Let’s get down to the meat of it – are hotdogs a sandwich? It sparks conversation and controversy. I first heard it at summer camp, somewhere in between “Is water wet?” and “Are fish vegetables?”
Both of these had surprisingly solid arguments, down to a molecular level. I talked it over with my fellow campers, reasoning that maybe, because it is meat between two slices of bread that it is a sandwich. However, we continued, is it really two slices of bread if they’re connected?
By that logic, we ruled that a hot dog is a taco and that was the end of it. Our conclusion was supported by the Cube Rule of Food – a diagram that sorts food into categories based on how many of the faces would be covered by bread if that food were cube-shaped.
Now, this conclusion works just fine in a quick argument, but it does fall apart upon closer inspection. Logically, if connected bread makes something a taco, then a sub sandwich would really be a sub taco. But there’s no question that subs are in fact sandwiches, thus both rendering the cube rule unusable, and forcing the conclusion that a hot dog is not a taco.
A much nerdier route could look at the definition and etymology of the word sandwich to see if that provides any historical clarity. However, this very quickly leads to the Earl of Sandwich, who invented the food. Once past his more interesting stories, the investigation will find that the Earl put meat between two slices of bread simply to keep the grease off his fingers.
Through that lens, this goal is still accomplished when the bread is connected. So subs once again are sandwiches. By that definition, so are hotdogs.
One final argument still sticks in my mind, though it is harder to define. The shape of a hot dog is radically different from that of any other sandwich topping. In a sandwich, the protein layer is typically either in multiple pieces or in one flat slice. There is no food unequivocally called a sandwich with a similar oblong filling.
And so, the big answer: no, a hot dog is not a sandwich. Nor is it a taco. Unfortunately, no food category exists that can contain a hot dog. All that can be said for sure is a hot dog is a hot dog.