National Chili Dog Day

The last Thursday in July is National Chili Dog Day in the United States.

A chili dog is a form of hot dog. It is used as a generic name for a hot dog that is served in a bun and then topped with a meat sauce; chili con carne is a common choice. The hot dog will then often be topped with other things; cheese, mustard and onions are common.

The standard hot dog, the wiener or frankfurter, is the most common type of sausage used in a chili dog but, as with other hot dogs, other types of sausage can also be used. In the U.S., there are a number of regional variations on the chili dog that use different ingredients and, in some cases, different sausages too.

Image: bryan... from Taipei, Taiwan / CC BY-SA (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)

National Hot Dog Day

Evan Swigart from Chicago, USA / CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)

July 22nd is National Hot Dog Day in the United States.

Appropriately enough, this day falls in National Hot Dog Month. Hot dogs are classed as sausage sandwiches in which the grilled or steamed sausage is served in an open slit of a partially sliced open bun, though the name also refers to the sausage itself. Wiener - Vienna sausages - and frankfurters are the sausages most commonly used in a hot dog, though pretty much any sausage can be used, even if the end result is, by some definitions, not actually a hot dog. A hot dog is rarely served plain; it will normally be topped with sauces as well as a wide range of potential ingredients, with fried onions perhaps the most common.

Hot dogs originated in Germany and were imported to the United States by Germans moving there. They started as working class food sold on the street and gradually became associated with baseball and American culture.

National Hot Dog Month

July is National Hot Dog Month in the United States.

Prior to the creation of the hot dog, there was the similar sausage called the frankfurter - named after the city of Frankfurt in Germany, in which it originated - which dates back to at least the 13th century, and which still exists today.

The modern American most likely originated in the US in the 19th century. The "dog" part of the name, which has since stuck, was originally a pejorative, as manufacturers were commonly accused of using dog meat in their recipes. Fortunately, standards have been tightened up a bit since then.

The modern hot dog is normally made from either beef or pork trimmings, often with added flavourings. They are commonly eaten as a snack food, especially in hot dog buns - a type of finger roll - and are then topped with other things, such as fried onions and sauces, although additional toppings are quite common, too, such as cheese and chilli.