Hot dogs! Get your hot dogs here!
DID YOU KNOW?
Americans purchase 350 million pounds of hot dogs at retail stores — that’s 9 billion hot dogs! But the actual number of hot dogs consumed by Americans is probably much larger because of all the franks they eat at sporting events, picnics and carnivals. The National Hot Dog and Sausage Council estimates Americans consume 20 billion hot dogs a year. That works out to about 70 hot dogs per person each year. Hot dogs are served in 95 percent of homes in the United States. On Independence Day, Americans will enjoy 150 million hot dogs, enough to stretch from D.C. to L.A. more than five times. During peak hot dog season, from Memorial Day to Labor Day, Americans typically consume 7 billion hot dogs. That’s 818 hot dogs consumed every second during that period.
LET’S BE FRANK...
How are hot dogs really made? Special selected trimmings of beef and/or pork are cut and ground into small pieces and put into the mixer. A high-speed, stainless steel chopper blends meat, spices and curing ingredients into an emulsion or batter.
The emulsion is pumped and fed into a stuffer. Shirred strands of cellulose casings are mechanically positioned on the stuffing horn. As the emulsion flows through the horn into the casing, the filled strands are linked into hot dogs of exact size.
In smokehouses, under controlled temperature and humidity, the hot dog is fully cooked and hard-wood smoked for texture, color and a delicious flavor.
FACT OR FICTION
You decide which hot dog legend is true.
(Because nobody else really seems to know!)
1. The frankfurter was developed in Frankfurt, Germany, in 1487, five years before Christopher Columbus set sail for the new world.
2. The “dachshund” or “little-dog” sausage was created in the late 1600s by butcher Johann Georghehner in Coburg, Germany. He later traveled to Frankfurt to promote the product.
3. The people of Vienna (Wien), Austria, claim rights to the birthplace of the “wiener.”
4. A German immigrant was the first one to sell the sausage with milk rolls, as well as sauerkraut, from a push cart in New York City in the 1860s. Others claim the Germans always ate the dachshund sausages with bread.
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