23 July: National Hot Dog Day

Today is National Hot Dog Day 2019. Some things you might not know about hot dogs.

1. Why are they called hot dogs, anyway? Nobody really knows for sure. The term "dog" to mean a sausage has been around since the 19th century and some believe it's even possible dog meat might have been used to make them back then. Another theory is that vendors in 1901 started a sales pitch: "Get your dachshund sausages while they're red hot!" A slang term for a Dachsund is a "sausage dog" because of their shape. A cartoonist called Tad Dorgan allegedly drew a cartoon of barking dachshund sausages in rolls, writing 'hot dog' as the title - but the cartoon has never been found.
2. Equally, there is a dispute as to where they originated. The city of Vienna in Austria claims the hot dog was invented there, by Emil Reichel and Sam Ladany, who later went to America and sold hot dogs at the 1893 World’s Fair. In German, the city is called Wien, which, they say, is the origin of the “wiener” sausages used for hot dogs. Meanwhile, Frankfurt in Germany also claims to be the place where hot dogs originated, invented by a butcher called Johann Georghehner. Another word for a hot dog sausage, of course, is "frankfurter".
3. There's a third possibility - that sausage in a bun was first made for the Roman emperor Nero, by his cook, Gaius.
4. What is agreed is that hot dogs were taken to America by German immigrants. The first hot dog stands opened in New York in the 1860s. The person who made the biggest contribution to the popularity of hot dogs in America was Nathan Handwerker, a Jewish immigrant from Poland, who set up a hot dog business in Coney Island in 1916. He borrowed $300 to set it up and by the 1930s was known across America. Nathan’s dogs were reportedly gangster Al Capone’s favorite food.
5. It's not only gangsters who enjoyed hot dogs. When King George VI of England visited President Franklin Roosevelt in 1939, he was served hot dogs and Beer. In 1957 when the American Bar Association attended a banquet held by Queen Elizabeth II, hot dogs were on the menu.
6. Americans eat 20 billion hot dogs a year - about 70 hot dogs per person per year. 150 million of these will be eaten on July 4.
7. 71% of Americans say their favourite topping is mustard, and 52% like ketchup on their hot dogs. However, there actually exists an etiquette guide to hot dog eating. According to that, it is considered tacky to eat hot dogs with ketchup if you're over 18. Serving hot dogs in posh buns and posh dishes and eating them with a knife and fork is considered pretentious. Licking topping off your fingers when you've finished eating is fine.
8. Hot dogs are a common snack enjoyed by astronauts in space. Since Apollo 7, astronauts made no secret of the fact they much preferred hot dogs to freeze-dried Ice cream.
9. The world's most expensive hot dog cost $169 and was served in Seattle in 2014. A cheese bratwurst was smothered in butter Teriyaki grilled Onions, Maitake Mushrooms, wagyu beef, foie gras, shaved black Truffles, Caviar, and Japanese mayonnaise on a brioche bun.
10. At time of writing, the Guinness World Record for making hot dogs (11 in one minute) is shared by Andre Ortolf who set the record in Augsburg, Germany, in 2016, and Luke Franks of the UK who equalled it in 2017.