So, I got this weird craving the other day, you know? Not for anything fancy, just one of those bagel dogs. Chewy bagel wrapped around a hot dog, simple stuff. But as I was thinking about it, a question popped into my head: when did these things actually start showing up? Like, who first thought, “Let’s wrap this sausage in bagel dough”?
Naturally, I did what anyone does. Fired up the computer, opened a search engine. My first attempt was pretty basic: “when were bagel dogs invented”. Seemed straightforward enough. But the results? Kind of a mess. Lots of recipes, articles about where to buy the best bagel dogs today, some stuff about regular bagels, some about hot dogs. Nothing concrete about the origin story.
Okay, refine the search. Tried adding terms like “history”, “origin”, “first made”. That helped a little. Started seeing some names and dates pop up. Found a few forum threads, you know, people asking the same question I had. Some answers pointed towards the 1970s, others mentioned the 1980s. It wasn’t exactly clear cut.
Digging a Bit Deeper
This is where it got interesting. I started noticing a name: Milan R. Berger. Several sources mentioned him and his company, Bessin Corporation, patenting a machine in 1980 specifically designed to wrap dough around sausages. That sounded pretty official. A patent usually means you’re trying to claim something specific, right? So, 1980 seemed like a strong candidate.
But then, I saw other mentions, less specific, floating around the idea that something like a bagel dog existed earlier. Some vague claims about the 1970s, maybe even earlier experiments. You know how food history is, it’s rarely a single ‘eureka!’ moment that’s perfectly documented. People mess around in kitchens all the time.
- Tried searching for “Bessin Corporation bagel dog”.
- Looked for news articles from the early 1980s mentioning the product.
- Scanned discussions about kosher delis or bakeries, thinking maybe it started there.
Finding those old articles or definitive proof from the 70s was tough, though. It felt like chasing ghosts. Lots of hearsay, not much solid evidence. The Berger patent story, however, kept showing up with a specific date and mechanism. It felt more grounded.
So, What’s the Verdict?
After going down that rabbit hole for a while, here’s what I gathered. Pinpointing the exact birthdate? Tricky. Like with lots of food inventions, it might have evolved, or different people might have had similar ideas around the same time.
But, the most solid lead seems to point towards the late 1970s or, more concretely, around 1980. That’s when Milan R. Berger apparently patented his machine and started marketing them more widely under the Bessin Corporation name. Before that? Maybe someone, somewhere, wrapped some bagel dough around a hot dog in their kitchen. It’s possible. But the commercial popularization, the thing that made it ‘a thing’? Seems like 1980 is the strongest contender I could find through my digging.
It’s funny how something so simple can have a slightly fuzzy history. Anyway, that was my little investigation for the day. Now I really want one.
