The Best Kosher Fourth Of July Hotdog: Hebrew National
Image by iStock
On this auspicious fourth of July, Americans will eat about 150 million hotdogs.
Baked into the heart of Americana, along with baseball games, a love for country music, fast food and Budweiser, is a love for hotdogs. And according to the Guardian’s definitive study, Hebrew National hotdogs were ranked a solid 7.1 out of 10 by the judges who measured for snap and emusification as well as overall taste. They did not measure up to Trader Joe’s all-natural uncured all-beef hot dogs, which scored a sweet 7.4, but ce’est la vie.
Unlike lesser hotdogs such as Casper’s and Nathan’s, Hebrew National was deemed “pretty tasty, if not slightly too salty.” While the hot dog itself isn’t kosher in origin (it’s more Austrian or German), the innovative Jewish butchers of the Lower East Side in the early years of Jewish Americana began developing their own kosher beef hot dogs.
In 1905, Theodore Krainin, a Russian-Jew, created the Hebrew National Kosher Sausage Factory in the Lower East Side, and the rest is history. In fact, a 1921 article in the Globe and Commercial Advertiser acknowledged that Hebrew National had “higher standards than the law requires.” Remember, this was in the days of Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, when people regularly died because of unsanitary factory conditions.
So if you’re a Jew with mixed feelings towards your motherland of ‘Murica, who is still invested in celebrating this holy Independence Day, consider zipping down to your nearest grocery store for some artery-clogging fourth of July goodness.
Shira Feder is a writer. She can be reached at [email protected]
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we need 500 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Our Goal: 500 gifts during our Passover Pledge Drive!
