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The Real Reason We Call Them Hot Dogs | Smartest Year Ever (July 7, 2025)
To kick off Food Facts Week, Gordy digs into one of the strangest names in American cuisine: why do we call them “hot dogs”? The story of this iconic street food is full of immigrant history, language twists, cartoon myths, and a whole lot of meat-based suspicion.
From college slang and 19th-century food fears to the murky mystery of a missing cartoon and a real U.S. council dedicated to sausages, this episode serves up the real story behind a name we never question—but probably should. It’s weird, it’s funny, and it’s 100% true.
This is the first episode of Food Facts Week, so stick around all week for more strange, surprising, and unforgettable food origin stories.
New episodes daily. Stay curious, stay clever.
Sources:
Smith, A. F. (2008). Hot Dog: A Global History. Reaktion Books.
Oxford English Dictionary. (n.d.). Entry on “hot dog.”
U.S. Library of Congress. (n.d.). Who invented the hot dog? https://www.loc.gov/everyday-mysteries/item/who-invented-the-hot-dog/
National Hot Dog and Sausage Council. (n.d.). https://www.hot-dog.org/
Sinclair, U. (1906). The Jungle. Doubleday, Page & Company.
Popik, B. (n.d.). Hot Dog Etymology. https://www.barrypopik.com
Yale Alumni Magazine. (n.d.). The Long, Strange History of the Hot Dog. https://yalealumnimagazine.com/articles/5288
#FoodFactsWeek #HotDogHistory #Linguistics #CuriousCulture #AmericanFoodLore Music thanks to Zapsplat.
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By GordyTo kick off Food Facts Week, Gordy digs into one of the strangest names in American cuisine: why do we call them “hot dogs”? The story of this iconic street food is full of immigrant history, language twists, cartoon myths, and a whole lot of meat-based suspicion.
From college slang and 19th-century food fears to the murky mystery of a missing cartoon and a real U.S. council dedicated to sausages, this episode serves up the real story behind a name we never question—but probably should. It’s weird, it’s funny, and it’s 100% true.
This is the first episode of Food Facts Week, so stick around all week for more strange, surprising, and unforgettable food origin stories.
New episodes daily. Stay curious, stay clever.
Sources:
Smith, A. F. (2008). Hot Dog: A Global History. Reaktion Books.
Oxford English Dictionary. (n.d.). Entry on “hot dog.”
U.S. Library of Congress. (n.d.). Who invented the hot dog? https://www.loc.gov/everyday-mysteries/item/who-invented-the-hot-dog/
National Hot Dog and Sausage Council. (n.d.). https://www.hot-dog.org/
Sinclair, U. (1906). The Jungle. Doubleday, Page & Company.
Popik, B. (n.d.). Hot Dog Etymology. https://www.barrypopik.com
Yale Alumni Magazine. (n.d.). The Long, Strange History of the Hot Dog. https://yalealumnimagazine.com/articles/5288
#FoodFactsWeek #HotDogHistory #Linguistics #CuriousCulture #AmericanFoodLore Music thanks to Zapsplat.