The longest dog was 1,996 feet and was made by the Sara Lee Corporation to honor the 1996 Olympics.
Mustard is the favorite topping of those over 35.
Ketchup is the favorite for those younger.
July is National Hot Dog Month.
The top three hot dog eating cities are: New York, Los Angeles, and Baltimore-Washington.
The champion of the National Hot Dog Eating Contest held each year at Coney Island receives a yellow belt. Last year’s winner ate 50 hot dogs with buns in 12 minutes.
Over 1.8 billion hot dogs were sold in US supermarkets last year.
At major league ballparks, over 24.2 million hot dogs were sold.
History of the Hot Dog
There are various responses as to the origin of the hot dog. Most agree that credit goes to Frankfurt, Germany for originating the hot dog. The city celebrated in 1987 the 500th birthday of the frankfurter. Others say a butcher in Colberg, Germany created “little dogs” in 1600. Vienna (Wien) Austria points to the term wiener to their claim as the birthplace of the hot dog. The 1904 at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, a vendor sold wieners or plain sausages and provided customers with white gloves to protect their hands. The gloves were not returned so he consulted a baker who created a bun to protect people’s fingers from the hot meat. However, it is likely the Germans used a bun to hold their sausage as they introduced the practice of eating sausages.
Others say a cartoonist, Tad Dorgan gave the hot dog its name when he created a cartoon of New York vendors selling dachshund sausages and yelling, “Get your dachshund sausages while they’re red hot!” Dorgan, unsure how to spell dachshunds, changed it to simply “Hot Dog!” The true origin remains an unsolved mystery today.