First Try at Hot Dogs

[berninga87]

I've been getting more into making sausage making lately and I've made 16lbs brats, 8lbs sticks, and 8lbs summer sausage recently(not many pics to post but they have been a hit!). So my daughter is 5(almost 6) now and I thought I'd go for a product that most middle class kindergartners love—hot dogs! I'd been toying with the idea for a while when I saw a recipe that lhendler had posted and decided to give it a try. It's his recipe with a 1/2 cup NFDM added. I followed the recipe pretty close except I had everything mixed and stuffed the same day. I didn't do the 2-day sit in the fridge with cure. I mixed, emulsified, stuffed, smoked, and vacuum packed the franks right away and put them away in the freezer. After mixing and emulsifying, the cure had made its way evenly through the meat and, at least in my experience, sausage seasoning flavors really come into their prime while sealed up in the freezer for a while. I had a short link after smoking for a tester and, well, it tasted like a hot dog, a pretty good one at that! I even got the kindergarten "thumbs up" for it. I'm excited to see how they taste out of the freezer after a couple of weeks. Pics below....


50% venison and 50% pork butt emulsified with seasoning. (or what the media would call "pink slime")

Links stuffed in 21mm clear casing. Tied individually with butcher twine.

Links hanging in the smoker before smoking.

Smoked 1hr no heat with AMPS and finished for another 2 hours-ish at 180deg F until 152 IT.

Once they hit finished temp dunk in ice water for a few minutes to stop cooking and prevent casing shrinkage(still got a little).

Sealed up and ready for the freezer. Probably going to open the first bag this weekend.

Picky, hot dog lovin', snow shovelin' kindergartner...

Stay tuned for more taste test results.

 

[boykjo]

Great looking hot dogs...... And a happy face of approval......

Boykjo

 

[chef jimmyj]

I saw a recipe that lhendler had posted and decided to give it a try.

I am not finding this name in a member search. Can you post a link or the recipe here to help folks replicate these tasty looking dogs? You did a nice job. What was used to emulsify?...JJ

 

[boykjo]

I found it...

http://smokingmeatforums.com/index.php?threads/hot-dog-advice-needed.252655/#post-1621711

 

[DanMcG]

Them dogs look damn good from here.
I'm curious what you used for the casing and how was the bite through/ snap of the skin , as a regular collagen is a little tough for my liking and the fresh style is hard to hang without breaking. There's is a new to me collagen called "Processed Fine-T" from Devro that is suppose to be in between the regular and fresh casings as far as snap goes that I'd like to try.
Thanks for sharing and your daughter is a sweetheart!!

 

[chef jimmyj]

Thanks Joe...JJ

 

[johnnyb54]

Oh man those look good! Now I have another sausage project to add to my list.

 

[SmokinAl]

Great looking dogs!
I use sheep casing for my hot dogs, but may give collagen a try!
Al

 

[tropics]

Beautiful job
Richie

 

[berninga87]

I am not finding this name in a member search. Can you post a link or the recipe here to help folks replicate these tasty looking dogs? You did a nice job. What was used to emulsify?...JJ

JJ, I used a ninja food processor with the top mount motor and pulsated about 10-15 seconds at a time. Could only fit about a pound of meat in there at once to get a good blend without stressing the motor too much. Joe's link to the original recipe is the one that I used. Only major modifications I made were using 50/50 venison/pork shoulder, cut cure down to the appropriate level, and added NFDM(your advice on the original post, good call!).

Them dogs look damn good from here.
I'm curious what you used for the casing and how was the bite through/ snap of the skin , as a regular collagen is a little tough for my liking and the fresh style is hard to hang without breaking. There's is a new to me collagen called "Processed Fine-T" from Devro that is suppose to be in between the regular and fresh casings as far as snap goes that I'd like to try.
Thanks for sharing and your daughter is a sweetheart!!

Dan, these are in a collagen casings. As far as the bite they are a little tougher than natural casing, but we like it. I fried up a little test chunk in the cast iron and it had a good snap. Will probably try several different cooking methods for reheating them and see what works best. It seems every method has a unique effect on casings.

Great looking dogs!
I use sheep casing for my hot dogs, but may give collagen a try!
Al

Al, Thanks! I have a package of sheep casings that I use for breakfast links. But I only use sheep casings on days when everything is already going right because man oh man do they test my patience! Would you have any helpful hints to make using them a little less maddening? Anyway, I'm happy I used the collagen. It allowed me to stuff the casings extra tight for that nice "plump" hot dog look. They were stuffed significantly tighter than I would even dare trying with sheep casing, tight enough that I had to tie the links individually because they wouldn't stay twisted together. I considered ordering the "plastic" casing that you peel off after smoking...but it just seemed wasteful.


I think I'm going to open up the smallest package this weekend and see how they are after a week in the freezer. Will try to get some pics and a report posted.

 

[browneyesvictim]

Wow! Those look great! I have just been making larger ball park size Franks with hog casing.

I did try the plastic peel-off "skinless" casings a few months ago, and they weren't worth all the fuss... They were in fact "skinless" when all done, but left a very rough outer surface- not smooth like a hotdog should be.

 

[tallbm]

Great looking hot dogs/franks!

I used sheep casings this last time around. In the past I used hog casings because I didn't care to switch but I wanted to give sheep a try. The big hog casing ones are cool for giant dogs but I was trying to make it more like what I've seen at German places or like hot dogs in the store... but waaaaaaay better tasting! :)

Here are my sheep skin ones from last month :)
The dark spots you see are from some venison meat that was left behind in the stuffer. I didn't bother rinsing it out as I was in go, go, go mode stuffing over 100 pounds of meat that day lol

 

[berninga87]

Brown, thanks for the heads up. I dont think I'll be trying the peel off casings any time soon.

That looks like a good bunch of franks as well tallbm. Would you be willing to share your recipe/methods? Im curious how it would compare to what I did.

 

[tallbm]

Brown, thanks for the heads up. I dont think I'll be trying the peel off casings any time soon.

That looks like a good bunch of franks as well tallbm. Would you be willing to share your recipe/methods? Im curious how it would compare to what I did.

Sure I'll try and keep it simple.

This batch was 30 pounds of pork franks. I used 24 pounds of 98% fat free Pork Sirloin Tip Roasts (from Costco) and 6 pounds of Trimmed Pork Back fat (from the butcher).

I cut into strips and ground the pork and fat together through my 3/8 inch plate.
I mixed with LEM's Backwoods Cured Frank seasoning, but I mixed only between 27-28 pounds worth of seasoning as it can be a little salty if not mixed in very well/evenly. I added the appropriate amount of cure for 30 pounds of sausage.

I then stuffed into natural tubed Sheep casings (tubed meaning they come on a plastic straw-like tube that makes them easier to put on the stuffer tube).

I stuffed and then into 3 link sausage chains.
I hung in my MES smoker on wooden dowels (I made a sausage hanging setup I can insert and remove from my MES).
I dried for 1 hour at 100F, then bumped up the temp every 30-45min 20 degrees or so until I hit 170F.

After the 1st hour of drying I applied smoked with 70% Apple, 30% Hickory blend of Lumberjack pellets for 30 minutes. I've ready you only want to do Franks/Hot Dogs with 30 minutes of smoke or so. I agree with Franks/Hot Dogs.

I took these to 153F Internal temp and then immediately ice water bathed them.
I let them bloom on a rack (hence the pic) for about 3-4 hours and then vac sealed and froze them.

That's the process!!!!

I get 100% consistent, repeatable, and AMAZING tasting sausage every time with that perfect 80/20 meat to fat ratio and approach and the LEM's Backwoods Cured Frank seasoning has made the best Franks/Hot Dogs I have ever tasted. Better than those in any German restaurant I've eaten in, better than any Franks/Hot Dogs in Wisconsin or Minnesota or any butcher shop I've eaten them at.

Finally, I make 99% of my sausage from wild game meat (I have to go to a higher IT but the process is the basically the same besides the higher IT) so buying and using Trimmed Pork Backfat is in my opnion the only way to go. No buying pork butts or briskets and guessing at the meat to fat ratio. Simply buy fat and go 80/20 to get it spot on and you will produce an outstanding and easily repeatable consistent product :)

Let me know if you have any questions at all :)

 

[berninga87]

tallbm, I think you've covered all the details! I am going to have a look at the LEM frank seasoning. So far my sausage making has been about 50/50 between pre-packaged seasoning mixes and making my own from scratch. I can't complain about either so far except the pre-mix items tend to be heavy on salt. We aren't on a low salt diet but do a lot of home cooking and I think we've become more sensitive to it because of that. Just enough salt to know it's there is plenty for us.

Maybe it's the sheep casings I'm using, they are from PS Seasoning in WI and they are VERY fragile. I'm pretty well accustomed to hog casings by now but sheep casings have been a whole new challenge. I soak in warm water and change water according to directions, giving them more care than hog casings and they still give me trouble. I liked the collagen because of their resilience. If I were more confident in the sheep casing going in, I might give them a chance at something other than the small batches of breakfast links I occasionally make. So if you have any advice I'm all ears!

 

[berninga87]

Here is the recipe that I used for the hot dogs with my adjustments, for anyone wanting to duplicate.

2.5 lbs ground venison

2.5 lbs ground pork butt/shoulder

1 T kosher salt

1/2 t pink salt

1 cup ice water

1 T dry mustard

2 t Hungarian paprika

1 t ground coriander

¼ t ground white pepper

1 T minced garlic

2 T light corn syrup

1 cup crushed ice

1/2 cup non-fat dry milk powder

Combine meat, water, cure, and all seasoning. Mix well in mixer of choice or by hand.

Emulsify mixture with 1 cup crushed ice. I do not have an ice machine or a high-dollar "meat blender" appliance, so my process is as follows: Use food processor to crush equivalent of 1 cup of ice(about 5 cubes from my ice cube tray). Add meat mix to food processor and emulsify until texture/color is smooth and consistent. This is a messy process and the meat blend gets really sticky so do your best to get as much out of the food processor and into your stuffer as possible to minimize waste.

Load stuffer and stuff into 21mm clear fresh collagen casings. I used LEM brand which turned out to be very resilient casings. Stuff as tight as casing will allow. Leave a few inches of tail end casing when finished. Do not tie tail end of casing yet. Start twisting links to desired length at the START end of casing to allow excess to push toward tail end and not blow holes in casing(you'll have to use your best judgement on what is too tight). Making sure links are tight, full, and "plump", tie a knot of butcher twine in between each link for best results. Mine were tight enough that they would untwist the entire 5ft of stuffed casing if just twisted and not tied.

When finished stuffing, hang in smoker and smoke as desired. I opted for mild smoke flavor so I cold smoked for ~1 hour with oak pellets in the AMPS. Then bump smoker temp to 180 and smoke until fully cooked(I went to 152 degF). It doesn't take long, about 2 hours, so have a temp probe in a test link sooner than later.

Once at finish temp, dunk in ice water for about 10 minutes to stop cooking process and help prevent shrinkage. Rest at room temp in open air to dry off for a couple hours or more ideally(I didn't have that much time, about 1 hour). Cut links apart and discard butcher twine, vacuum seal, and place in deep freeze for at least 1 week. Last step is optional but I've found that any type of sausage I've made so far(brats, sticks, SS) benefits greatly from an extended sit vacuum sealed in the freezer. Straight out of the smoker all of the flavors are there but very pronounced, almost fighting each other.

The freezer sit, in my experience, balances everything to create a more mellow and unified flavor profile. The same results might be achieved by mixing the meat with cure and seasoning and letting sit in the fridge for a few days before stuffing, but my time is limited most days so I prefer to do everything at once and let the magic happen in the freezer.

I hope I've provided enough detail. Everything here is based on my personal experience and I'm open to critiques and suggestions for a better product. Food safety is always a first priority so take care with alterations in that regard. I'll be posting 1 week results in a few days.

Thanks!

 

[tallbm]

Seems like you got a good process going!

As for wisdom on Sheep casings well all I can say is the pretubed have got to be better to deal with than the ones in the vac sealed pack. Also I would highly recommend the process described here for handling natural casings and getting the best behavior out of them:
http://smokingmeatforums.com/index.php?threads/how-to-handle-natural-casings.159729/

Enjoy the read, it is a good one! :)

 

[DanMcG]

Thanks for sharing your recipe, I'm always looking for different hot dog mixes. As far as casing go, I prefer sheeps but they can be a pain to use. A lot of times I'll use the stripable plastic casings just because they are easy, just pull them out of the frig and put them on the tube and stuff. of course you still got to tie them. here's a link to one of my favorites .
http://smokingmeatforums.com/index.php?threads/bologna-hot-dogs.110557/

 

[dieseladdiction]

Here is the recipe that I used for the hot dogs with my adjustments, for anyone wanting to duplicate.

2.5 lbs ground venison

2.5 lbs ground pork butt/shoulder

1 T kosher salt

1/2 t pink salt

1 cup ice water

1 T dry mustard

2 t Hungarian paprika

1 t ground coriander

¼ t ground white pepper

1 T minced garlic

2 T light corn syrup

1 cup crushed ice

1/2 cup non-fat dry milk powder

Combine meat, water, cure, and all seasoning. Mix well in mixer of choice or by hand.

Emulsify mixture with 1 cup crushed ice. I do not have an ice machine or a high-dollar "meat blender" appliance, so my process is as follows: Use food processor to crush equivalent of 1 cup of ice(about 5 cubes from my ice cube tray). Add meat mix to food processor and emulsify until texture/color is smooth and consistent. This is a messy process and the meat blend gets really sticky so do your best to get as much out of the food processor and into your stuffer as possible to minimize waste.

Load stuffer and stuff into 21mm clear fresh collagen casings. I used LEM brand which turned out to be very resilient casings. Stuff as tight as casing will allow. Leave a few inches of tail end casing when finished. Do not tie tail end of casing yet. Start twisting links to desired length at the START end of casing to allow excess to push toward tail end and not blow holes in casing(you'll have to use your best judgement on what is too tight). Making sure links are tight, full, and "plump", tie a knot of butcher twine in between each link for best results. Mine were tight enough that they would untwist the entire 5ft of stuffed casing if just twisted and not tied.

When finished stuffing, hang in smoker and smoke as desired. I opted for mild smoke flavor so I cold smoked for ~1 hour with oak pellets in the AMPS. Then bump smoker temp to 180 and smoke until fully cooked(I went to 152 degF). It doesn't take long, about 2 hours, so have a temp probe in a test link sooner than later.

Once at finish temp, dunk in ice water for about 10 minutes to stop cooking process and help prevent shrinkage. Rest at room temp in open air to dry off for a couple hours or more ideally(I didn't have that much time, about 1 hour). Cut links apart and discard butcher twine, vacuum seal, and place in deep freeze for at least 1 week. Last step is optional but I've found that any type of sausage I've made so far(brats, sticks, SS) benefits greatly from an extended sit vacuum sealed in the freezer. Straight out of the smoker all of the flavors are there but very pronounced, almost fighting each other.

The freezer sit, in my experience, balances everything to create a more mellow and unified flavor profile. The same results might be achieved by mixing the meat with cure and seasoning and letting sit in the fridge for a few days before stuffing, but my time is limited most days so I prefer to do everything at once and let the magic happen in the freezer.

I hope I've provided enough detail. Everything here is based on my personal experience and I'm open to critiques and suggestions for a better product. Food safety is always a first priority so take care with alterations in that regard. I'll be posting 1 week results in a few days.

Thanks!

From what I see you have 5 lbs of meat, why only 1/2 tsp cure?

 

[berninga87]

Well I didn't back back to this post as soon as I thought I would. The hot dogs have been really good and getting better with more time in the freezer. I opened a bag after 2 weeks, 4 weeks, and 6 weeks and they've been better every time! Kiddo keeps asking for them. Time to make more soon!