Grillin’ And Chillin’ Season

May to September is the span of our official cookout season. The most popular items to grill are hot dogs and hamburgers.

According to the Hot Dog Council of the United States, Americans consume 20 billion hot dogs a year that works out to 70 hot dogs per person a year. Even more popular is the hamburger with a total of 50 billion eaten each year just in the United States.

Hot Dogs

Did you ever wonder who invented hot dogs? Did you ever wonder what is inside that skinny red sausage? Learning about the origin of hot dogs dates back to, well, it’s debatable. Austria claims these sausages were first made in Vienna. Vienna is pronounced Wien and by the time the sausages made it to the United States, it became wiener. Sound familiar?

Some referred to the sausage as a dachshund sausage, because it reminded people of the dachshund dog, long body and red, minus the long ears and turned up tail. One day a vendor at Coney Island Park, Charles Feltman, is attributed with the first person to call them hot dogs. Why?

Buyers would ask what was in the sausage and the word spread that they were hot dogs. Erase that from your memory bank. On July 4th you can watch the most famous hot dog eating contest in the world at Nathan’s Hot Dog Stand on Coney Island. In 2021, Champion eater, Joey Chestnut, consumed 76 hot dogs and buns in 10 minutes.

Hamburgers

There are as many stories of the invention of the hamburger as that of the hot dog. Earliest story came with immigrants to the United States from Hamburg, Germany. Minced meat formed into a steak form developed into our hamburger. The ease of eating on the run demanded the meat being put between two pieces of bread.

Condiments, pickles, onions, ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, lettuce, tomato, secret special sauce etc, have been added over the years. Estimates are that Americans eat 50 billion hamburgers a year.

Enjoy your days just Grillin’ and Chillin’.