“I don’t assume we’ve sufficient sizzling canine,” Julianne Moore’s character whispers gloomily in Todd Haynes’ 2023 movie Could December. The scene that shortly turned iconic on-line for a way amusingly melodramatic it’s also captures, maybe inadvertently, America’s unusual relationship with the rectangular meals. Is there such a factor as having sufficient sizzling canine? As a tradition, the reply appears to be no. The Nationwide Sizzling Canine and Sausage Council estimates that we eat someplace within the area of 20 billion sizzling canine yearly, or about 70 per individual. (Sizzling canine consuming contest champion Joey Chestnut as soon as downed a document 76 in 10 minutes.)
The recent canine’s reputation isn’t precisely stunning. It’s an undemanding meals, coming to you precooked and able to eat. It’s really easy to make {that a} baby may do it, and certainly many people did as children. Through the Covid lockdown, when different folks had their sizzling lady walks, I entered my sizzling canine period, consuming nothing else for every week straight within the stifling kitchen of my residence. It turned out that I wasn’t alone: In March 2020, sizzling canine gross sales had been already up by 127 p.c for the 12 months.
“We noticed, throughout the pandemic, fairly giant spikes in hotdog consumption,” says Eric Mittenthal, president of the Nationwide Sizzling Canine and Sausage Council. “Significantly as households had been caught at residence, they wished one thing straightforward and handy to make.” Based on Nielsen knowledge, about 944 million kilos of sizzling canine had been offered at grocery shops in 2020 — final 12 months, about 896 million kilos.
Should you’re on the lookout for low-cost and straightforward, few meals match the invoice in addition to the recent canine. But regardless of the recent canine’s affordability and recognition, it’s additionally undeniably a bizarre meals. For one, the habits round when and the way they’re sometimes consumed are fairly restricted; they’re not your standard lunch or supper time consideration the best way a sandwich or supply pizza is likely to be. We are inclined to make them at residence for yard barbecues, or as a straightforward meal for teenagers, or eat them once we’re out, however they’re extra carefully related to ballparks and seashores than eating places. For all its ubiquity and straightforward consumability — you possibly can simply down a sizzling canine with one hand — they can be considerably difficult for meat producers and eating places to promote as a result of there’s perennial wariness over the standard of the thriller meat. A sizzling canine is likely to be a quintessential American meals, however it’s additionally the quintessential odd meals — in origin, the best way it’s made, the best way we speak about it, even its very form.
Should you’re a sizzling canine lover, thank the German immigrants who got here to the US in enormous waves within the nineteenth century, porting over their love of sausages and beer gardens.
“It originated as a house meals amongst Germans, after which went to the road, the place it turned commodified as an inexpensive product to be eaten on the run by immigrants,” says Bruce Kraig, a historian who has written two books about the culinary and cultural historical past of the recent canine. “It’s form of poor people’ meals.”
Avenue meals itself boomed with the rise of public amusement and leisure as extra Individuals acquired time away from continuously working, a novel phenomenon. High amongst public amusements: baseball video games and seaside boardwalks, like Asbury Park in New Jersey. Early distributors had been largely poor immigrants promoting the bun-and-wiener combo for a nickel a pop, and sizzling canine had been such a success as a result of they had been comparatively low-cost to each purchase and promote. As sizzling canine carts popped up coast to coast within the early twentieth century, a couple of fortunate enterprising souls struck it wealthy from their sizzling canine enterprise — like Nathan Handwerker, founding father of the Nathan’s Well-known sizzling canine chain that crowds flock to on Coney Island to today.
Nearly 40 p.c of the billions of sizzling canine consumed within the US yearly are eaten between Memorial Day and Labor Day
Due to its affiliation with leisure — particularly, being out and about in heat climate — sizzling canine additionally turned indelibly related to {the summertime}. In the present day, nearly 40 p.c of the billions of sizzling canine consumed within the US yearly are eaten between Memorial Day and Labor Day. (Sizzling canine gross sales at baseball video games don’t make up as a lot of whole gross sales as one may assume: solely about 20 million per 12 months, based on the Nationwide Sizzling Canine and Sausage Council.)
For the, ahem, massive canine of the business — billion-dollar firms typically owned by even bigger meals conglomerates — enterprise has been fairly good the previous couple of years. In 2021 particularly, revenue margins within the meat processing business jumped as firms raised costs. Tyson Meals, which owns the favored Ball Park Franks sizzling canine model, made a whopping $1.46 billionrevenue in simply their ready meals class (which incorporates deli meat and sizzling canine) in 2021, in comparison with $743 million in 2020 and $746 million in 2022.
In common tradition, sizzling canine typically talk some form of absurdity. (See: the viral I Suppose You Ought to Depart sketch.) A current TikTok pattern requested folks what they might yell in the event that they had been a sizzling canine hawker at a baseball recreation; since 2020 there’s been an uptick in individuals who aren’t from Washington, DC, calling sizzling canine “glizzies” throughout social media. There’s additionally a long-running on-line obsession with the filth low-cost Costco sizzling canine, a reliable go-to in an economic system that feels extra topsy turvy on daily basis — you possibly can even purchase a Costco sizzling canine memecoin.
The double-edged sword of being low-cost
At Costco, a sizzling canine and drink combo continues to be $1.50, a value that has not budged since 1985. (Sam’s Membership has its personal rival low-cost sizzling canine.) Sizzling canine stay fairly inexpensive in comparison with different meal choices — however at different locations, they weren’t proof against inflation. Costs for frankfurters went up 7.3 p.c from Could 2023 to Could 2024. A primary sizzling canine at Nathan’s is now $5.99 on Coney Island. Pushcart distributors inside New York Metropolis parks aren’t allowed to cost greater than $4 per sizzling canine.
Should you’re making them at residence or bringing them to somebody’s yard cookout, although, they’re a reasonably whole lot: Based on the most recent accessible Shopper Value Index knowledge on frankfurters, the common value per pound in April 2022 was $5.22. At Walmart, some Oscar Mayer beef franks are $4.19 per pound, however there’s additionally an eight-pack of Bar S model sizzling canine accessible for simply $1.18, on the time of writing.
It’s good to have a reasonable meals possibility when grocery and restaurant costs have shot up, however being too low-cost additionally fuels the priority that folks have at all times had in regards to the meals. What’s in that meat? Possibly you don’t truly need the most affordable wiener cash should purchase. “Sizzling canine have at all times been suspicious within the American thoughts,” says Kraig. Within the early nineteenth century, Kraig reviews in his e book, Individuals would joke about all types of elements — rats, stray canine, feces — making it into the meat grinder. One 2018 shopper survey from Applegate (which promotes its uncured sizzling canine as cleaner and better high quality), claimed that 43 p.c of respondents had been “scared” to know what was in sizzling canine.
“I believe there was a second for fancy sizzling canine,” says Soleil Ho, a meals author and cultural critic on the San Francisco Chronicle. Makes an attempt to elevate the common-or-garden frankfurter embrace a $29 model at Manhattan’s Mischa that got here with a complete host of sauces and toppings you might adorn your sausage with, together with kimchi and pimento cheese, that Eater critic Robert Sietsema reluctantly adored. (Sadly, the restaurant closed down earlier this 12 months.) However they’ve largely gone the best way of the fancy cupcake craze of the early 2000s.
The bizarre approach we devour sizzling canine
There’s one thing unusually particular in regards to the events the place it’s regular to have a sizzling canine: at somebody’s yard cookout, at sports activities video games, at an airport, on a first-time journey to the Massive Apple (however solely from a road cart), on the movie show when you’re feeling a little bit freaky, earlier than or after an exhausting purchasing journey at Costco, or maybe throughout a sizzling canine consuming contest. You in all probability wouldn’t go to a fast-casual restaurant, and even most fast-food chains, and resolve to have a sizzling canine on a whim after you browse the menu.
Hamburgers, then again, had been actively promoted as a hearty possibility Individuals may usually wish to eat, because of McDonald’s and different burger chains popping up alongside the huge, newly constructed US freeway system after World Battle II. “Hamburger tradition unfold far and wide,” says Kraig. The burger was regarded as a extra meaty meal, whereas a sizzling canine was extra about enjoyable.
Kraig notes that a number of chains have actually tried to promote sizzling canine, however “they’ve by no means fairly made it.” Established chains, together with Burger King and McDonald’s, have tried providing sizzling canine as soon as upon a time, solely to discontinue them as a result of they weren’t very talked-about or as a result of the thriller meat was deemed too low-quality even for quick meals. Carl’s Jr. truly began as a sizzling canine stand, however now could be extra recognized for its burgers and overtly sexual advertisements; it doesn’t even have sizzling canine on its menu anymore.
Burger King and McDonald’s have tried providing sizzling canine, solely to discontinue them as a result of they weren’t very talked-about
The closest factor we would should a nationwide sizzling canine chain is Nathan’s Well-known, however it solely has 230 franchise places throughout 17 US states, with a big portion of places in New York, New Jersey, and Florida (there are none in California.) Its sizzling canine are additionally accessible in a couple of different international locations, together with at Ukrainian fuel stations. It additionally now sells wings, burgers, milkshakes, and extra, branching out far past frankfurters. These storefronts aren’t the principle approach the corporate makes cash, both — an enormous portion of its income comes from licensing its model of sausages to different institutions with sizzling canine on their menus (like casinos, amusements parks, sports activities video games), or by promoting Nathan’s model wieners in grocery shops. Its income from eating places in 2024 was simply $5.4 million, whereas its whole gross sales had been $138.6 million.
In the case of road distributors, Individuals’ tastes have moved onto different, newer meals immigrants have delivered to the nation, whether or not that’s a taco truck or a halal cart. And that’s when you could find road meals in any respect: Massive cities, together with San Francisco and New York, have been shutting down or imposing penalties on road distributors, typically for not having correct licenses that may be extraordinarily costly and tough to acquire.
Such unbiased sellers helped construct the recent canine’s enormous presence in American culinary custom — distributors in varied elements of the nation would put their very own spin on the quick meals staple, turning it from only a sad-looking cylinder of reddish-brown sausage in a squished bun to one thing delightfully bizarre. The Chicago canine, for instance, is stuffed to the gills with tomato slices, a complete dill pickle, chopped onions, and relish, all on a poppy seed bun and, crucially, no ketchup. In New Jersey, there’s a well-known deep-fried sizzling canine that appears like a scrumptious coronary heart assault. Individuals are inclined to have sturdy emotions about their regional sizzling canine type — and even about newer fusion kinds — which additionally helps clarify why there isn’t a nationwide chain promoting an ordinary sizzling canine to Individuals all over the place.
“I really feel like most individuals don’t exit for warm canine,” says Ho. “It’s like going out for a easy bowl of rice or a chunk of toast.”
The truth that there isn’t a giant sizzling canine chain could also be a part of the meal’s appeal. It nonetheless evokes reminiscences of a person promoting them out of their humble cart, or a member of the family grilling them within the yard, or an inexpensive snack provided to drained consumers that Costco doesn’t appear to thoughts taking a loss on. It’s this ultra-processed, mass-produced meals that’s nonetheless steeped in home nostalgia. On the identical time, the recent canine is a little bit bit — nicely, possibly greater than a little bit bit — gross. You’re drawn to its good portion dimension, its one-handed portability, however the creativeness conjures pictures of the sharp blades of a dirty, terrifying meat grinder. The thoughts resists getting too near the inscrutable sizzling canine’s true nature.
