Sometimes the best things in life are the simplest. And in my opinion the hot dog is one of them. I love hot dogs. Big ones, skinny ones, smoked, pork, beef, etc. the combinations are endless. In this section we will cover recipes for all kinds of hot dogs from around the world.

History of the Hot Dog

It is said the humble hot has its origins from the New York Polo Grounds in 1901. But to get the whole picture we need to go back to the 9th Century BC. when Homer wrote in the Odyssey his observations of the first “sausage” being made in the Agora. (market) From there we jump to the next significant development of the sausage which is arguably Frankfurt, Germany. The people of this fine city claim that in 1487 they developed the “Frankfurter”. It should be noted that the people of Vienna (Wein) also claim the origin of the “Wiener”. Either way thank you both! The most probable next step was that these sausages made their way over to the U.S. in many different forms based on the country of origin of the immigrants.

From this point on there seem to many different versions as to when and how the actual hot dog came to be. My favourite however is the one where a gentleman in 1871 by the name of Charles Feltman, a German baker, opened up the first Coney Island hot dog stand selling sausages in a split milk roll.

One version of how the actual name “hot dog” came about was in that in 1901 vendors on the New York Polo grounds were selling their sausages from a portable hot water tank yelling, “They’re red hot! Get your dachshund sausages while they’re red hot!” Apparently a New York cartoonist, Tad Dorgan, saw this and drew a cartoon of a barking dachshund sausage in the middle of a steaming roll. The story then goes that not being sure of the spelling for dachshund he just wrote “hot dog!”. Another story is that the word hot dog started popping up around the 1890s at Yale University. ( Credit: National Hot Dog and Sausage Council ) I found many more stories as well but I like the first one best.

From there, as they say, the rest is history. Today the hot dog can be found in almost every country around the world. There are so many variations that I can’t possibly cover them all. Instead I will start with the countries whose hot dogs I like the best. Every once in awhile I will be adding more variations to this section so stay tuned! I hope you enjoy and share this favourite of mine with friends.