The original slim pork sausage in natural casing, gently heated in water, never boiled, and eaten with bread, mustard and horseradish. Every hot dog on earth is a distant, lesser descendant.
Frankfurt's butchers were smoking slim pork sausages for the city's fairs centuries before the name travelled. The designation Frankfurter Würstchen has been protected in Germany since 1929, reserved for the smoked pork sausage in sheep casing made in the Frankfurt region. Emigrant butchers carried the style to Vienna and on to America, where it mutated into the hot dog. At home the rules stay strict: warmed in hot water off the boil so the casing never splits, served in pairs, eaten with the fingers.
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