Dachshund Sausages: A History of Hot Dogs

this episode of the history guide brought to you by magellan tv and their documentary the new science of food [Music] it's not quite officially summer but the memorial day weekend represents the beginning of the summer season for many americans and that means many things like backyard barbecues and ball games and both of those of course mean hot dogs according to the national hot dog and sausage council and yes there's a national hot dog and sausage council americans will consume some 20 billion hot dogs this year roughly 70 each the history of the hot dog goes back a lot farther than you might think and how it becomes such an american icon with an almost disturbing number of regional varieties is intimately linked to american culture and history whether you like them boiled or grilled with chili or sauerkraut or mustard or blasphemy to some ketchup the history of the hot dog is a history of modern america i really enjoy talking about the history of food well we eat says so much about who we are but what do we really know about food the new magellan tv documentary at the new science of food questions everything you thought you knew and most of what you've been taught about food one of the many things that i love about magellan tv is it has such a variety of documentaries from which you can learn and if you're a lover of history you know that things like science and nature are intimately tied to history if you like the history guy you will probably like the new science of food and one of the cool things is that magellan tv which already has more than some three thousand documentaries adds great documentaries like that every month it is a compelling reason to keep watching to show their appreciation for history guy viewers magellan tv is offering the new science of food for free view for the next seven days that means that if you don't currently have a magellan tv membership you can still stream the new science of food from today june 8th through june 14th for free and if you haven't already subscribed to magellan tv you really should so take advantage of a special offer just for history guy viewers of a one month free trial by using the link in the description and when you do check out the new science of food sausage making the process where ground meat usually along with salt and spices is pressed into a casing traditionally animal intestine is an efficient means of preserving food especially scraps that otherwise might be hard to cook or serve sausages were preserved by various means cured dried or smoked although some were made without any method of preservation and would have been cooked or consumed immediately it's unclear when sausage was invented in his 2009 book hot dog a global history food historian dr bruce craig notes that the first chopped or processed meat encased in gut was the ancestral sausage he argues that archaeological evidence suggests this kind of food dates as far back as the upper paleolithic era some 20 000 years ago sausages were certainly a part of culture in antiquity a 1999 article in the journal greek roman and byzantine studies called sausage and meat preservation in antiquity remarks to salt mincemeat and fat and stuff it into casings was a convenient way to give leftovers some shelf life it also had the advantage of concealing from the squeamish exactly what the contents were a 1985 article in the journal biblical archaeologist notes that a brief satirical text reveals that the mesopotamians knew how to fill intestines with a forced meat of some kind prompting the authors to ask is it too much to credit these people with the earliest form of sausage if so then it isn't clear what kind of meat was used or how it was preserved but the text written in cuneiform suggests that some version of sausage was being produced as much as five thousand years ago a greek comedy written by epicarmus of coss approximately twenty six hundred years ago called the aurea is sometimes literally translated as the sausage although the text of the play has been lost sausage is frequently referenced in greek and roman works including in homer's odyssey in fact the etymology of the modern word sausage traces back to an archaic latin word meaning seasoned with salt as to the nature of sausage in antiquity greek roman and byzantine studies speculates from how sausage is discussed in greek and roman literature that we conclude that sausage must have been a cheap and common snack for the crowds coming and going into the city and that aff's from thai memorial sausages were made of the cheapest leftovers and were easy to adulterate they note that one text implied that the sausage maker mixes dog and donkey meat into his sausages but the author also speculates that pork would have been the most common meat used and while sausage might have been a common food made from the cheapest leftovers recipes are recorded in ancient texts that were intended as haute cuisine for the wealthy a cookbook by the roman gourmet appicius which was thought to have been compiled around 500 a.d included a recipe for brain sausage in the mortar put pepper lovage and origami moisten with broth and rub add cooked brains and mix diligently until there be no lumps sausage was a common food in medieval europe for both high and low classes and many recipes still exist sausages were most often but not exclusively made from pork and were a means of preserving meat through winter recipes for sausages are also found in this area in china some recipes incorporated grains of fruits as well haggis presumed to have originated in scotland although similar dishes were found elsewhere and back to ancient times combines cooked ground sheep heart lungs and liver with oatmeal and suet and the traditional casing is a sheep's bladder in the americas pemmican is made of dried meat combined with fat and sometimes dried fruit in europe german culture especially developed sausage a blog post on the website of e fresh meals explains that sausage was a means of survival for germans during the winter months germany was particularly suited to sausage making because it has mountainous regions where the drier northern winds helped in the curing process moreover in warmer european countries food was more available so sausage making never became as popular by the 14th century recipes for bratwurst started to appear in germany although there is a disagreement whether the food originated in franconia or thoringia and some even argued originated earlier with the celt there are many regional styles of bratwurst which might be made with beef pork veal or a mix of any of the three rottwers tends to use coarsely ground meat and typically the lengths of sausage are relatively thick and long thus brockwortz adds texture to meals and its size means that it is a significant part of a meal this contrasts with the frankfurter as the name implies the city of frankfurt claims to have invented this type of sausage they date the invention to the year 1487 and in 1987 celebrated the 500th birthday of its introduction thus this traditional american dish was invented five years ahead of columbus's discovery of the americas however cnn noted in a july 2020 story that hot dog historians argued that sausage culture native to eastern europe and particularly germany has no specific town of origin frankfurters or wieners differ from bratwurst they are smaller thinner and have a smoother skin than bratwurst originally made from pork or pork and beef mixtures they are slow cooked or smoked and flavored usually with coriander whereas bratwurst is coarse and adds texture the meat of a frankfurter is more finely ground and the texture smooth craig explains that these types of sausages came to the united states from immigrants in the mid and late 19th century he rejects the idea that the u.s hot dog life was tied however to a specific inventor or region rather he notes that several sausage traditions have influenced the modern american hot dog sausage vendors could be found in places like markets and fair throughout europe from the middle ages to the present naturally immigrants took their food traditions with them and it is these sausages particularly the german ones that became the american hot dog but notably craig points out that the hot dog as it is known today is the result of processing technology that was developed during the 19th century becoming he says an emulsified food and thus he says the hot dog has a cultural and social history all its own the german tradition of selling sausages at public events like fairs and markets fit with the american culture in the city and and vendors began selling sausages from pushkarts wherever germans immigrated such carts might have been around as early as the 1840s but craig observed certainly by the 1860s such carts became particularly popular in the bustling streets of new york city cnn travel quotes coney island historian michael quinn the advantage of having a hot sausage on an elongated bond is a very new york thing new yorkers like to walk and eat it was there that an entrepreneur named charles feltman would help to popularize the frankfurter sausage born in 1851 feltman had immigrated to the united states in 1856. in 1867 he began operating a push cart wagon selling food to beachgoers at new york city's coney island according to a pamphlet on coney island food published in 1997 in 1867 charles feltman owned a pie wagon that delivered his freshly baked pies to the inns and logger beer saloons at line coney island's beaches his clients also wanted hot sandwiches to serve to their customers but his wagon was small and he knew it would be hard to manage making a variety of sandwiches in a confined space he thought that perhaps something simple like a hot sausage served on a roll might be the solution he presented his problem to donovan the wheel right at east new york and howard street in brooklyn who had built his pie wagon the men saw no problem in building a tin line chest to keep the rolls fresh and rigging a small charcoal stove inside to boil sausages their sausages and easily held buns became very popular as new york historian henry collins brown wrote in his 1928 book in the golden 90s it could be carried on the barge eaten on the sands between baths consumed on a carousel used as a baby's nipple to quiet an obstreperous infant and had other economic appeals to the summer pleasure seeker eventually feltman built a restaurant complex that helped to popularize both the food and coney island as an entertainment area cnn travel wrote in 2020 in 1875 feldman convinced president of the prospect park railroad andrew culver to run the subway line down to coney island offering public transportation to thousands of new yorkers who had never before had access to the far reaches of brooklyn but it was actually a former employee turned competitor who would have the biggest influence on the connection between hot dogs and coney island nathan handworker was a polish immigrant who worked for feltman as a bun slicer when he left to start his own business in 1916 he undersold feltman selling his sausages for five cents when feltman charged ten hand worker sausages became the more popular of the two in his restaurant nathan's famous became a coney island landmark another important point in the history of the hot dog according to the national hot dog and sausage council was during the year 1893 as the convenient and inexpensive food was sold at the world columbian exposition in chicago where its popularity helped to establish it as a staple american food also in 1893 christopher banderai owner of the saint louis professional baseball team the brown stockings started selling hot dogs at games in 1882 vander i purchased the bankrupt team which had been rocked by a game fixing scandal for just 1800 a saloon owner he expected to earn his money back not just through ticket sales but from the sales of beer eventually he surrounded his ballpark with an amusement park race track and beer garden while it's difficult to document he is generally credited with being the first to sell frankfurter sausages at baseball games founding the connection between america's iconic food and its iconic sport 1893 also represented another watershed for the convenient food as that is according to craig the first time the name hot dog was known to have been used in print to refer to the sausage the knoxville journal wrote even the wienerverse men were preparing the hot dogs for sale saturday night previously the food had gone by several names frankfurters wieners red hots vienna sausages the connection to dogs had actually already been made as the long thin sausage bore a passing resemblance to the small german dog breed the dachshund which had been imported to america nearly the same time and by the same immigrants as the sausages thus early on they were often called a dachshund sausage there are numerous legends about how the food got its more popular name in one the name was supposedly coined by a sports cartoonist for the new york journal named tad dorgan according to the legend in 1901 he saw vendors selling docks and sausages at new york's polo ground stadium into a cartoon depicting little dogs in bonds but unsure of how to spell dachshund he instead called them hot dogs however the story is doubtful craig notes that the supposed comic has never been found and as the knoxville journal demonstrated the term was in use prior to the time when that cartoon was supposed to have been drawn another legend printed in a 1924 edition of the brooklyn standard union suggests that the term was coined on coney island but in the 1600s when island natives possibly iroquois served henry hudson a traditional feast of a cooked fat dog it's a pretty safe bet the paper writes that at this feast the phrase hot dog was coined this story appears to be tongue-in-cheek but the paper did note that the hot dog of today is wildly different than that of several hundred years ago instead of these explanations king contends that the name began around college campuses in the 1890s where vendor cards were commonly called dog stands it might have been partially derived from the resemblance to the dachshund but following the american sense of humor the term hot dog also likely referenced the dubious provenance of the meat inside the casing the name did take some time over to become universally accepted a 1923 edition of the kansas city star explains that when asked vendors of the treat objected preferring the name frankfurter or coney islands the name hot dogs they complained was a gross libel on the dependable cow and hog and on the dependable sturdy frankfurter another hot dog myth has to do with the bond one popular story says that in 1904 a bavarian concessionaire named aaron fuchs wager sold hot dogs at the saint louis exposition he would give each person a white glove to hold the hot sausage but the gloves often were not returned thus he started selling them in convenient buns which proved very popular again the myth simply doesn't meet reality sausages and bonds were being sold at coney island at least a decade ahead of 1904. in fact craig notes that germans traditionally ate the sausages on bread and that the tradition simply came along with the sausage while there are many legends about the development of what is possibly america's most iconic food food historians tell us that hot dogs were not the product of a single inventor or entrepreneur but rather were brought here by immigrants from many places became particularly popular in the bustling late 19th century and early 20th century america because they were convenient and inexpensive because of industrial production over time hot dogs have developed several regional styles from the familiar new york dog with mustard and sauerkraut or grilled onions to the chicago style with fresh tomato pickles onions and relish the reason fans of chicago dogs sew a pork ketchup is that the tart flavor is provided by the fresh tomatoes and the sweet flavor from the relish detroit style dogs are served with a beef chili in san francisco's are wrapped in smoky bacon in fact there are nearly as many styles of hot dogs as there are cities in which they are served one persistent question about hot dogs is the conundrum that hot dogs are usually sold in packs of 10 while hot dog buns are sold in packs of eight california news station ksby explains that buns are usually baked in clusters of four pans designed to hold eight rolls well hot dogs are sold in packs of ten because ten hot dogs is roughly one pound despite their history of dubious ingredients hot dogs in the us today are regulated by the u.s department of agriculture and the food and drug administration the type of protein used must be clearly labeled while sausages made with offal such as lips and cheeks are still made those are usually made in local shops such items will be labeled as variety meats whether boiled or grilled there's a good chance that hot dogs will be on your menu this summer the hot dog and sausage council estimates that hot dogs are served in 70 percent of american homes and the humble sausage that is such a part of history is now part of backyard barbecues and picnics county fairs and nights at the ballpark all those moments of life that deserve to be remembered i hope you enjoyed this episode of the history got check out our community on the historyguyguild.locals.com our webpage at thehistoryguy.com and our merchandise at teespring.com or book a special message from the history guy on cameo and if you'd like more episodes of forgotten history all you have to do is subscribe [Music] [Applause] [Music] you

Channel: The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered

Views: 116,411

Keywords: history, history guy, the history guy, hot dogs

Id: QQd_BVrMXV0

Length: 17min 11sec (1031 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 08 2022