For millions of Americans, this year's Fourth of July will be another star-spangled picnic. Already a glorious outdoor holiday with its parades, patriotic exercises, flamboyant oratory, and displays of fireworks, the Fourth's highlight is generally a lengthy meal -in the backyard, at the beach, in a park, or on a boat. Each of us has a favorite menu for this special day. For many, it's an old-fashioned meal remembered from childhood -a family picnic or community banquet served on long tables piled with plates of sandwiches, deviled eggs, potato salad, home-grown vegetables, baked ham or fried chicken, pickles, pies, fruit shortcakes, and cookies, washed down with watermelon and gallons of lemonade.
For me, however, nothing on the Fourth measures up to the joys of grilling hot dogs outside on a primitive barbecue. I'd be hard-pressed to think of any other food as closely associated with our Independence Day as the hot dog. Think of the number of meals, indoors or out, where you'll find the familiar juicy, plump franks broiled, braised, simmered, roasted, or barbecued; served in a soft yeast bun or on a stick or skewer, and basted with sauces of all descriptions. In fact, July has been National Hot Dog Month since 1957.
In one of his columns, humorist Russell Baker wrote, "The Fourth of July reminds me of hot dogs because for years I have felt an obligation to eat hot dogs on this holiday. Hot dogs have seemed like the patriotic things to eat." Then he wonders why they "should be the quintessence of patriotic eating," and "why he has this terrible sense of obligation to show the flag by eating them on patriotic occasions."
Why indeed, Mr. Baker? Because despite its foreign origins, if any food is a symbol of Americana, it is the hot dog. We even honor its name as a substitute for "Oh boy!" or "Wow!" Whether grilled at a baseball park, circus, or street-vendor's stand, when served in a split roll, garnished with mustard, pickle relish - and sometimes onions or sauerkraut - and eaten from the hand, the frank's taste just exudes down-home America.
Hot Dog History
While the sausage in a roll is an American creation, sausages were eaten by the early Chinese, Greeks, and Romans. The thick, soft, fatty variety, however, originated in Europe. Butchers' guilds in various cities produced distinctive kinds of sausages, which were given names designating their places of origin. Notable creations were the saucisse de Strasbourg and the wienerwurst, or Vienna sausage (whence the later American terms wiener or wienie).
Around 1852, the guild in Frankfurt, Germany, produced a small sausage that was named according to this tradition. Its slightly curved shaped is also part of the legend: It was apparently fashioned by one of the guild members to resemble his dog, a low-slung dachshund.
The frankfurter migrated to America in the 1860s and was a favorite of German immigrants. In New York City it was called "dachshund sausage" or hundewurst, because its shape resembled that of the dachshund.
The frankfurter's roll, in which it is customarily served, is believed to have originated by chance at a St. Louis Exposition in the late 1800s,
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