Yep. Another hot dog thread.

[SmokyMose]

It's funny but some sausage recipes have 3 ingredients and are good, but almost every hot dog (frankfurter) recipe I've seen has 8, 10, 12 ingredients. I finally figured out it's small amounts of signature spices that make the flavor pop. For example, I don't use mace in anything but hotdogs.

I agree. Too many ingredients wash themselves out. That's what I liked about the 2 recipes I worked from on this.
Salt, white pepper, paprika, mace and garlic. I liked the coriander and changed a couple things but the base was simple.

 

[JLeonard]

man yeah! Bring on the onions, chili, and cheese! Good looking dogs!

Jim

 

[indaswamp]

Nice dogs smokeymose. I have taken to the habit of filling the stuffer tube with mince prior to sliding the casings on. Solves the problem with air...

 

[SmokyMose]

Nice dogs smokeymose. I have taken to the habit of filling the stuffer tube with mince prior to sliding the casings on. Solves the problem with air...

Thank you!
Now that's an idea to remember.....

 

[chopsaw]

, white pepper

That's a key ingredient in some sausage . I'm betting a lot skip it or sub in something else .

 

[SmokyMose]

That's a key ingredient in some sausage . I'm betting a lot skip it or sub in something else .

Not just sausage but a lot of other things. My big GFS container is almost empty....

 

[SmokinEdge]

In hotdogs and bologna, two spices are key.
1) Ground Mace (don’t use nutmeg)
2) White Pepper.
These two change the game, at least for me.

 

[thirdeye]

Nice dogs smokeymose. I have taken to the habit of filling the stuffer tube with mince prior to sliding the casings on. Solves the problem with air...

Okay.... does 'mince' mean leaving that little nub of meat at the end of the stuffer tube to help slice the casing on?

 

[indaswamp]

Okay.... does 'mince' mean leaving that little nub of meat at the end of the stuffer tube to help slice the casing on?

View attachment 507141

I leave about 1/8" sticking out of the tube. This helps the casing from catching on the sharp edge of the tube. Natural casings slide on effortlessly.....as long as the inside has a little water.

 

[thirdeye]

In hotdogs and bologna, two spices are key.
1) Ground Mace (don’t use nutmeg)
2) White Pepper.
These two change the game, at least for me.

Mace is the seed coating of nutmeg, just ground up. Another signature spice for hotdogs is celery seed. Not celery salt.

 

[thirdeye]

I leave about 1/8" sticking out of the tube. This helps the casing from catching on the sharp edge of the tube. Natural casings slide on effortlessly.....as long as the inside has a little water.

I figured that's what you were talking about. Have you ever tried the 'tubed' casings like Syracuse Casing sells? It takes about 15 seconds to load the horn.

 

[indaswamp]

I figured that's what you were talking about. Have you ever tried the 'tubed' casings like Syracuse Casing sells? It takes about 15 seconds to load the horn.

Nope. I have never tried them. I was taught how to load untubed casings and I can load them just as fast. I don't use tubed casings because I don't need them. Biggest key is proper soaking of the casings so they are supple, and making sure that you have 1-2tsp. of water inside the casing prior to sliding on the horn. The 1/8" of mince outside the horn helps too.

Fast as I can move my hands, the casings slide on.....

 

[chopsaw]

Fast as I can move my hands, the casings slide on.....

Same here . Stored wet , comes right out of the rinse water and slide right on the horn .

 

[Fueling Around]

I am not a fun dog fan, meaning no pork or poultry in my all beef hot dog.
Beef needs to be finely ground (not emulsified) to make a decent hot dog for me.
I cheat and buy Costco, but need to start making my own do to rising BP.
What happened in your failure?

 

[indaswamp]

BP= Blood Pressure?

 

[Fueling Around]

BP= Blood Pressure?

Yes.
I have been very reduced salt recipes for my wife the last 15 years but indulged on hot dogs which she doesn't eat.
Mine has been climbing the last couple of years. Blood bank still takes it so that is good.

 

[chef jimmyj]

Awesome! Im glad to hear your Mrs. was happy with the result. The Dogs look great. I'm a Natural Casing fan. Like the Snap.

Okay.... does 'mince' mean leaving that little nub of meat at the end of the stuffer tube to help slice the casing on?

Mince is an alternate name for Ground Meat. Beef Mince, Pork Mince, etc. Pretty commonly used outside of the US.
Force Meat is another common name for Seasoned Ground Meat with Pro Chefs and in Charcuterie for Patés, Terrines and Sausages...JJ

 

[tallbm]

Good afternoon! You may want to grab a beverage. This is a long one :-)
I'd been wanting to make some lower sodium dogs for the Mrs. and the attempt at all beef was a total disaster, but I won't go into that.
I went with all pork this time with different casings.
View attachment 507080
I had a recipe from SmokinEdge that was almost identical to one from meatsandsausages.com except for the coriander. Good enough.
What I came up with was:
2 Kg meat
5g cure#1
15g Morton's kosher salt
15g salt substitute (NoSalt brand)
5g powder dextrose
4g white pepper
2g ground coriander
2g paprika
1g mace
2 cloves minced garlic
1/2 tsp liquid smoke (Colgin mesquite)
1/2 cup soy protein concentrate
1-1/2 to 2 cups ice water (I don't measure water)

So I had 4# of cut up shoulder in the freezer but I needed .4# more to make 2Kg.
Cut up some smoked belly. Why not? Ground it up first with the 1/4" plate and again with the 3/16" plate.
View attachment 507091 View attachment 507092
I mixed up with everything but the SPC and liquid smoke, adding water as needed, then covered and into the fridge overnight.
Next day mixed again with the SPC and liquid smoke and water. Got a wet, sticky mass. Perfect.
View attachment 507095 Time to stuff.
First time using cellulose for me. Here's where I learned a little lesson.
When using hog casings I prick a couple of holes in the end of a new link to let air out. Mistake with cellulose.
I had four of them open up a little at the end while drying. I just re-tied and wound up with four shorter links and didn't really lose much meat. Lesson learned.
View attachment 507098
I let them sit overnight in the fridge to dry a bit. No more blowouts and they shrunk up a tad.
So the next day I experimented a bit. I did some of them in the SV at 140F for 2hrs and some of them in the oven at 170F until they hit 149IT (which also took almost 2hrs).
The oven ones colored up but the SV ones didn't. (?)
After their cold bath they went back into the fridge (again).
View attachment 507103 View attachment 507104 View attachment 507110 View attachment 507117
Finally it's cook time! The casings peeled off easily. View attachment 507108
Another lesson learned. When the Mrs. says she wants hers "well done" don't let Anheuser-Busch take over.
"Yes, Dear"
View attachment 507109 Got a little too done for me but they were still good and still juicy believe it or not.
View attachment 507111
I didn't notice any taste difference between the SV'd ones or the baked ones.
So yesterday I went a different route.
View attachment 507115 View attachment 507116 Much better!
This recipe is a keeper and I'll be using it. For what it's worth I'm estimating the sodium to be around 350-360mg per link.

Special thanks to chopsaw and chefjimmyj for tips and encouragement.
Thanks for looking, keep learning and stuff on!
Dan

They look great man, welcome to the world of cellulose casings!

A tip with cellulose too you can actually leave the end open and just pinch it with your fingers as you start stuffing the casing. The cellulose casings are super easy to work with.
If you have too much space at an time u just hold the casing around the stuffing tub and the meat will easily push throw to the end of the casing... to a certain extent. Don't expect to push 2 feet of meat like this but you can get away with 6-8 inches no problem.
I just tie the end once the meat is there.

Also if you want to prick the case you can do so AFTER you've tied them all and do so with the tiniest hole like from a sewing needle or a fin tip knife.

I'm falling in love with the ease of the cellulose casing. The biggest complaint I have is that I MUST smoke them once stuffed. No freezing and smoking later like with natural casings.
It's not a big deal I just plan to stuff one day and smoke em the next day or do them all the same day.

My last batch I measured how long my racks were and stuffed giant links like 2 inches short of that and then cut the sausages in half to vac seal later. Worked like a charm. I'm getting super efficient with those things :D

 

[SmokinAl]

Your hot dogs look excellent!
We like pork dogs better than beef too, but I stuff them in sheep casings.
I use TSM wiener mix & we really like them.
Nice job!
Al

 

[SmokyMose]

I am not a fun dog fan, meaning no pork or poultry in my all beef hot dog.
Beef needs to be finely ground (not emulsified) to make a decent hot dog for me.
I cheat and buy Costco, but need to start making my own do to rising BP.
What happened in your failure?

Most of the failure went in the trash LOL!
I've been making "lower sodium" Italian, Kielbasa and "Kosher Style Beef" sausages as well as bacon with some success and we wanted to try hot dogs.
I looked at a few recipes and decided on a Hebrew National knock-off. I didn't want to mess with sheep casings and a couple mentioned
using collagen instead, so I got some 26mm.
I tied each one off as they stuffed and they went well. After drying for about a half hour I noticed some were opening up.
I let them dry in the fridge overnight. I tried some in the SV and some in the oven. The SV ones just came apart. Big mess.
Although the oven ones pretty much held together even they peeled a bit. To add insult to injury we didn't like the taste.
I think most of the problem was the wetness of the mix (I emulsified). The wet mix just disintegrated the collagen IMO.
It's possible I got some bad casings, but it's noted on all the collagen packs I've used "DO NOT SOAK". Duh.
I like the cellulose.