July Is National Hot Dog Month
Published July 6, 2023 | By Lynn Blamires, feature writer for My Local Utah
It seems appropriate that July would be National Hot Dog Month. What is more American than a hot dog? What month is more patriotic than the month of July? It seems to be natural to throw some dogs on the grill and line up the condiments for a feast. It doesn’t seem unusual that July is also National Picnic Month.
Actually, there is a story about hot dogs and the month of July. Hot dogs were brought to America by our immigrant forefathers. The “wiener” originated in Vienna, Austria, and the “frankfurter” came to us from Frankfurt, Germany. We also call them franks, hot dogs, red hots, and wieners.
In America, the first frankfurter sausages were served in 1867 at Coney Island in New York. Charles Feltman was a German immigrant and a baker by trade. In looking for a convenient way to serve his “franks” without plates or silverware, he put them on a long bun for beachgoers to enjoy.
According to NationalToday.com, the term hot dog came about in 1901 when Sports cartoonist Tad Dorgan was in the press box, reporting on a baseball game at the Polo Grounds in New York when he heard vendors yelling, “Get your dachshund sausages while they’re red hot!” He sketched a cartoon to show the scene, but he was unsure of how to spell the word dachshund, so he called them hot dogs. The term stuck and became a household name across America.
When I was just a kid, my family enjoyed driving trips across the country for our annual vacations. We often stayed in campgrounds and cooked over open fires. Hot dogs were common fare on these trips. Being an openly friendly family, we enjoyed meeting and getting to know other campers staying in the same camp.
On one of these vacations, we met a family and became fast friends. As evening approached, this family invited us over to their camp for “tube steaks.” “Oh, boy,” I thought, I was getting a little tired of our hot dog-riddled camp menus. As we gathered around their fire and they broke out the roasting sticks, I realized that I had just been introduced to another name for the sausage we called a hot dog.
The original hot dogs came in a natural casing, which in case you didn’t know were made from the small intestines of sheep. Intestines were regularly used for making all kinds of sausages, including hot dogs.
Our modern-day skinless dogs are formed in cellulose casings that are removed after being cooked and before packaging. However, there are still a lot of sausages that are made the old-fashioned way.
According to Google, National Hot Dog Month was established in 1956 by the US Chamber of Commerce. In 1994, the American Meat Institute formed the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council which promotes this summer celebration all month long. This council also declared National Hot Dog Day to be the third Wednesday in July – this year that day is July 19.
Each year on Independence Day, Coney Island is the site of Nathan’s Famous International Hot Dog Eating Contest. This contest has been going on for many years and consists of eating the most hot dogs with buns in ten minutes.
The results are in for 2023 and once again, Joey Chestnut was the clear winner with 62 dogs under his belt. He has won 16 of the last 17 Independence Day contests setting a record in 2021 with a gut full of 76 hot dogs. Miki Sudo crammed down 39.5 Nathan’s Famous hot dogs to win the women’s competition.
In an interview with CNN, Chestnut said, “I know after this time I’m not going to feel great,” he said. “It’s going to take about four days to feel really normal, and the first 12 hours after the contest I’m going to feel like garbage. I go in knowing that and I’m willing to go through that because it’s an amazing contest, it’s the Fourth of July, and I’m going to do what it takes to get number 16.”
Sudo won last year with 40 dogs on the women’s side and holds the women’s world record with 48.5. Just writing this is making me a little queasy.
There are five winners on both the men’s and women’s sides. First place takes home $10,000, second place $5,000, third place $2,500, fourth place $1,500, and fifth place $1,000. In addition, each winner receives the coveted Mustard Belt. The International Federation of Competitive Eating (IFOCE) has sanctioned this event since 1997. Who knew there even was a federation of competitive eating?
There are hot dogs and there are gourmet hot dogs. There is a world of difference because a plain hot dog can be made quickly with mustard and ketchup or nothing at all. A gourmet hot dog goes way beyond that.
Consider the Chicago Dog, the Chili-Cheese Dog, the BBQ-Bacon Dog, the All-American Dog, and the Philly Dog. A gourmet hot dog starts with quality. An all-beef dog or Polish Sausage and a soft bun are generally accepted as the best place to start. Grilling or roasting your dogs will bring out the best flavor. After that, these ingredients are suggested to create a gourmet hot dog:
- Mustard
- Ketchup
- Sweet Pickle Relish
- Dill Pickle Relish
- Hamburger Dill Pickles
- Chopped Onions
- Caramelized Onions
- Sautéed Peppers
- Pickle Spear
- Pickled Jalapenos
- Pickled Peppers
- Crispy Bacon
- BBQ Sauce
- Beef Chili
- Sauerkraut
- Chopped Tomatoes or Wedges
- Favorite Hot Sauce
- Cheese
- Salsa
Now, pick a few of these ingredients or add some of your own and create a gourmet hot dog. It’s a good time to do it because July is National Hot Dog Month and National Picnic Month. What a great time to be outdoors.