The Storage Inn investigates the history of the American Hot Dog!

Hot Diggity Dog!

It’s Mid-July here at The Storage Inn self storage in Egg Harbor Township, New Jersey, and It’s been very busy with customers running to and from their storage spaces. Most are retrieving summer items such as barbecue grills, lawn chairs, bicycles and even surfboards.

Just today, one of our storage customers, Carl, stopped in the office for a complimentary bottle of cold spring water, and was proud to announce to us that he had just purchased 200 hot dogs for his annual Hot Dog and Beer Barbecue party!

“Wow – a hot dog and beer party – sounds like fun! “ I said. “Yeah, we do it every year. We supply the hot dogs and beer, and all of our friends bring a side dish or anything else they wanna eat or drink. Always a great time!” Carl replied.

As Carl strode out of the eht storage rental office, I began to think…

“Wow, that’s a lot of hot dogs! – I wonder how many hot dogs Americans actually eat?” And what about that old saying folks like to use… “American as hot dogs and apple pie?”

“Did we invent hot dogs? “ I pondered. I decided to do some digging, and here’s what I found.

  • Between Memorial Day and Labor Day, Americans consume seven billion hot dogs!
  • The most popular condiment is mustard. Then come onions, chili, ketchup, relish, and sauerkraut.
  • Nathan Handwerker opened Nathan’s Famous Hot Dogs (which remains a Coney Island institution) in 1916.
  • To counteract the stories of unhealthy ingredients in hot dogs, Handwerker hired men to wear surgeon’s smocks and eat lunch in his restaurants.
  • The largest seller of hot dogs is 7-Eleven, with 100 million served annually.
  • If you ask for a “hot dog” in New Zealand, you’ll get it battered on a stick like a corn dog. To get one on a bun, you have to ask for an “American hot dog.”
  • A “Chicago-style” hot dog never includes ketchup.
  • According to Guinness, the most expensive hot dogs ever were 3/4-pound, 18-inch dogs sold for charity in 2012 at a Sacramento, California, restaurant. Topped with an impressive array of fancy condiments—moose milk cheese, maple-syrup bacon, organic baby greens, whole-grain mustard, and cranberries—the dogs cost $145.49 each, with proceeds donated to a children’s hospital.

  • The most hot dogs (with buns) consumed by one person in 10 minutes: 72 – Joey Chestnut holds the record set July 4th, 2017.
  • The world’s longest hot dog stretched 196.85 feet and was prepared by Japan’s Shizuoka Meat Producers in 2006.
  • In the 1880s or ’90s, frankfurters (from Germany) and wieners (from Austria) became known as “hot dogs”—possibly because of the sausages’ similarities to dachshunds .

So, there you have it – a little hot dog history! I never know what I’m going to learn talking to our customers here at The Storage Inn. Well, I’ve got to go – I have a sudden craving for a chili cheese dog and an ice cold beer!