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Get used to it: Hot dogs are good By Jeff Che ek Hot dogs are the illegitimate child at a family reunion. Everybody sees him, but nobody wants to claim him. They have Germanic roots and have been around for a couple of centuries. In Vienna, the Austrians call them frankfurters, giving Frankfurt credit for their invention. In Frankfurt, they are Vienna sausages, giving Austria the credit. In the United States, we just call them hot dogs. This is sad, because hot dogs are inexpensive, tasty, and easy to prepare. But these sausages are made from scrap meat, which has been ground and boiled into a pulp, before being stuffed into casings. Irish novelist/playwright Oscar Wilde summed it up with his comment: "There are two things you must never watch being made, otherwise you will reject both. One is sausages. The other is laws. The eclectic content of hot dogs is proved by this 1969 Department of Agriculture regulation: They can consist of beef, mutton, pork, goat meat, and fat, but no more than 3 1/3 percent cereal or filler. Chicken and turkey have since been added to allowable ingredients. German immigrants fist introduced these sausages to the United States about 1870. They were sold hot by street vendors, and eaten plain without bread or condiments. The hot dog, as we know it, was not born until 1901. We associate hot dogs with baseball, so it is proper that the hot dog was introduced at a baseball game. Harry Stevens had a concession, selling ice cream at home games at Yankee Stadium. The Yankees were playing despite a freakishly-cold day. No one was buying ice cream, so Stevens sent his crew to a nearby deli to buy hot frankfurters to sell. These were gobbled up by the male baseball fans, but not the ladies. They did not want to get their hands and gloves smeared by the greasy sausages. The ladies were not being overly critical. No national standards for fat content had been set. By 1969, hot dogs sold in America had an average fat content of 33 percent, with some "fatfurters" going as high as 51 percent. On Sept. 19, 1969, the Agricultural Department ruled that no hot dog could contain more than 30 percent fat. Stevens sent his crew back to the market to purchase long dinner rolls. The ladies could eat a frankfurter sandwich without getting their hands dirty. The great American hot dog was born. These frankfurter sandwiches became a popular snack at ball games, but did not get their name until five years later in 1906. And that was an accident, because a sports cartoonist could not spell the word dachshund. T.A. Dorgan worked for the Hearst newspaper chain. His cartoons were popular, because he often introduced talking animals, who made humorous comments on sporting events. He often had these cartoon figures speak with foreign accents, which added to the humor. Dorgan drew two sausages, then added legs, heads, and tails to convert them into "sausage dogs." They made their humorous comments in thick German accents. He had planned to label them "Dachshund sausages," but he could not spell the breed name. With a deadline to meet, Dorgan scrawled "hot dogs" on his drawing and turned it in. The day following its publication, customers at Yankee Stadium started saying, "Gimme one of Dorgan's hot dogs," instead of ordering frankfurter sandwiches. The name stuck. There are thousands of recipes for hot dogs. The crunchy dog recipe is a tasty way to prepare them. INGREDIENTS: 1 hot dog, baked or broiled 1 warm hot dog bun 1 bag potato chips Ketchup and relish PREPARATION: Smear both sides of bun with ketchup. Place hot dog on bun, add relish, then crumble handful of potato chips on top of relish. Serve. Email your... Technical questions & comments to: WebMaster Daily Tidings editorial comments & questions to: Editor Visit our other West Oregon Newspapers... | Albany Democrat-Herald | Corvallis Gazette-Times | Lebanon Express | Newport News-Times | | Ashland Daily Tidings | Gresham Outlook | Springfield News | Ashland Daily Tidings 1661 Siskiyou Blvd. Ashland, OR 97520 Telephone 541-482-3456 © Copyright 1997, 1998, 1999 Lee Northwest Publishing