Here’s why hot dogs cut the mustard as a Fourth of July favorite

Sonoma Valley Rotary sold 1,400 barbecued Schwarz all-beef hot dogs on its handmade Howie grill – so named to honor the late Howie Ehret - on the Fourth of July.

Americans devoured more than 155 million hot dogs on our nation’s birthday – how did this happened?

Many men claim to have created the highly processed hot dog in Frankfurt-am-Main or Coberg, Germany, and others have claimed to have started the import and manufacturing trend in the United States.

In 1893, St. Louis bar owner Chris Von de Ahe, who also owned the St. Louis Browns baseball team, served the sausages in his bar. The same year, they were served at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, and at the Browns’ ball park.

By 1894 a “dog wagon” sold the sausages in Yale dorms, with the “dog” part of the name a sarcastic guess at the source of the meat.

Nowadays, of course, there’s Nathan’s highly publicized July 4 hot dog eating contest, with qualifying trials held all over the country, including during the 2014 and 2015 NASCAR races at Sonoma Raceway. Joey Chestnut regained the mustard belt prize this Fourth of July by downing 70 hot dogs and buns in 10 minutes.

Nathan’s was founded by Polish immigrant Nathan Handwerker in 1916, when he sold hot dogs made from his wife Ida’s recipe at a small stand in Coney Island. Not sure if they “handwerked” the sausages or not.

Always claiming to have the finest hot dogs in the world, Nathan must have been a charmer, because he attracted early fans and returning devotees such as Al Capone, Eddie Cantor, Jimmy Durante and Cary Grant. According to Nathan’s website, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt served Nathan’s Famous Hot Dogs to the King and Queen of England in 1939. Later, New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller apparently said, “No man can hope to be elected in this state without being photographed eating a hot dog at Nathan’s Famous.”

Barbra Streisand had Nathan’s dogs delivered to London for a private party, “Seinfeld” featured them in a whole episode, and Jackie Kennedy reportedly served them at the White House.

At last month’s NASCAR races at Sonoma Raceway, Sheana Davis, of Sonoma, posted a hot-dog recipe on Nathan’s Facebook page and won a $1,000 gift certificate to SaveMart supermarkets and a year’s worth of Nathan’s Hot Dogs for a year. Her winner: a bacon-wrapped hot dog with homemade pickles.

The front page of Nathan’s website shows a package of “8 bun-length skinless beef franks.” Doesn’t that depend on the size of your buns? Pun intended.