Damn, I'm not making the loaf, but I am damn sure going to try those Rueben dogs!! :D
One question though. My thought is to try some raw, frozen and cook in water. To smoke some and re-heat, but I assume im going to have to heat them on the grill and not water to preserve the smoke flavor?
What casings would you use, Collagen or natural? I normally buy from Sausgemaker.com
I'm not real clear on your process but here is what I think would work without issue.
Make some dogs raw and freeze and then cook in water, but you will have no smoke flavor.
Make some dogs and smoke them then freeze them, you will have smoke flavor either way if you grill them or boil them. Probably a little more smoke flavor if you grill but you should be ok either way.
Make dogs and cold smoke so they are still raw, you should still have smoke flavor if you grill or boil them but probably a little more smoke flavor when grilled. Again you should be ok either way :)
If you vac seal your raw dogs (cold smoked or full cooked & smoked) you should be able to heat them up in the in hot water in a pot. This is basically the same thing that Sous Vide people do and you can eliminate the worry about washing away any flavor at all :)
I've only ever used natural castings. I've used both hog (larger) and sheep (hot dog sized) casings so I can't speak to collagen casings. I can say that the sheep casings make something more hot dog sized and the hog castings make something much larger size. It's all your preference but also know that hog casings are easier to work with than sheep casings :)
