60 Fun Facts About Fourth of July Food

The Nathan's Famous hot dog contest is held at the corner of which two Brooklyn avenues?

The men's winner gets a bejeweled yellow belt of 'unknown age and value'; the women's champion gets a pink one.

The story that Nathan's contest began with four immigrants in 1916 was admitted in 2010 to be what?

Promoter Morty Matz confessed he and Max Rosey made it up; The New York Times had repeated the 1916 date for years.

Who won the first women-only Nathan's contest in 2011, eating 40 hot dogs?

Nicknamed the Black Widow, she took home the inaugural Pepto-Bismol pink belt and $10,000.

Which network has broadcast the Nathan's contest live since 2004?

Its most recent rights deal keeps the July 4 spectacle on air through 2029.

Why was reigning champion Joey Chestnut barred from the 2024 Nathan's contest?

Nathan's asked that Impossible Foods' hot dogs be exempted from his contract; Major League Eating said no, and Chestnut ate at Fort Bliss instead.

Takeru Kobayashi's 'Solomon Method' for competitive hot dogs involves what?

He then eats the bun separately; Kobayashi's 50 dogs in 2001 nearly doubled the old record of 25.5.

Roughly how many hot dogs do Americans eat each year?

Nicknames include frank, wiener, weenie, coney and red hot; hot dogs took on patriotic status through their link to ballparks and public events since the 1920s.

In a 2005 National Hot Dog & Sausage Council survey, which condiment was America's favorite on a hot dog?

It won with 32%, ahead of ketchup at 23% and chili at 17%.

In 2015 the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council formally declared that a hot dog is not a what?

Merriam-Webster disagrees, but Joey Chestnut, Takeru Kobayashi and Nathan's Famous side with the council.

Charles Feltman, often credited with first serving sausages in rolls, ran a cart in 1867 where?

His stove-equipped cart sold 'Coney Island Red Hots', and by 1871 he had leased land for a permanent restaurant.

A Chicago-style hot dog is served on what kind of bun?

It is 'dragged through the garden' with tomatoes, onions, sport peppers, neon-green relish, a pickle spear and celery salt, and never ketchup.

'Texas hot dogs', a spicy variant, are actually a specialty of which region?

American hot dog names are famously misleading: 'Coney Island' dogs are big in Michigan, and 'Michigan' dogs in upstate New York.

Hamburgers gained national fame in the US at which 1904 event?

The New York Tribune called the burger 'the innovation of a food vendor on the pike'; Fletcher Davis of Athens, Texas, is one of several who claim to have been that vendor.

'Hamburger Charlie' Nagreen claims he invented the burger in 1885 at a fair in which state?

He was 15 and selling at the Seymour Fair; the same year the Menches brothers say they did it at the Erie County Fair in Hamburg, New York.

Which New Haven eatery, founded in 1895, claims to be the birthplace of the hamburger?

Louis Lassen supposedly grilled ground steak trimmings and served them between two slices of toast around 1900.

Which 18th-century cookbook contained a recipe for 'Hamburgh sausage' to be served on toasted bread?

Hannah Glasse's 1758 edition is one of the earliest ancestors of the burger; a Hamburg snack called 'Rundstück warm' is another.

Barbecue was first introduced to what became the United States by which people, via Christopher Columbus?

The word comes from the Spanish 'barbacoa', which originally meant to preserve meat by drying or slow roasting.

In which decade did cheap backyard grills drive barbecue's mass adoption in America?

That is the same decade George Stephen built the first Weber kettle out of two halves of a metal buoy.

In the Carolinas, 'barbecue' means only one meat. Which?

It is served whole-hog or as pulled shoulder, and Carolina hog barbecue is considered the starting point of the whole American barbecue tradition.

Memphian Henry Perry brought barbecue to which town, now famous for thick, sweet tomato-based sauce?

Arthur Bryant's descends directly from Perry's joint, and french fries are the standard side.

Memphis-style ribs come in two forms. What are they called?

Wet ribs are brushed with sauce; dry ribs get a rub. Memphians also pile pulled pork onto spaghetti, pizza and nachos.

Texas brisket owes its popularity to settlers of which background?

Central Texas 'meat market' style, by contrast, grew out of the butcher shops of German and Czech settlers.

Alabama white sauce, served on smoked chicken, is based on what?

Bob Gibson created it in Decatur, Alabama, in the 1920s at the restaurant that still bears his name.

Santa Maria-style barbecue from California's Central Coast is built around which cut of beef?

It is grilled over red oak and seasoned with little more than salt and garlic.

George Stephen built the first Weber kettle grill in 1951 from parts meant for what?

He welded two sheet-metal half-spheres from his Chicago shop, and an early nickname for the grill was 'Sputnik'.

Kingsford charcoal briquettes were originally a byproduct of which industrialist's car factories?

Model T production created mountains of wood scraps, and Ford had them turned into charcoal at his Michigan sawmill town, later renamed Kingsford.

Roughly what share of the US charcoal market does Kingsford hold?

More than a million tons of wood scraps are turned into its briquettes every year.

Botanically, a watermelon is what kind of fruit?

Specifically a pepo, a berry with a hard rind and no internal divisions; the rind is edible once cooked.

Where was the modern watermelon first cultivated?

It reached Egypt by 2000 BC and China by the 10th century; today China grows about 64% of the world's watermelons.

Which US state produces more watermelon than any other?

About 44 states grow it commercially, worth more than $500 million a year.

By 2014, seedless varieties made up roughly what share of US watermelon sales?

Japanese scientists first bred seedless triploid hybrids in 1939, but they lacked disease resistance and took decades to catch on.

Apple pie was first recorded in which country, in the 14th century?

American versions are known for being considerably sweeter than European ones.

Ritz promoted a famous 'mock apple pie' recipe from the 1930s that used what instead of apples?

Mock apple pie was probably invented for use aboard ships and was known to the Royal Navy as early as 1812.

In American dairy regions, apple pie is traditionally topped with a slice of what?

The custom dates to 17th-century England and survives in dairy regions of the US and Canada.

For whom was the first recorded cherry pie baked?

It is also linked to Washington's Birthday, thanks to the legend of the felled cherry tree.

The oldest known potato salad recipe, from 1621, was written by an Austrian what?

Caspar Plautz of Seitenstetten Abbey; the American version likely descends from North German potato salad.

Once picked, sweet corn can lose up to a quarter of its sweetness in how long?

The sugar converts to starch, which is why corn on the cob is best cooked the day it is harvested.

Corn on the cob is picked while the kernels are in which phase of development?

That is when the endosperm is still tender; the Mexican street version is elote and the Japanese one is yaki-tomorokoshi.

What two-word phrase was contracted to name the graham-cracker-and-marshmallow campfire treat?

Girl Scouts were recorded making 'Some Mores' in the mid-1920s, and the contraction appeared by the 1930s.

The s'more's predecessor, the Marshmallow Marguerite, was a buttered marshmallow on what?

Marguerites stayed popular at women's luncheons into the 1930s while the campfire s'more took over among scouts.

Coleslaw takes its name from a Dutch word meaning what?

'Koolsla' was anglicised in the 18th century; the 'cole' comes ultimately from Latin caulis, cabbage.

At some Southern and Midwestern church suppers, a picnic egg dish is renamed 'stuffed eggs' to avoid which word?

They become 'stuffed eggs', 'salad eggs' or 'dressed eggs'; the culinary sense of 'devilled' for spicy food dates to the 1700s.

Frank Epperson, who patented the Popsicle in 1923, said he first made one by accident as a boy in 1905 by leaving what on his porch overnight?

He was 11, in Oakland, and later worked as a lemonade salesman; the story is still printed on Popsicle boxes.

Epperson's original name for his frozen treat, before it became the Popsicle, was what?

He debuted it in seven fruit flavors at Neptune Beach amusement park as a 'frozen lollipop' or 'drink on a stick'.

The red, white and blue Bomb Pop's classic flavors are cherry, blue raspberry and what?

James Merritt and D.S. Abernethy invented it in Kansas City, Missouri, on July 30, 1955.

Boston-style baked beans are sweetened with what?

Northern New England uses maple syrup instead; both are cooked with salt pork in a beanpot for six to eight hours.

Which company is the largest producer of canned baked beans in the United States?

Heinz dominates in Europe, where its beans were reformulated into a less sweet tomato sauce for British tastes.

Who published the first known recipe for tomato ketchup, in 1812?

Earlier 'ketchups' were made from mushrooms, oysters, walnuts or fish; an 1817 tomato recipe still included anchovies.

Modern thick ketchup emerged in the early 1900s from a fight over which preservative?

Heinz sidestepped the debate by pickling ripe tomatoes in more vinegar, so no benzoate was needed.

The story that potato chips were invented at Moon's Lake House in Saratoga Springs is now known to be what?

An English recipe for potatoes 'fried in slices or shavings' appeared in The Cook's Oracle in 1817, decades before the George Crum legend.

In the 1920s Laura Scudder kept potato chips fresh by pioneering bags made from what?

Her workers ironed sheets of it into bags at home, then filled them at her Monterey Park, California factory the next day.

Charles Hires debuted his commercial root beer at which 1876 event?

Prohibition later gave non-alcoholic root beer a boost, and A&W's Roy Allen added the frosty mug in 1919.

Most commercial root beer stopped using real sassafras after the FDA banned which compound in 1960?

It was found to be carcinogenic; today artificial sassafras flavoring stands in for the root bark.

The oldest known sweet tea recipe, from an 1878 Virginia cookbook, called for which kind of tea?

Black tea took over during World War II, when Japan's advance cut off America's green tea supply.

Kool-Aid was invented in 1927 in which state, which still celebrates 'Kool-Aid Days'?

Edwin Perkins made it in his mother's kitchen in Hastings by drying a liquid concentrate called Fruit Smack; it is the state's official soft drink.

Jell-O was born in 1897 when Pearle Bixby Wait trademarked the name in which New York town?

He and his wife May flavored sugar and granulated gelatin with strawberry, raspberry, orange and lemon.

One origin story for the sloppy joe credits a bar owner in which city in 1917?

José 'Sloppy Joe' Abeal y Otero's ground-beef-and-tomato creation may have been his take on ropa vieja; Hemingway later got a Key West bar renamed Sloppy Joe's.

How did George Washington mark July 4, 1778 for his troops at Ross Hall, New Jersey?

He added an artillery salute, while across the Atlantic John Adams and Benjamin Franklin hosted a dinner for Americans in Paris.

A company of lemonade sellers, the Compagnie de Limonadiers, was doing business in Paris by which year?

An Egyptian lemonade recipe had reached England by 1663, and Samuel Pepys was drinking it in London in the 1660s.

What colour is the 'bejeweled' championship belt awarded to the winner of the Nathan's men's contest?

IFOCE co-founder George Shea says the belt is of 'unknown age and value' and rests in the country of its owner.