The Hot Dog
Tony Raymer
History of the Hot Dog
Historians believe that its origins can be traced all the way back to era of the notorious Roman emperor Nero, whose cook, Gaius, may have linked the first sausages. Gaius was watching over his kitchen when he realized that one pig had been brought out fully roasted, but somehow not cleaned. He stuck a knife into the belly to see if the roast was edible, and out popped the intestines: empty because of the starvation diet, and puffed from the heat. He stuffed the intestines with ground game meats mixed with spices and wheat, and the sausage was created.
How it got its name
The term hot dog is credited to a sports cartoonist, Tad Dorgan. At a baseball in 1901, Tad heard a vendor yelling "Get your dachshund sausages, they're hot." He sketched a cartoon of the event and couldn't spell dachshund, so he simply called it a hot dog.
Food group for the hot dog
The hot dog represents the protein group.