Article featured image

What meliorate way to celebrate the Fourth of July than by making your ain hot dogs? (Photo: Dusk Magazine.)

Food Republic's column Ask Your Butcher seeks to reply FAQs in the world of slaughter-house. Ethically minded butcher Bryan Mayer has opened butcher shops and restaurants and has trained butchers in the U.S. and abroad. He helped develop the renowned butcher-grooming program at Fleishers, where he is currently director of butchery education. In each column, Mayer tackles a pressing effect facing both meat buyers and dwelling house cooks. With the Fourth of July weekend approaching, he delves into the globe of bootleg hot dogs. At present that'south some serious BBQ bragging rights on the line.

We can debate the merits of hamburgers versus hot dogs until, well, the cows come habitation, just there's no denying the superiority of meat in a tube on a bun in terms of portability and global varieties. From Sweden'due south Tunnbrodsrulle to South Africa's Boerewors to Australia'southward Dagwood Dog (its version of a corndog), hot dogs have earned their place in the hierarchy of street nutrient.

And if the spice of the meats isn't enough for you, hot dogs are the perfect vessels for bask, chutney, sauerkraut or just about any topping y'all tin think of. Smoke them, poach them, grill them, fry them and summit them with whatever. And yes, ketchup is totally fine. Whether yous use all beefiness, mix in pork, poultry or make your own special blend, we're going to assist you create something far superior to those commercial hot dogs you buy at the supermarket. And near importantly, yous'll know the source of your ingredients.

Before we get into the procedure of making your own hot dogs, let's dive into a little bit of history surrounding what some consider to be the world'due south oldest processed food. Legends of its origins stretch all the mode to Babylon and Cyprus — hot dogs are even referenced in The Odyssey! Afterward all, what better snack for Odysseus to indulge in following a ten-year war? This all may be more fiction than fact, but the debate still rages on in regards to the hot domestic dog'due south origins. Frankfurt, Vienna and Coburg all lay merits to the invention.

It was not until the 19th century, however, that we started to encounter what we now know as the hot canis familiaris here in America. And once again, a debate raged from Brooklyn to Chicago concerning who created it. But what is a hot domestic dog, actually? Well, that depends on where y'all get it. The joke amongst butchers and consumers is that a hot canis familiaris is made up of lips and assholes. And while maybe that might have been true in your grandmother's day, hot dogs today are mostly limited to skeletal meat (muscle attached to os). If they comprise anything other than skeletal meat, they must be labeled "with by-products" or "with diversity meats," and if in that location'southward any extender or binders, those must exist listed likewise. That all sounds like a dubious ingredient listing. So what nosotros recommend is purchasing your hot dogs from your local, whole-animate being butcher shop, which is more than likely to keep the ingredients simple and apply meat from pastured animals.

IMG_2062
Hot dogs today are largely made up of skeletal meat. We recommend ownership them from your local butcher shop.

Or how nearly making your own? Why, y'all ask? Well, in addition to knowing the source of your ingredients, making emulsified sausages is the next natural footstep in your homemade sausage game, and you probably have all the equipment y'all need (if you own a sausage stuffer). There'south merely one key point to keep in listen here — temperature! Now, this applies to all sausages, simply since you're making an emulsified sausage, you'll exist left with a hot domestic dog that has a grainy texture if your meat should become above 40°F. Work in batches to ensure that you keep the temperature cold, make sure to return your mix to the freezer in between, and utilize a good amount of ice h2o when emulsifying in a food processor. Those moving parts generate a scrap of estrus from friction. In addition, y'all'll keep your stuffer and grinder parts in the fridge. This will ensure that every surface the meat comes into contact with is cold.

I similar an all-beef hot domestic dog. If you read "Enquire the Butcher" regularly, y'all know my penchant for shank meat. Its deep, rich flavour is perfect for a hot dog. Your meat grinder might have a hard time cutting through all that sinew, so if you utilise shank meat, accept your butcher grind it for yous. If you plan on grinding at dwelling house, cervix meat will work bang-up as another option. You're looking for an 80/20 lean-to-fatty ratio, so the addition of chuck is perfect. Permit's get started!

IMG_2454
Sheep casings are thin and aid reach that traditional hot dog snap.

Servings: Around xl, assuming a v- to six-inch twist-off per sausage

Ingredients

  • 5 pounds fully pastured/grass-fed beef (either basis by your butcher or in cubes for you to grind at habitation)
  • 1 tablespoon paprika
  • two tablespoons mustard powder
  • 1 teaspoon blackness pepper
  • 1 teaspoon garlic powder
  • Compression of celery seed
  • ½ teaspoon coriander
  • two tablespoons salt
  • But over 1 cup ice-cold water
  • Sheep casings (24-26 mm)

Directions:

Mixing:

  1. If you've purchased beef cubes and/or fat from your butcher, place them on a blistering pan and place in your freezer. You don't want to freeze the meat; you just want a crunchy outside surface.
  2. One time the meat is sufficiently cold, nest a nonreactive bowl into some other containing ice (keeping things cold hither) and quickly grind. If things starting time to warm up, you can grind a few small pieces of ice with your meat to bring the temp back down.
  3. Add your spices to the ground meat and mix until thoroughly combined. Y'all'll also desire to add merely a chip of ice water here to help with the demark. You'll know it's mixed well when information technology becomes tacky and starts to stick to the bowl. Place the meat dorsum into the freezer and prepare your food processor.
  4. Working rapidly, place your meat and about half the ice water in the bowl of your nutrient processor and begin to mix. Continue adding the ice water to this process, which should take no more than than 5-vi minutes. If yous're like me, you're constantly worried most breaking your emulsion, so work in batches, returning what's been emulsified to the freezer. When y'all're done emulsifying, it's time to test both for taste and to ensure that the emulsion has non been cleaved.
  5. Spoon a tablespoon of the farce into a pan and cook. Arrange your spices if needed, and if it exudes whatever water, your emulsion is broken. Let's not let that happen. At this point you lot tin embrace your farce and identify it in your refrigerator overnight. This allows for fuller flavor development as the meat proteins react with the spices.

Stuffing:

  1. Y'all're now ready to stuff! You've kept your stuffer and its parts in the fridge in order to keep it cool and your farce has either been in the refrigerator overnight or in the freezer while you fix your stuffer.
  2. Sheep casings are what you lot'll use here every bit they are thinner and help with that traditional hot dog snap. I like a slightly larger one at about 24-26 mm, since they're easier to piece of work with. And of class, just as we do with our non-emulsified sausages, yous'll soak and flush them to remove any backlog salt.
  3. Place a sheet pan, with a bit of water on it, underneath the nozzle of your stuffer and chop-chop begin to fill the casings. The watered canvas pan helps the filled casings motility easily abroad from the tip of the nozzle.
  4. Once your casings are filled, twist off into desired lengths and it's back into the fridge while yous get your cooking implements set up.

Cooking:

  1. Y'all can poach, roast or smoke. You're looking for an internal temp of around 145°-150°F. That'll happen in a 170°F smoker in virtually an hour, in a 200°F oven in most 30 minutes, or, how I like to do them, in a water bath of 160°F for virtually 30 minutes. Once the sausages are fully poached, you'll want to toss them into an ice bathroom to end the cooking process.
  2. Since they are fully cooked, yous're only looking to finish them, and that can be washed in a few ways. My 2 favorites are once over again poached, in something similar sauerkraut, or sliced lengthwise and cooked on a flat cooking surface.
  3. For the outset method, pour the sauerkraut and its liquid into an aluminum pan, and along with the hot dogs bring to a chimera over directly heat. This should take near five minutes. Slide them over to the cool side of your grill and in about 10 minutes, yous'll have perfectly heated, unwrinkly hot dogs! Popular them direct on the grill for a minute or ii for a chip of char.
  4. The 2nd method is kind of self-explanatory. This will take nigh 5 minutes.
  5. As for buns, let'southward continue things simple here with the old standby — Martin'due south potato roll. Save the split tops for your lobster. I don't dearest to grill buns as I don't need any actress crunch. I like them steamed: Place a wire rack over an aluminum tray of water and rut that water over direct estrus on your grill. You've got steamed buns!