first royal visit to the US. FDR and the first lady hosted a picnic, where Eleanor decided to serve America’s hot dog. Having never tried one before, the Queen asked, ‘How do you eat this?‘
6. Hot Dogs come in all lengths...
The world's longest hot dog on record measured a whopping 203.8 meters (669 feet and 2.5 inches). It was made in Paraguay in 2011, breaking the previous record held by a hot dog made in Japan.
7. American's eat a lot of hot dogs.
Every July 4th, Americans eat over 150 million hot dogs! That's enough hot dogs to stretch approximately 14,015.15 miles. This distance is equivalent to traveling roughly halfway around the Earth's equator or more than 56 times the length of the Grand Canyon. Between Memorial Day and Labor Day, Americans collectively consume around 8 billion hot dogs The average American consumes around 60 hot dogs per year.
8. Hot Dog Eating competitions are very popular.
Nathan's Famous holds 70 - 80 hot dog eating competitions annually around North America with the most notable one being held on July 4th in Coney. Island. The annual Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest is a bizarrely impressive event. The record for consuming the most hot dogs in 10 minutes still stands at a jaw-dropping 76 hot dogs and buns, set by the one and only Joey Chestnut in 2021. Joey Chestnut currently holds the title of hot dog-eating world champion.
Despite the 4th of July being a wildly popular day for hotdog eating, Hot dogs have their own day of celebration. National Hot Dog Day is celebrated in the United States on the third Wednesday of July each year, honoring this beloved cylindrical culinary creation.