This tasty item we call the hot dog, also known as frankfurter, frank, weenie, wiener and red hot, is one of America’s favorite foods. To show it to the world, July has been named National Hot Dog Month. From the north to the south and from the east to the west, you will find local interpretations of the hot dog, what should be included with and on it, and how it should be served. 

How this meat mixture got its name is as debatable as the existence of UFOs. One theory of a prominent hot dog historian says, “The word hot dog began appearing in college magazines in the 1890s. Students at Yale University began to refer to the wagons selling hot sausages in buns outside their dorms as “dog wagons.” It didn’t take long before the word dog to become hot dog.”

It is known that the Germans originated the “wienerwurst” and it is generally agreed that Germans immigrating to New York were the first to sell wieners from a pushcart in the 1860s...