Why Hotdog Is Called Hotdog: Unraveling The Sausage Story

The origins of the term “hot dogs” are tied to an intriguing legend. It is said that the name was coined when Tad Dorgan, a cartoonist, witnessed a vendor named Harry Stevens selling sausages made from dachshund meat at a New York Polo Grounds baseball game. In a lively manner, Stevens would call out to the crowd, enticing them to buy his delicious sausages by exclaiming, “Get your red-hot dachshund sausages!” To capture this amusing scene, Dorgan drew a cartoon illustration featuring a dachshund dog nestled inside a bun with the caption “get your hot dogs.” This quirky depiction and catchy phrase eventually became synonymous with the sausages themselves, giving birth to the term “

Is the meat inside a hot dog actually called a “hot dog”? To clarify, the term “hot dog” can be used to refer to both the sausage itself and the entire assembled dish. The sausage used in a hot dog is typically a wiener, which is also known as a Vienna sausage, or a frankfurter, which is called Frankfurter Würstchen and often simply referred to as a frank. It’s important to note that these sausage names are often used interchangeably with the term “hot dog.” The way hot dogs are prepared and the condiments used can vary significantly across different regions and cultures worldwide.