# Are Hot Dogs sandwiches? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 22, 2014, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-hot-dogs-sandwiches/707928 "2014-12-22T17:18:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2014, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-hot-dogs-sandwiches/707928/161 "2014-12-24T18:17:37Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > I think our friend Spud is on to something here. > > While we’ve all been so focused on the conveyance (i.e. sliced bread vs. split bun) it’s really the ingredient that defines the thing. A hot dog is a hot dog and not a sandwich because it contains meat in the shape of a tube. Similarly, a **lobster roll** is neither a sandwich nor a hot dog because it contains neither sliced nor shredded fillings nor tubular meat; It contains lobster salad. > > So, as it always turns out, your mother was right. It’s _what’s inside_ that counts. Well, that’s what I was getting at before. If the inside is made out of flattish, stacked things, then it’s a sandwich. Tuna fish gets to be a sandwich because it’s a flattish layer of stuff between two flattish bread things. Ice cream sandwiches, the same thing. Some sub sandwiches are, but if they’re loaded with round or lumpy things in nothing resembling a flat layer (meatball, cheesesteak), it’s a sub, but not a sandwich for my purposes. So, a lobster roll might be a sub, but it’s not a sandwich. It might be in the family of sandwich-like things, but it’s not a sandwich in my language. Tacos aren’t sandwiches because their fillings aren’t flattish layers, and neither are empanadas or burritos. They can serve a similar function of being portable food, but they don’t become sandwiches. And how’s a crispy shelled taco not a…nevermind, that’s another thread… ---
**Author:** ![Wings\_Over\_Your\_Wits](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/278dde/32.png) [@Wings\_Over\_Your\_Wits](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wings_Over_Your_Wits)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2014, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-hot-dogs-sandwiches/707928/162 "2014-12-24T18:53:53Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > While we’ve all been so focused on the conveyance (i.e. sliced bread vs. split bun) it’s really the ingredient that defines the thing. A hot dog is a hot dog and not a sandwich because it contains meat in the shape of a tube. Similarly, a **lobster roll** is neither a sandwich nor a hot dog because it contains neither sliced nor shredded fillings nor tubular meat; It contains lobster salad. Hmmm. In _The Last Detail_ Jack Nicholson talked about getting the best “Italian sausage sandwiches” in the world. If an Italian sausage on a roll can be a sandwich, why not a German/Austrian sausage? And a meatball sandwich is a sandwich with meat that is not sliced nor shredded, but balled! ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2014, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-hot-dogs-sandwiches/707928/163 "2014-12-24T19:22:05Z")
> [@Wings\_Over\_Your\_Wits](#): > > Hmmm. In _The Last Detail_ Jack Nicholson talked about getting the best “Italian sausage sandwiches” in the world. If an Italian sausage on a roll can be a sandwich, why not a German/Austrian sausage? And a meatball sandwich is a sandwich with meat that is not sliced nor shredded, but balled! If you order an Italian sausage or a bratwurst at a local deli, you’ll be asked if you want the sandwich or the plate. The difference is that nobody usually thinks of hot dogs as a stand-alone food that’s eaten with a knife and fork. That said, and as somebody pointed out early on, a hot dog is a sausage first, and a sandwich when it’s installed in a bun. I am pleased to note that nobody has spelled it “hotdog”, which would have to be grounds for immediate banning. ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2014, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-hot-dogs-sandwiches/707928/164 "2014-12-24T20:21:46Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > So a tuna salad sandwich is not a sandwich? It’s not like I’d eat one, but it’s still a sandwich. It’s a salad. It says so right there in the name. > [@Zeldar](#): > > Just to pour a little more gas on this fire, I’d like to mention a situation from the early 60’s in Nashville that may have occurred elsewhere since that time. Near the Vandy campus was a little “pie wagon” eatery named **Jerry’s** which was quite popular with students and townsfolk. One of its specialties was the _wiener sandwich_ which consisted of two slices of white bread with a sliced-down-the-middle-lengthwise wiener that had been boiled (or grilled if the customer preferred). Toppings were your choice from an array of those plastic bottles on the counter (mustard, ketchup, mayo, some other sauce styled things) and little dishes of chopped onions, pickles, kraut, chili and maybe others I have forgotten by now, that you could help yourself to. > > I voted “Yes” in the poll, just for reference, and not just out of memory of **Jerry’s**! 🙂 Jerry was wrong. That was not a hotdog nor a sandwich. That was a “weiner tragedy”. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2014, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-hot-dogs-sandwiches/707928/165 "2014-12-24T21:19:50Z")
> [@Drunky\_Smurf](#): > > Jerry was wrong. That was not a **hotdog** nor a sandwich. That was a “weiner tragedy”. Please see the last sentence in the post above yours. Mods, please ban this guy. ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2014, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-hot-dogs-sandwiches/707928/166 "2014-12-24T21:53:58Z")
What? Don’t you like hotdogs? I thought everyone in this thread liked hotdogs. ---
**Author:** ![kanicbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/5f8ce5/32.png) [@kanicbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kanicbird)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2014, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-hot-dogs-sandwiches/707928/167 "2014-12-24T22:13:13Z")
From what I was told about how the sandwich came to be, yes it is unquestionably a sandwich if you can eat it while playing cards and not getting everything messy. As I understand the origins the Earl of Sandwich didn’t want to stop gambling to eat and ordered his staff to place the meat between layers of bread. Now physically it was bread/meat/bread, but the intention was a way to eat meat using bread without having to stop playing cards to do so. This makes modern day conveniences like the split bun acceptable. Open sandwich, not so much as you lose the convenience factor, taco’s also not so much due to the crumbly factor and bread is not it’s container. Perhaps a wrap, unquestionably a sub or hamburger, fish sandwich OK, vegi burger - only in this day and age but yes. Where it gets messy is a sloppy Joe, but it’s all in the name, it tells you right there that it’s going to be messy. ---
**Author:** ![Aquadementia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aquadementia/32/555_2.png) [@Aquadementia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aquadementia)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2014, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-hot-dogs-sandwiches/707928/168 "2014-12-24T22:19:24Z")
Hmmm… The human form is roughly hot dog shaped. Was the Earl of Sandwich buried in a bun or between two slices of bread? ---
**Author:** ![Spud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spud/32/347_2.png) [@Spud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spud)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2014, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-hot-dogs-sandwiches/707928/169 "2014-12-24T22:35:35Z")
> [@Aquadementia](#): > > Hmmm… The human form is roughly hot dog shaped. What kind of humans do you hang around with? I’m glad to say my wife doesn’t fit this description. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2014, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-hot-dogs-sandwiches/707928/170 "2014-12-24T22:58:29Z")
What time are the polls going to close so that we can finalize the results and publish them to the national and international news sites? This analyst is seeing a decisive decision that hot dogs are not, in fact, a sandwich with a comfortable 6 point lead at this hour. I am willing to be bold and the first to call this race in favor of the naysayers. It has been a long, hard fight for vocal opponents on both sides but only one can win in the end and the voters have spoken. Now back to you. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2014, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-hot-dogs-sandwiches/707928/171 "2014-12-24T23:01:43Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > What time are the polls going to close so that we can finalize the results and publish them to the national and international news sites? This analyst is seeing a decisive decision that hot dogs are not, in fact, a sandwich with a comfortable 6 point lead at this hour. I am willing to be bold and the first to call this race in favor of the naysayers. It has been a long, hard fight for vocal opponents on both sides but only one can win. > > Now back to you. I demand a recount. ---
**Author:** ![Spud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spud/32/347_2.png) [@Spud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spud)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2014, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-hot-dogs-sandwiches/707928/172 "2014-12-24T23:04:56Z")
This poll just bears out what I’ve learned about the internet… there typically is as much or more wrong information as there is right. In this case the wrongs are edging the rights slightly. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2014, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-hot-dogs-sandwiches/707928/173 "2014-12-27T19:21:50Z")
> [@Shagnasty](#): > > What time are the polls going to close so that we can finalize the results and publish them to the national and international news sites? This analyst is seeing a decisive decision that hot dogs are not, in fact, a sandwich with a comfortable 6 point lead at this hour. I am willing to be bold and the first to call this race in favor of the naysayers. It has been a long, hard fight for vocal opponents on both sides but only one can win in the end and the voters have spoken. > > Now back to you. Unfortunately, I did not put a timer on this poll, so it will remain open. Currently, 180 people have voted with 83 voting “Yes”, 92 voting “No” and 5 giving their votes to the Opal Memorial. Though I voted “Yes”, I thought the “No” votes would trounce the Yes’s by at least a 2:1 margin. My faith in humanity has been (marginally) restored. However… I’m still trying to figure out how a meatball sandwich (one piece of bread, with part of it hollowed out) is a sandwich while a hot dog (one piece of bread, with part of it hollowed out) is not. ---
**Author:** ![Spud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spud/32/347_2.png) [@Spud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spud)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2014, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-hot-dogs-sandwiches/707928/174 "2014-12-27T23:03:13Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > Unfortunately, I did not put a timer on this poll No… that is a good thing. It gives us time to find 9 more sane people who understand that a sandwich is simply a portable meal that requires no utensils to eat consisting of a bread and usually some type of protein “sandwiched” within. ---
**Author:** ![Spud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spud/32/347_2.png) [@Spud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spud)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2014, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-hot-dogs-sandwiches/707928/175 "2014-12-28T00:18:23Z")
I think I just settled this once and for all. I just saw the latest in the Miller High Life “I am Rich” commercials. At one point they say “I serve finger sandwiches” as they show him taking a hot dog off of the grill and putting it on a bun. If citing a quote from a Miller High Life commercial isn’t good enough for the Straight Dope I don’t know what is. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2014, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-hot-dogs-sandwiches/707928/176 "2014-12-28T00:47:26Z")
> [@Spud](#): > > I think I just settled this once and for all. I just saw the latest in the Miller High Life “I am Rich” commercials. At one point they say “I serve finger sandwiches” as they show him taking a hot dog off of the grill and putting it on a bun. > > If citing a quote from a Miller High Life commercial isn’t good enough for the Straight Dope I don’t know what is. Miller High Life commercials would normally be considered an iron-clad cite here or anywhere but not in this case because it is a parody which proves the point even more. ‘Rich’ is a bumbling plebian that has no idea about anything related to the real world. He thinks his dog qualifies as a butler, his bohemian friends are influential and his NYC walkup views with a single scraggly tree are the epitome of luxury. In his literally black and white world, hot dogs are ‘finger sandwiches’. I don’t know about you but that isn’t a world that I want to live in because it is a dystopian nightmare. I am glad Rich has resigned to his fate to make it psychologically tolerable but that still doesn’t make it right for the rest of us. The whole premise is absurd comedy at its best. Everyone knows that proper finger sandwiches are made with with cucumber slices, white bread and mayonnaise rather than hot dogs on a bun. I applaud Miller High Life for producing such comedy gold. I haven’t seen anything that funny since the punchline ‘Look at the S-car go!’ ---
**Author:** ![Spud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spud/32/347_2.png) [@Spud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spud)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2014, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-hot-dogs-sandwiches/707928/177 "2014-12-28T01:38:03Z")
Ha… you just aren’t sophisticated enough to understand the sarcasm. It is the “finger” part of the saying that is sarcastic. It takes a whole hand to hold a decent hot dog. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2014, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-hot-dogs-sandwiches/707928/178 "2014-12-28T01:43:36Z")
In all seriousness, this exercise is a really good demonstration of the psychology of set theory. I can’t precisely define why I think hot dogs are not sandwiches while very similar foods are. There is no strict definition that would exclude a hot dog from being a ‘sandwich’ yet allow other ones to be included in the definition yet many people still feel strongly about their personal definition even if it can’t stand up to close logical scrutiny. The same thing applies to politics, art and even social relations. I once was a teaching assistant for a very good class on stereotypes. Stereotypes aren’t just something that racists practice because they are evil. Everyone does it to some extent all the time unconsciously. One of the first exercises in the class was to draw a simple chair. Almost everyone’s looked roughly the same. It was just a simple wooden chair with four legs and a fairly straight back. The next exercise was to modify it and then repeat while getting other students to judge if it was still a chair. You can go fairly far on the basic idea and still have almost everyone agree it is a chair but, at some point, the modifications are extreme enough that people start voting it down even if it is still something you can sit on and serves the basic function. That is the beauty of the hot dog question. You hit the sweet spot where roughly half the people start to break off based on their own stereotypes of the image of a sandwich they use for their internal image of the basic concept. Anything that falls outside of that is excluded even if there is no pure logical reason for it. ---
**Author:** ![Spud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spud/32/347_2.png) [@Spud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spud)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2014, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-hot-dogs-sandwiches/707928/179 "2014-12-28T02:06:26Z")
Well sure, that is a pretty eloquent and interesting thought. I still think it boils down to some of us are smart enough to recognize a sandwich when we see one and some of you aren’t. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Aquadementia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aquadementia/32/555_2.png) [@Aquadementia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aquadementia)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2014, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-hot-dogs-sandwiches/707928/180 "2014-12-28T02:57:27Z")
> [@Spud](#): > > What kind of humans do you hang around with? I’m glad to say my wife doesn’t fit this description. Well, no. I guess I wouldn’t expect a woman to. > [@Spud](#): > > I think I just settled this once and for all. I just saw the latest in the Miller High Life “I am Rich” commercials. At one point they say “I serve finger sandwiches” as they show him taking a hot dog off of the grill and putting it on a bun. > > If citing a quote from a Miller High Life commercial isn’t good enough for the Straight Dope I don’t know what is. This proof of yours is a little on the _lite_ side. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-hot-dogs-sandwiches/707928.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-hot-dogs-sandwiches/707928.md?page=10)