Ah, the Chicago-style hot dog: an overflowing culinary sculpture, a reflection of the convergence of immigrant cultures and the city’s hard-working, no-nonsense ethos. But what makes a hot dog Chicago-style, and how was it created?
“A Chicago-style hot dog is the perfect metaphor [for] Chicago,” Chicago sommelier Alpana Singh told Chicago Stories. “How do we make it loud? How do we make it proud? How do we make it colorful?”
Chicago’s population boomed in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, driven in part by an influx of European immigrants. At Maxwell Street Market, German butchers sold a variety of sausages, but they were labor-intensive and expensive. The introduction of the commercial meat grinder changed that, as did the population growth of Jewish immigrants in Chicago in search of a kosher, all-beef option. Two sausage-makers with Austro-Hungarian roots named Emil Reichel and Samuel Ladany introduced the all-beef hot dog at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. Their 10-cent offering was a success, prompting them to open the Vienna Sausage Company, which is still going strong and continues to supply hot dog stands. Street vendors selling hot dogs out of carts became a popular and affordable way for immigrants to grab a quick bite to eat during the work day. But soon the city cracked down on these carts, calling them “unsanitary.”
“Much of this really has to do with anti-immigrant sentiment,” Daniel Block, professor and author of Chicago: A Food Biography, told Chicago Stories.
Permanent hot dog stands began popping up, and during the Great Depression, hot dog stand owners began adding vegetable toppings. The question of who exactly created the first Chicago-style hot dog remains somewhat of a mystery, but the Chicago-style hot dog today has a pretty standardized set of guidelines with these ingredients: an all-beef frankfurter, a poppy seed bun, yellow mustard, bright green sweet pickle relish, chopped white onions, tomato slices or wedges, sport peppers, a dill pickle spear, and celery salt.
According to Axios reporter, food expert, and Chicago Stories: Iconic Foods writer Monica Eng, the ingredients tell the story of twentieth-century immigration to Chicago. The poppy seed bun and the pickle spear are a reflection of Eastern Europe, while the dog itself is an Austrian or German contribution. The mustard is also German, while that vibrant sweet pickle relish is a British contribution. Greeks and Italians gave us the elements that make it “dragged through the garden” – onions and tomatoes. The sport pepper is either a Mexican-American addition dating back to the World’s Fair, or it was brought by Black Americans from Louisiana and Mississippi that came to Chicago during the Great Migration. Finally, the celery salt is a Chicago contribution, since the city was key to celery production at the turn of the century.
One ingredient that’s definitely not on the Chicago-style hot dog? Why, that would be the dreaded ketchup. Eng compared the ingredients to a “beautiful orchestra,” and sugary ketchup would “come in with a big bassoon and ruin everything.”
Today, it’s not hard to find a Chicago-style hot dog. Though sometimes the style varies a bit, you can get a Chicago dog at spots such as Wiener’s Circle, Superdawg, Gene and Jude’s, Jimmy’s Red Hots, Byron’s, 35th Street Red Hots, Fat Johnnie’s Famous Red Hots, and many, many more.
How to Make Your Own Chicago-Style Dog
Ingredients
- 1 all-beef frankfurter
- 1 poppy seed bun
- Yellow mustard
- Bright green sweet pickle relish
- Chopped white onions
- Tomato slices or wedges
- Sport peppers
- Dill pickle spear
- Celery salt
Cook your hot dog by boiling it in water for 5 minutes. Add the cooked dog to the bun (if you want to go all out, steam the bun!), top with mustard, relish, and onions. Add your dill pickle spear on one side, and two tomato wedges on the other. Top with a couple of sport peppers, and sprinkle with celery salt.
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