The Hot Dog

The hot dog — a cooked, smoked, or cured sausage of beef (or beef-and-pork) served in a split roll with regional toppings — arrived in America through German immigrants in the mid-19th century and became the quintessential American street food, stadium food, and cookout food. The hot dog is eaten at every baseball game, every Fourth of July cookout, every state fair, and every corner cart in New York City. The regional variations are as fiercely defended as BBQ styles: **New York** (mustard, sauerkraut, onion sauce), **Chicago** (mustard, relish, onion, tomato, pickle spear, sport peppers, celery salt on a poppy seed bun — NEVER ketchup), **Detroit** (Coney Island — chili, mustard, onion), **Sonoran** (bacon-wrapped, beans, mayo, grilled onion — the Mexican-American variation from Tucson).

An emulsified sausage (beef, or beef-and-pork — finely ground, seasoned with garlic, paprika, mustard seed, and coriander, stuffed into a casing and smoked or steam-cooked) served in a split-top soft roll with toppings. The dog should snap when bitten (if natural casing) — the casing's snap is the quality indicator. Skinless dogs (extruded without casing) are the mass-market standard but lack the snap.