Let's go eat: interesting facts about the most popular fast food dish (14 photos)

Everyone loves sausages in dough. But most of all the Americans, who eat them in unimaginable quantities, and who even came up with the idea of ​​​​creating the National Hot Dog Congress. Actually, thanks to their efforts, today we are talking about this product, which from a food for the poor has turned into the most popular fast food dish.





First, let's talk about the most banal thing, maybe someone doesn't know this fact. As you know, hot dog is translated as “hot dog”.

They say that the first hot dogs appeared on the streets of the United States in the middle of the 19th century. It must be said that for a century and a half, people have not changed at all - many were sure that hot sausages were made from dog meat for profit. Now they say about the same thing about shawarma.



The funny thing is that these suspicions were sometimes confirmed - after all, in those days there were no factory-made sausages, and everyone filled them by hand - and it was good, if only with dog meat.

The name for the sausage sandwich was finally assigned after 1904, when a comedy film called “Dog Factory” was made. The film clearly showed how cunning sellers sell premium sausages from homeless pessels to respectable citizens.

And sausage shops in America are now called “doggeries,” which loosely translated can be called “doghouses.” Let us add that there is an alternative version about why the sausages in the dough are called “dogs”. But she's not that believable.





The first mass production was started by the owner of a small grocery store, American Charles Feltman, in 1900. And by 1930, hot dogs had become the main hit of public catering in America.

And it is quite possible that this was due to the Great Depression. In the 1930s, hot dogs were called “depression sandwiches” and were sold throughout the states for 4 cents apiece. This made them one of the most popular products.



By 1939, sausage rolls had become so popular that they ceased to be the food of the common people - US President Franklin Roosevelt fed the British monarch George the Sixth with hot dogs and beer in the White House.



A classic American hot dog is a bun cut at one end with a sausage inserted there, topped with ketchup or mustard. It was this recipe, along with hamburgers and chips, that became one of the symbols of America.



But there are probably as many recipes for hot dogs as there are eateries that sell them. In addition to sausage, mashed potatoes, avocado olives, grated cheese, wasabi and God knows what else are added to the bun. And speaking of the strangest recipes, in the 20th century, one of the Chicago eateries sold hot dogs with sausages made from alligator, ostrich and rattlesnake meat. And in Japan, hot dogs are still painted with squid ink.

This is what a Japanese hot dog with squid ink looks like



You will probably be surprised, but there is a Ukrainian “folk” recipe for making hot dogs. He looks something like this. The sausages are boiled, the onions are fried in butter, and a fluffy puree is made with butter and milk. Then finely chopped dill, finely grated cheese and fried onions are added to the puree. All this is mixed, and then the hot puree is applied to the waffle cakes. A sausage is placed on one edge of the cake, which has already softened from the hot puree, and rolled into a roll.



Let's go back to America again. If there is a “classic” recipe, then there must be some established habits associated with eating them. It is believed, for example, that it is not at all cool for people over 18 to pour ketchup on a sausage. After all, ketchup in the USA is considered a children's “dressing”. And if you are over 18 years old, you must choose something stronger - at least mustard.

Any sauce, be it ketchup, mustard or mayonnaise, cannot be poured between the sausage and the bun - only on the sausage. Americans say this about this: “dress the dog, not its kennel.”



Hot dogs should be eaten without using utensils - exclusively with your hands! And they wash it down only with beer, soda or ice tea. All other drinks are for other dishes.



The most expensive hot dog costs only $69. Of course, it could have been cooked for $699, but most likely, such an “affordable” price was intended to emphasize the affordability of this fast food hit. So, this most expensive hot dog can be tasted by any visitor to the New York restaurant Serendipity 3. For this money, the client will receive a 30-centimeter bun with sausage baked in truffle oil with foie gras, onions and black truffles.

This is a 30-centimeter delicacy



You will probably laugh, but in America in 1994, The National Hotdog and Sausage Council was created, which studies the quality of the product, tastes and advertises sausages in dough.

But if you consider how many hot dogs are eaten in America per capita, then, probably, it was not in vain that they were created... According to statistics, the average American eats 60 hot dogs a year.



The lion's share of these hot dogs is eaten in the month of July, which, in fact, is considered the month of sausages. During the second month of summer, America hosts a huge number of festivals with special menus and hot dog eating competitions. During this month, about 6 billion sausages in dough are eaten.



For example, 150 million hot dogs are eaten on US Independence Day (July 4th) alone. On the same day, the speed-eating hot dog championship takes place on New York's Coney Island Peninsula. In 2011, Joy “Jaws” Chestnut managed to eat 62 hot dogs in a minute. In 8 years, no one has yet broken his record.