Also called frankfurter, frank, wiener and red hot, a hot dog is usually a sausage made from a combination of beef and pork or all beef which is cured, smoked, and cooked. Some hot dogs are made from turkey and there are vegetarian hot dogs made from plant-based ingredients. Seasonings may include coriander, garlic, ground mustard, nutmeg, salt, sugar, and white pepper. Hot dogs are fully cooked but are usually served hot. Sizes range from big dinner frankfurters to tiny cocktail size.
The term "hot dog" is credited to sports cartoonist Tad Dorgan. At a 1901 Giants baseball game in New York, vendors began selling hot dachsund sausages in rolls. The dachsund, or little dog, sausage was a small sausage created in the late 1600s by a German butcher, Johan Georghehn.
From the press box, Dorgan could hear the vendors yelling, "Get your dachshund sausages while they're red hot!" He sketched a cartoon depicting the scene but wasn't sure how to spell "dachshund" so he called them simply, "hot dogs." And the rest is history.
More history and legends of the hot dog
National Hot Dog History
Solar Hot Dog Cooker
Materials
- clean, cylindrical potato chip can with silver lining
- X-acto knife
- plastic wrap
- tape
- ruler
- permanent marker
- ice pick
- hammer and nail or drill
- wooden skewer
- hot dog
- Use the ruler to draw a rectangle on the can's side with the sharpie, Use the X-acto knife for cutting out the rectangle.
- Poke a wooden skewer through the plastic lid of the can. Use a drill, hammer and nail or ice pick to poke a hole in the bottom of the can to hold the other end of the skewer. Push the skewer through the holes.
- Tape plastic wrap over the opening to keep heat inside the cooker. To prevent condensation on the plastic wrap, poke A FEW holes. Too many will let the heat escape.
- Place the cooker outdoors on a hot day. The silver lining in the can holds in the heat, even on a cloudy day.