The History of Hot Dogs

In one of the most ancient forms of literature - 9th Century B.C. 850 – The sausage being one of the oldest forms of processed foods is already mentioned in Homer’s Odyssey „As when a man besides a great fire has filled a sausage with fat and blood and turns it this way and that and is very eager to get it quickly roasted..."

By - 1st Century A.D. - Gaius, the cook of Emperor Nero Claudius Caesar (54 -68) is credited with inventing the first wiener. It seemed that a roast pig had not been cleaned properly before cooking. Gaius slit its belly and out popped the intestines puffed up and hollow. These he stuffed with ground venison, ground beef, cooked ground wheat and spices. Later during Nero’s reign sausages were associated with a Roman festival called Lupercalian. Since this festival included a sexual initiation rite the early Catholic Church banned the festival and made sausage eating a sin.

In the 4th Century 325 Constantine The Great (307 – 337), the first Christian emperor of Rome also banned the eating of sausages.

It wasn’t until the 15th century – 1484 that the frankfurter was developed in Frankfurt, Germany. However there is also a possibility that credit should be given to Johann Georghehner, a butcher from Coburg, Germany, who later introduced it to Frankfurt.

Whatever its humble beginnings the frankfurter arrived in New York with German immigrants in the 1860’s and were sold from pushcarts in New York City’s Bowery.

In 1880 a German peddler, Antonoine Feuchtwanger started selling sausages on the streets of St. Louis, Missouri. At that time, the sausage wasn’t encased in a bun and Feuchtwanger provided people with white gloves to keep them from burning their hands. Customers often kept the gloves for themselves and finally his wife came up with the idea of a split bun. Feuchtwanger’s brother– in-law, who was a baker made long soft rolls that fit the sausage and so the hot dog and bun were born. He called them „red hots."

People found that this food was convenient, delicious and fun to eat. In 1893 it became popular at baseball parks. This tradition was begun by the owner of the St. Louis Browns major league baseball team, Chris Von de Ahe.

Finally in 1900 the first Coney Island hot dog stand was opened in Brooklyn, New York by a German butcher, Charles Feltman. In his first year of business he sold 3,684 hot dogs and credited this to the fact that he also warmed the bun. At his death in 1910 the business was worth over one million dollars. In 1916 an employee, Nathan Handwerker and his wife Ida started the popular Nathan’s Famous, Inc. The first stand was opened near the corner of Surf and Stillwell Avenues in Coney Island and simply called Nathan’s. In 1939 Eleanor, the wife of Franklin D. Roosevelt (32nd President of the US) served Nathan’s hot dogs at a picnic on their estate in Hyde Park, New York on June 11. They were presented to their royal guests King George VI of England and his Queen. The King was delighted with the hot dogs. Nathan’s became a New York City tradition, as it is still to this day and the hot dogs were later also packaged and sold in supermarkets. A trip to New York City is not complete without a visit to a Nathan’s or to a friendly hot dog vendor on the street and having a hot dog with mustard, onions and sauerkraut.