Food - Drink
What’s The Difference Between Hot Dogs And Frankfurters?
By RYAN CASHMAN
Hot dogs and traditional frankfurters are sausages popular in America that originated from German and Austrian sausage-making techniques. Though we use the terms hot dog, frank, and wiener interchangeably, as if they're the same thing, hot dogs and franks actually have their own distinct flavors and cultural heritage.
Frankfurter sausages are long and slim with a firm texture, and made only of pork seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic, sugar, mustard powder, and nutmeg. In their namesake birthplace of Frankfurt, Germany, these sausages are only boiled in water, never subjected to direct heat like a grill or stove, and are not served on buns.
Hot dogs originated in New York City during the late 19th century, when German immigrants made a living selling "dachshund sausages," the name of which would be shortened to hot dogs. The plump, soft, and slightly sweet hot dogs became popular as a portable snack for visitors to Coney Island or a baseball game.
What truly sets the two sausages apart is the meat, with frankfurters being made entirely out of pork, while hot dogs can be made of beef, pork, a combination, or even with chicken or turkey. While there is a distinctive difference between the sausages, their similarities show that hot dogs are just an evolution of the frankfurter.