history: Which CAME First—the BUN OR THE DOG?

Ingredients

• like pig heart and tripe. In 1904, German butcher Johann Georg Lahner took his frank-making operation to a new frontier in Vienna (Wien in German), where his pork-and-beef riff on the smoked sausage became known as a
• wiener
• . Today, hot dogs are prepared efficiently and almost automatically by specialized machines. Meat is chopped and ground, mixed with additives, fillers, or flavoring agents, and then further ground into a fine-textured paste to be stuffed into casings. The stuffed dogs are smoked and then cooled, peeled, packaged, and sealed for shipping.
• So sausages and bread have existed side by side for centuries, but when were they first put together—and by whom? Sausages and rolls are served together in Germany, though rarely in hot dog form; elsewhere in Europe, the sausage often lived on its own perhaps on the same plate as bread but not inside it. Most accounts attribute the eventual marriage of bread and tubular meat to late-19th-century America, when immigrants brought frankfurters to the States. There they were popularized by such legendary vendors as A. L. Feuchtwanger of St. Louis and Charles Feltman of Coney Island—one (or both) of whom pioneered the dog-in-bun idea. More than likely, the long, soft, white rolls sprang up in multiple locations, the brainchild of more than one enterprising local baker. In 1916, Nathan Handwerker’s iconic stand on Coney Island opened its doors.
• A NATHAN-AL TREASURE
• The first Nathan’s Fourth of July Hot Dog Eating Contest was held in 1916 and has been canceled only twice since then: in 1941, to protest the war in Europe, and again in 1971, to protest civil unrest and the reign of free love.
• Toppings were latecomers to the game. Like other hot dog components, mustard
• seeds have been cultivated since at least the days of ancient Greece. The condiment flourished in medieval times—many castles even employed a
• mustardarius
• , a servant devoted exclusively to preparing and serving mustard. Commercial mustard took off in Dijon, France, around the 14th century, with Germany and England also developing their own distinctive flavors and strengths. Historically, the term
• relish
• is something of a catchall to refer to any kind of condiment, but the variety of pickled vegetables we’ve come to know is probably of English origin.
• True to this European pedigree, the first dogs in the United States were topped with some combination of mustard or relish (Mencken, ever the eager hot-dog killjoy, described hot dog mustard as “flabby” and “puerile”). But as the 19th century came to a close and a new century burgeoned, the toppings found on street-cart and diner hot dogs began reflecting the tastes of the new immigrants who sold them as well as the communities they catered to.
• Once the Great Depression hit, cheap hot dogs ceased to be merely novelty street fare and became a budget-friendly necessity for nearly everyone. Vendors responded to the demand by piling dogs high with cheap toppings like potatoes, onions, and other vegetables, many of them pickled (to eliminate the need for pesky expiration dates). The hot dog had gone from snack to meal, but as the effects of the Depression
• waned, it reclaimed its status as fun food. America had caught a glimpse of hot dogs topped by condiments, and regional specialties took off as street vendors, diner cooks, and restaurant chefs looked to create the newest, most crowd-pleasing dog. Meanwhile, the hot dog traveled north to Canada and into the American South. Coleslaw, baked beans, and barbecue all found their way on to the hot dog. Farther south into Mexico and west toward California, fresh vegetables, spicy salsas and sauces, and a whole host of other regional toppings joined the game.
• DOGS AND DIPLOMACY
• In June 1939, President Franklin D. Roosevelt hosted a shindig for the king and queen of England at his estate in Hyde Park, New York. The all-American fare of choice? Hot dogs, served on a silver tray but eaten off paper plates. The king had two; the queen, confused about how to consume the colonial construction, was reportedly told by Roosevelt to “push it into your mouth and keep pushing until it is all gone.” She used a knife and fork.
• Hot dogs met the cold war in 1959 when Nikita Khrushchev stopped in Des Moines, Iowa, on a tour of the U.S. heartland. At a packing plant, the Soviet leader sampled his first sausage-in-a-bun—after his security team skimmed it with a Geiger counter, of course. In 1999, President Bill Clinton brought Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to the table … the picnic table, where kosher hot dogs (and presumably some peace talk) were the order of the day.
• Then, like so many other American eats, the hot dog went global. It traveled back to Europe, to Central and South America, and across the Pacific to Asia and Oceania. The world saw why America had become obsessed with this quick and easy food, and they wanted to put their own spin on it. Hot dogs, frankfurters, and wieners soon shared the spotlight with Polish sausage, bratwurst,
• rød pølse
• , and
• boerewors
• . Buns got swapped for flat breads, crispy rolls, baguettes, and batters, and toppings took on a life of their own.
• And so the haute dog was born.
• “The hot dog is our great leveler. The president seems to have made it a symbol of our democracy.”
• The Atlanta
• Constitution
• ; July 8, 1934