Frankfurter and wiener are meat products made from cooked pieces of beef, pork, and veal stuffed into animal or cellulose casings. In commercial usage wieners are the small varieties, frankfurters the large ones, up to a foot long. Both terms reflect Old World centers of the sausage industry: Frankfurt an der Oder, now divided between East Germany and Poland; and Vienna, in Austria, called Wien in German. Sausages, about the size and shape of wieners, are generally stuffed with spiced-pork products. The term "hot dog" seems to have arisen about 1900 in the United States from a comic strip. "Red hots" became popular in 1939 when George VI of Great Britain ate them at a picnic given by President Franklin D. Roosevelt at Hyde Park, N.Y.
A frankfurter on a bun is a good base for a meal. A frankfurter 5½ inches long with a ¾-inch diameter contains 146 calories. Sausage makers have reason to believe that the consumption of frankfurters varies according to the number and size of outdoor arenas, stadiums, auditoriums, and bathing beaches.
