FRANKFURTER SAUSAGES (HOT DOGS)

According to the National Provisioner, a thoroughly reliable journal, something like 4 billion hot dogs are eaten annually in the United States. The average American does away with about 12 pounds of sausage a year. That means all kinds of sausage; all the kith and kin of the hot dog, and these are startlingly numerous—somewhere around 2,000 different branches of the family. The annual ratio for consumption of the various branches goes something like this: Hot dogs, 30%; bologna, 17%; pork sausage, 15%; dry sausage (which covers a wide variety), 18%. The total sausage production in the United States before World War II amounted to approximately 200 million dollars.

Anyway, the first hot dog to bear the name is said to have appeared in 1883, the year of the wedding of the hot dog and roll. The match was promoted by Anton Ludwig Feuchtwanger, a Bavarian sausage peddler in St. Louis. He had found that the white gloves he handed to his customers so they might seize the dogs were apt to vanish. With them went the profits. The Bavarian and his gnaedige Frau brooded over this; gave their nights and days to the problem and finally hit on the idea that started the hot dog on its triumphant march around the world. Why not, they suddenly thought, dress the hot dog’s blushing nudity in a bun? The thing caught on and spread like a war rumor. The march was steady, and keeps going on bigger and bigger.

Master Chef Louis P. De Gouy, The Gold Cook Book (1947)