Hot Dogs

Ahh...it's that time of year when the barbecue grills come out. If you have the grill and back yard and perhaps a pool, you are one lucky dog! The one thing that makes me happy in all this, is the hotdog. While no one really knows who invented the hot dog or "sasuage" as others may call it, it remains the most popular of foods all around the world. This is my guess. Cause every barbecue I've gone to, they always have a lot of hotdogs. Either that or someone really loves me. ;)

Awww....

However, Frankfurt-am-Main, in Germany, is usually credited with originating the frankfurter in 1484, five years before Christopher Columbus set sail for the new world. Others argue the "little-dog" sausage, sometimes called the Dachshund because of its shape, was created in the late 1600s by Johann Georghehner, a butcher from Coburg who apparently travelled to Frankfurt to promote his products. Equally, though, the people of Vienna (Wien), Austria, point to the term "wiener" to prove their claim as the birthplace of the hot dog.

"Wiener" hee hee...

Certainly by the 1850s, the Germans were making thick, soft, and fatty sausages from which we get "frank". In 1852, the butcher's guild in Frankfurt introduced a spiced and smoked sausage which was packed in a thin casing and was called a "frankfurter" after the guild's hometown. The sausage had a slightly curved shape, supposedly due to the coaxing of a butcher who had a popular Dachshund dog.

Nevertheless whatever the early history, it is likely that the North American hot dog came from a widespread common European sausage, taken there by butchers of several nationalities. That's what happens when you invent something. There's always someone looking to steal your shit and reinvent.

But in the end, barbecues everywhere, north, south, east or west, will have a bunch of hot dogs ready for the grill. I like my hotdogs grilled to a point where it's slightly burnt, but not burnt. I just love the taste of the grill on my dog. Soon enough I'll be coming to YOUR house for a hot dog or two. Actually you should have 3 dogs for me on the grill. I like my dogs in 3s. But that's probably all that I'll eat. I've been known to eat 3 dogs and run. ;D

For those of you living in an apartment, the thought of grilling should not even come to mind, unless you have a fire escape or a stove. But that never works out. It's just not the same.