The story of how we got the hot dog is a fascinating one. In 1378, in a town called Schellenberg, a baker named Olaf was baking corndogs. Only, he ran out of cornbread batter when the pan was half full. Olaf was sort of a strange guy: he had a superstition about putting a half-empty pan of corndogs in the hearth oven, so he grabbed some bread dough and filled the pan with that. Then he popped the pan in the hearth.
When the corndogs and rolls were done, Olaf pulled them out of the oven, but he didn't know what do to with the rolls, which were now shaped like corndogs. Right then, Sven the postmaster (yes, they had a mail system then!) stopped by to get some corndogs for his lunch. He saw the corndog-shaped rolls sitting there and remembered that he and his wife Matilda had some leftover frankfurters in the icehole (remember...this was a long time ago -- they didn't have electricity or refrigerators, so they kept a chunk of ice in a hole in their backyard). He bought the two rolls, in addition to his corndogs for lunch.
That evening, he split open the rolls and put a frankfurter in the roll. It was delicious. And when he put some of the Kavelar Brothers' Ketchup on it (this was before Thomas Heinz, of course), it was even better. "Dear," he said to Matilda, "I think we have discovered the next commercial food." (Unfortunately, this was lost on Matilda, because she didn't know what the word 'commercial' meant.)
Sven told Olaf about his discovery, and the two of them decided to form a business. It was called Olaf and Sven's Commercial Food Outlet. (Since bread and this new discovery were the only two commercial foods, it wasn't as swanky a place as the name implies.)
The term "hot dog" came much later. In fact, it was in 1834. Prince Harvey of Austria visited Schellenberg and had to try one of its famous culinary creations. "Hot dog!' he exclaimed, after the first bite, "these are excellent!" (Where the term "hot dog" originated from we don't know. Nor do we know where Prince Harvey was exposed to such a slangy expression -- he was the sheltered type.) The expression stuck, and Sven and Olaf's creation has been a hot dog ever since.
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That was assigned. By my English. By way of explanation, I just read/was forced to read Charles Lamb's Dissertation on Roast Pig, so that's where they were coming from in assigning such a, uh, assignment. And no, my mother hasn't seen it yet. I need to hit "Publish Post" before I lose my nerve (or regain my sense of propriety) and delete this. *hits "Publish Post" and goes to bed*
2 comments:
Hilarious. Thank you. Now I know. And if that's what your schoolwork is like, then I wish I could read all your assignments :)
I am so glad that you cleared this up. I have been wondering about the origin of hot dogs for a long time now - at least 5 minutes - and I'm really glad you know and were kind enough to share your knowledge with us lower beings! :) Thanks for the laughs!
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