Are Hot Dogs Sandwiches? The National Hot Dog And Sausage Council Settles The Debate

There are two types of rules — those that live in books and those that exist in our hearts. This is a very philosophical way to start a story about hot dogs, but understanding this dichotomy can actually help answer a question that never seems to get a satisfying answer: Are hot dogs sandwiches? The clearest, most impassioned, and informed opinion comes from the authority on the matter, which is the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council, or NHDSC, a group established by the American Meat Institute in 1994. This is not a regulatory body, but it does know hot dogs better than anyone.

On its website, the NHDSC provides 12 humorous yet valid reasons that a hot dog is not a sandwich, focussing largely on the established social or symbolic relationship we have with hotdogs that distinguish them from sandwiches. For example, reason No. 12 is "If you won the lottery, would you say 'Sand wich!' No, you'd say, 'hot dog!'" While these aren't based on hardline categorical definitions, they reveal that, really, a hot dog being called a hot dog means the most to the people who enjoy them.

One such opinionated hot dog enjoyer was the late-but-legendary Anthony Bourdain. In one of his famous Reddit ask-me-anythings, the celebrity chef and writer was asked where he stood on the debate, and he sided with the NHDSC, saying, "I mean, if you were to talk [to] any vendor of fine hot dogs, and ask for a hot dog sandwich, they would probably report you to the FBI. As they should."

Things get muddy for the hot dog's definition when it gets lumped in with broader definitions for sandwiches. Mirriam-Webster's definition of a sandwich as "two or more slices of bread or a split roll having a filling in between" could include hot dogs, while the Oxford English Dictionary's "an article of food for a light meal or snack, composed of two thin slices of bread, usually buttered, with a savoury ... or other filling" could easily exclude hot dogs.

Back to the town square of the internet, Reddit, one user takes a logical yet facetious approach to grouping hot dogs in with sandwiches: "It's simple; there are two kinds of food, a sandwich and not a sandwich," specifying, "Any meat, filling held between two stable planes, such as a tor[t]illa or sliced bread or bun, is a sandwich. A burrito is a sandwich. A hot [dog], a hamburger, even a taco." Now, them's fighting words and would certainly elicit a Bourdain tip-off to the FBI.

For sales tax purposes, some states, such as New York, define sandwiches as including "hot dogs and sausages on buns, rolls, etc." Legislative definitions like this simplify taxation, but don't address the position and historical identity hot dogs actually hold in daily life. If a hot dog is not another sandwich because that's how it feels to people, that's reason enough, at least to the NHDSC. It is the expert, after all.