Is a hot dog a sandwich?

This was a debate offered up by one Michael Nocella, my Assistant Managing Editor at Odyssey, and it sparked some pretty intense conversations both among Odyssey creators and my personal friends.

In a brainstorming message session among Odyssey creators he posed the pivotal question: “Is the hot dog considered a sandwich?” After some serious debating, a little research, and even some unanswered requests seeking the opinion of some very powerful political figures, I’ve found that there is no general consensus on this subject. Having discussed it with many people, my original stance remains: while I understand the case against it, I believe the hot dog is a sandwich.

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Let’s break this down a bit, shall we?

Whether you’ve thought about it or not, the “Hot Dog Sandwich” debate has been around for quite a while. There are many definitions for what makes a sandwich, whether it is defined by its containment (bread, sub roll, wrap, etc.) or what’s in it (some people refuse to call it a sandwich without cheese), there is no shortage of gray area to argue about. I personally define sandwich as any combination of meats and cheeses contained by one or more pieces of bread. Now I know what you’re thinking- a hot dog bun is only one piece of bread! That may be true, but considering how often hot dog buns snap at the hinge, my purpose is served more often than not. There is also the argument of appearance and functionality having more significance than physical definition. The bread of a sandwich allows the consumer to grab the item by both the top and bottom, and while a cylindrical hot dog may not necessarily have a top or bottom, it still appears to have bread on both sides allowing for a grip all the way around. The “one piece of bread” argument is vaguely reminiscent of one opinion I heard, in which someone claimed a club sandwich (such as a triple-decker BLT) isn’t a sandwich either, as it contains a third piece of bread. Functionality trumps physical definition when defining what makes a sandwich.

Consider this: you go to lunch with someone and you’re handed a plate containing French fries, a long, single piece of bread topped with warm roast beef, beef gravy, and melted mozzarella cheese. What do you call this? I for one would refer to it as an open-faced roast beef sandwich. While it may be open-faced, and only sitting on one piece of bread, many establishments continue to refer to it as a sandwich. Number of pieces of bread does not matter, as long as the meats, cheeses, and sauces remain on the bread, as it is still a containment unit. Many people define sandwiches as a finger-food, but open-faced sandwiches clearly blow this stance out of the water.

While other authorities have weighed in on this definition, from Merriam-Webster declaring it a sandwich, to the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council declaring it a food group all its own, all food retains the same subjectivism as other forms of art. We all search for meaning within our food, assigning different meanings for different things. While I understand people might make another case, I do not agree and will go to my grave firmly believing that the hot dog is a sandwich.