Edibles & Potables: The quest for traditional West Virginia hot dogs

<div>Edibles & Potables: The quest for traditional West Virginia hot dogs</div>
The spread at Bogey’s Driving Range.

You haven’t had the full West Virginia experience until you’ve sunk your teeth into a traditional West Virginian hot dog. This hot dog is piled high with chili, slaw, mustard, and onions. The unique combination of ingredients has been eaten in this state for decades — West Virginia Tourism

As with any state, West Virginia means different things to different people. I’d have not guessed that the West Virginia state of mind included a unique way of consuming hot dogs. Let’s have a look.

Emily Hillard, author of Making Our Future: Visionary Folklore and Everyday Culture in Appalachia, observes that the first recorded instance of West Virginians adding slaw to their hot dogs came in 1922, for reasons unknown, but “there were traditions of coleslaw and cabbage with German immigrants and Eastern European immigrants who were living in West Virginia at the time.”

New Book Explores History Of West Virginia Hot Dogs, by Zack Harold (West Virginia Public Broadcasting)

Harold: There’s so much that we could cover. I would like to talk about something that’s near and dear to my heart — your chapter...Read more