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Few
East Texas foods are as well-known
as those spicy sausages, better known as “hot links,” served at Pittsburg
(the one in East Texas).
The
hot links were first sold in 1897 by Charlie Hasselback, of German descent,
who sold the uncooked links from a building on Pittsburg’s
Main Street to customers, who prepared the links for meals at home.
By
1918, Hasselback was serving cooked links with crackers on heavy butcher’s paper.
A special hot sauce was served in soda pop bottles. Hasselback’s customers could
eat the links on the spot or carry them home, which became popular with the town’s
housewives. In those days, the links were sold for two for a nickel, five for
a dime and a dozen for a quarter.
The links’ reputation spread widely
and railroad crews on Pittsburg’s
two lines scheduled stopovers in the town, and walked up an alley to Hasselback’s
store for noon and evening meals. So did truckers from the main highways.
Hasselback sold his business in 1929 to O.O. Smith, who continued to produce
the links. Others also started serving hot links, and their reputation kept spreading
throughout East Texas.
Gene
Warrick got into the hot link business in the 1950s, but sold out a year later.
However, by the early 1970s, Warrick was back in business with Jimmy Brooks
and they were soon serving 600 pounds of meat a week.
In 1977, Brooks
became the sole owner and started serving links under the name of JB’s Hot
Links. The company was later incorporated as Pittsburg Hot Links Packers,
Inc.
Today, the company prepares and ships out 15,000 to 17,000 pounds
of hot links a week for retail sales throughout Texas.
Someone once figured out that if Pittsburg
hot links were made 40 hours a week and the production was spread out over 24-hour
days for a year, the output would average 13 raw links a minute.
Today,
other hot links are served elsewhere in East
Texas, but the links in Pittsburg
are still the champs.
Bob Bowman's
East Texas
December 19, 2010Column.
A weekly column syndicated in 109 East Texas newspapers |
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