Food - Drink
How German Immigrants Brought Hot Dogs to The US
By CYRENA GOURDEAU
The wiener wrapped in a soft bun is so popular in the United States that each region offers its own style of hot dog, from the beef-chili topped Detroit Coney Hot Dog to the freshly-boiled New York street hot dog. As with many so-called “American foods,” the hot dog originates with German immigrants.
In the United States, the hot dog came to be because one German immigrant who sold hot dogs out of a pushcart in the 1860s called their sausages “little dogs.” This name was a tongue-in-cheek reference to the shape of the dachshund German dog breed and the American suspicion of sausages because of the German habit of eating dog meat.
Soon after little dachshunds were sold, German immigrant Charles Feltman began selling hot dogs wrapped in buns in Coney Island in 1870. Hot dogs then continued to make their way to the masses through the American love of baseball when another German businessman, Chris von der Ahe, who owned the St. Louis Brown Stockings, started selling hot dogs at the ballpark.