Alan Stark Geisler (September 30, 1930 – January 6, 2009) was an American
food chemist
Food chemistry is the study of chemical processes and interactions of all biological and non-biological components of foods. The biological substances include such items as meat, poultry, lettuce, beer, milk as examples. It is similar to biochemist ...
, best known for creating the
red onion
Red onions (also known as purple or blue onions in some mainland European countries, though not the UK) are cultivars of the onion ('' Allium cepa''), and have purplish-red skin and white flesh tinged with red. They are most commonly used in c ...
sauce
In cooking, a sauce is a liquid, cream, or semi-solid food, served on or used in preparing other foods. Most sauces are not normally consumed by themselves; they add flavor, moisture, and visual appeal to a dish. ''Sauce'' is a French wor ...
most often used as a
condiment
A condiment is a preparation that is added to food, typically after cooking, to impart a specific flavor, to enhance the flavor, or to complement the dish. A table condiment or table sauce is more specifically a condiment that is served separat ...
topping on
hot dog
A hot dog (uncommonly spelled hotdog) is a food consisting of a grilled or steamed sausage served in the slit of a partially sliced bun. The term hot dog can refer to the sausage itself. The sausage used is a wiener ( Vienna sausage) or a f ...
s in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
The Record (Bergen County)
''The Record'' (also called ''The North Jersey Record'', ''The Bergen Record'', ''The Sunday Record'' (Sunday edition) and formerly ''The Bergen Evening Record'') is a newspaper in New Jersey, United States. Serving Bergen, Essex, Hudson and ...
'', January 9, 2009, backed up by the
Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...
as of December 26, 2016. Accessed October 9, 2018. "Alan Geisler of Mahwah, a food chemist who created the tangy red onion sauce that pushcart vendors slather over Sabrett hot dogs, died Tuesday at his winter home in Hernando, Fla. He was 78.... In 1960, Mr. Geisler -- a Tenafly High School graduate who received a bachelor's degree in food technology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology -- founded a company that manufactures emulsifiers, shortenings and other ingredients for the baking industry.... Mr. Geisler, a 45-year resident of Mahwah, was still active in the company he founded a half-century ago, Technical Oil Products Inc. in Boonton, said Glenn Geisler, a partner." Specifically, the sauce, which is marketed as Sabrett's Prepared Onions, is usually served on Sabrett brand hot dogs sold by New York's many pushcart hot dog vendors.
Sabrett
brand
A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create ...
Tenafly High School
Tenafly High School is a four-year comprehensive community public high school in Tenafly in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States, serving students in ninth through twelfth grades as the lone secondary school of the Tenafly Public Schools. S ...
in
Tenafly, New Jersey
Tenafly () is a Borough (New Jersey), borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census the borough had a population of 15,409,food technology from the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...
. He served as an officer in the Quartermaster Corps of the US Army during the Korean War.
Geisler resided in
Mahwah, New Jersey
Mahwah is the northernmost and largest municipality by geographic area () in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the population of the township was 25,487, a decline of 403 from the 25,890 counted in the ...
, for 45 years. He was an ardent stamp collector and dealer, and an original member of the Apple Ridge Golf and Country Club of Mahwah, NJ. An avid golfer with a 4 handicap at one time, he won the Club Championship in all four flights, and throughout his career eagled all 18 holes. He played the bagpipes with the Fairleigh Dickinson University Pipe Band and the Kearny Caledonian Pipe Band for several years, even performing in the St. Patrick Day Parade in NYC.
Career
Geisler founded a company that manufactured
shortening
Shortening is any fat that is a solid at room temperature and used to make crumbly pastry and other food products. Although butter is solid at room temperature and is frequently used in making pastry, the term ''shortening'' seldom refers to b ...
baked goods
Baking is a method of preparing food that uses dry heat, typically in an oven, but can also be done in hot ashes, or on hot stones. The most common baked item is bread but many other types of foods can be baked. Heat is gradually transferred ...
industry in 1960.
One of his customers was Gregory Papalexis, who manufactured both hot dogs and
hot dog bun
A hot dog bun is a type of soft bun shaped specifically to contain a hot dog or another type of sausage.
The side-loading bun is common in most of the United States, while the top-loading New England-style hot dog bun is popular in that regio ...
s. Papalexis's customers included hot dog street vendors, who often made a popular homemade, but time laborious, onion sauce as a topping. Papalexis asked Geisler to come up with a factory-made onion sauce for the hot dog vendors to sell at their carts in New York City.
Geisler, with input from Papalexis, created a new, mass-produced onion sauce for hot dogs. The main formula and spice blends of the sauce consisted predominantly of
onion
An onion (''Allium cepa'' L., from Latin ''cepa'' meaning "onion"), also known as the bulb onion or common onion, is a vegetable that is the most widely cultivated species of the genus ''Allium''. The shallot is a botanical variety of the onio ...
tomato paste
Tomato paste is a thick paste made by cooking tomatoes for several hours to reduce the water content, straining out the seeds and skins, and cooking the liquid again to reduce the base to a thick, rich concentrate. It is used to impart an inten ...
, which gives the sauce its distinctive red coloring. The sauce proved to be a hit with both the street vendors, who no longer had to make their own time-consuming sauces, and hot dog consumers.
Geisler and Papalexis partnered to form their own company, called Tremont Foods, to market and make the new red onion sauce. The sauce was initially sold to New York City hot dogs vendors under the brand names Tremont Foods or House of Weenies.
Papalexis acquired Sabrett Food Products in 1989. As a result of the acquisition, Geisler's onion sauce became the only onion sauce served on Sabrett hot dogs by vendors in New York City. The red onion condiment also became available for purchase in supermarkets under the Sabrett's brand. It is marketed nationwide as "Sabrett's Prepared Onions."
As of 2009, Geisler's red onion sauce enjoys "a couple of million dollars a year in sales," according to Papalexis. Geisler's and Papalexis's original company, Tremont Foods, is currently a
division
Division or divider may refer to:
Mathematics
*Division (mathematics), the inverse of multiplication
*Division algorithm, a method for computing the result of mathematical division
Military
*Division (military), a formation typically consisting ...
of Marathon Enterprises, Inc., which owns the Sabrett trademark. (Marathon Enterprises is owned by Papalexis.) The only product made by Tremont Foods is the popular red onion sauce. The sauce is manufactured in
The Bronx
The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...
, but production is scheduled to shift to a new facility, in
Fair Lawn, New Jersey
Fair Lawn is a borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States, and a bedroom suburb located northwest of New York City. As of the 2020 United States Census, the borough’s population was 34,940, which constituted a 7.7% increase from 32, ...
, in 2009.
Geisler remained active with the company until his death in 2009.
Death
Geisler died at his winter home in Hernando, Florida, on January 6, 2009, at the age of 78. Geisler had been suffering from a
protein
Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including catalysing metabolic reactions, DNA replication, res ...
disorder
Disorder may refer to randomness, non-order, or no intelligible pattern.
Disorder may also refer to:
Healthcare
* Disorder (medicine), a functional abnormality or disturbance
* Mental disorder or psychological disorder, a psychological pattern ...
called amyloidosis. He was survived by his wife, Jean Geisler, his daughter, Martha Geisler, his son, Glenn Geisler, his brother and a grandson.
See also
*
Street food
Street food is ready-to-eat food or drinks sold by a hawker, or vendor, in a street or at other public places, such as markets or fairs. It is often sold from a portable food booth, food cart, or food truck and is meant for immediate consumpt ...