How To Make Homemade Hot Dogs - Recipe
-
Jonathan - made first batch of hot dogs, 3.5 lbs venison, 1.5 lbs pork fat; used the above recipe for 5lbs, no cheese, and no smoked meat stabilizer (kept overnight in refrigerator then smoked the next day using the above schedule). Noticed there was a little solidified fat between the hot dogs and celluose casing but it wasn’t a lot. Tasted more like a brat than a hot dog but it was the consistency that was most un-hot dog like. It was softer and not as rubbery/flexible as a hot dog. I did use a meat mixer (about 10 min) and it was very tacky when completed and added about 6 oz of water. Any idea of what I did wrong or how to make them a better consistency. Too much fat? Mixed for too long? Thanks.
-
Jonathan - made first batch of hot dogs, 3.5 lbs venison, 1.5 lbs pork fat; used the above recipe for 5lbs, no cheese, and no smoked meat stabilizer (kept overnight in refrigerator then smoked the next day using the above schedule). Noticed there was a little solidified fat between the hot dogs and celluose casing but it wasn’t a lot. Tasted more like a brat than a hot dog but it was the consistency that was most un-hot dog like. It was softer and not as rubbery/flexible as a hot dog. I did use a meat mixer (about 10 min) and it was very tacky when completed and added about 6 oz of water. Any idea of what I did wrong or how to make them a better consistency. Too much fat? Mixed for too long? Thanks.
vvsarpsjr What was your recipe and grind??
-
Well I can only say When I do game I’ll do 60-40 pork butt. Sometimes 50-50. Never had a problem with that ratio. Outside of the greasy issue. How did it taste. I’ll add just fat but not often if my butt is a little lean. Pork is normally 30% fat. Could be a fat resource issue. Joe
-
When I do game and I know there are people that don’t want to eat Bambi I do 50-50. They never know. To them. It tastes like great pork sausage 🤫
-
vvsarpsjr It is unlikely that at 10 minutes you overmixed it. The fact that you had some fat between the casing and the meat means something happened with your bind. The 5 lb batch, what mixer did you use? It is possible that it just wrapped around the axle and didn’t get worked by the paddles? If you used the 20 lb then I doubt it this was your problem.
Did you use a binder? Did you grind 3 times? Hot dogs are made with either a bowl chopper or an emulsion plate to fully breakdown the protein. If you don’t have a chopper or an emulsion plate for your grinder (not really available for retail) then a 3rd grind with your 1/8" plate is probably your best bet.
-
Hi Joe B - recipe was 3.5 lb venison, 1.5 lb pork fat, ground 3 times, first through 3/8", second and third through 1/8"; 4.8 oz Excalibur Hot Dog Seasoning, 1.2 oz sure gel binder, 0.2 oz Sure Cure, 6 oz water.
vvsarpsjr If your going to use pork fat not pork butt i would ratio 4lbs to 1lb. Pork butt ratio 3.5lbs-1.5lbs. If you have a fatty issue i would think there was too much fat in the batter, my thoughts. Could have lost the emulsified state, batter with water / fat separation, but my thought is too much fat to meat .
-
Thanks Jonathon and JoeB, it was [probably both of what you all suggested. For sure something happened with the bind since fat came out and after the final 3rd grind it did seem to look more fatty than I was expected. It was the first time I used pork fat alone with venison. I’ll use pork butt next time. The mixer is small and although it did seem to end up as a sticky paste when completed, I do stop it occasionally and pull the meat off the paddle because it does look like it gets wound around the paddle axel without at lot of mixing action. How critical is meat temperature during the grinding/mixing process to keep the bind? I had read elsewhere that the hot dog meat temperature needs to stay below 40 degrees the whole time for the emulsification to not break. Is that true? Would seem difficult to accomplish in the home setting.
-
vvsarpsjr Crucial, at a certain temp proteins wont extract, we normally don’t get into that as it is well into the danger zone, I think it is around 50° that it stops extracting and you don’t want to be in that range ever with raw meat. Could it have been that warm?
-
Jonathon - A while back you replied to bpschuebel that you were pretty sure that the cellulose casings are smoke permeable, but you would check and update. Did you ever confirm? (I looked and apologize if I missed the update).
jcflorida Since my original post, I have made several batches of skinless hotdogs using the cellulose casings and am happy to say they are in fact permeable. I have been very happy with the look, taste and color of my finished product.
-
jcflorida Sorry yes I did, they are smoke permeable. The exact verbiage was “they are permeable to flavors and colors as intended during the smoking process, but are impermeable to other unwanted aromas.” I am unsure what the unwanted aromas are and I would think that is subjective so not sure about that.
-
J johnsbrewhouse referenced this topic on
-
If I am making bologna with the Excalibur Frank and Bologna seasoning, will I need to do anything different with this recipe? From previous comments, it sounds like it is fine to stuff it into a bologna chub rather than hot dog casings? What would the smoke schedule be?
Thanks!
-
scott williams
Just my opinion, others may differ but:
In a quick stuff and cook, in addition to flavoring changes Sodium nitrite in the sure cure is there intended to protect against botulism clostridium while the meat goes from 50 f to 130 f in a no oxygen internal environment, which is where botulism grows.You have 2 ways to fix it as I see:
- Cook it high and fast, getting internal temp up rapidly to 130. Just like cooking a fresh brat on grill. No low and slow smoke. Won’t have pure ham cured flavor, but assuming you put in salt it will have some.
- Make up a brine cure with low salt but full cure1. Like you were making bacon, same cure1 calculations just same salt % as in your hotdogs. Soak dogs in there several days to get cure penetration. Then cook regular. If you used a peel off non edible casing you might not get good penetration, I don’t know it’s permeability. I would do it in a sealed bucket myself, meaning a rubber airtight foodgrade seal, add cure brine and dogs, then I’d add sodium-erythorbate or ascorbic acid/vitamin c to give high cure activation. Stir quick, don’t breath in, slap lid on and seal. It creates nitric oxide gas, poison to breathe, so if you don’t feel confident you can do this fast and outside, I’d leave out accelerator and just cure a few days.
Easiest is to just cook fast like a fresh brat. Test a few and see how you like. What casing did you use?
-
I think I made a big mistake this morning. I have mixed and stuffed into casings a 25lb of hotdog mix and I forgot the sure cure
.am I in trouble or can I save it.scott williams
Here is a brining calc for you if you do that:
Pork muscle density is 1.04, blended sausage is less. Assume same density as water, 1.0 g/cc. So watee weighs 8.34 lb per gallon. So 25lbs of hot dogs takes up 3 gal of volume.
Assuming you have a 5gal bucket to brine in, you will be able to add just 2 gal of water, so that needs to contain all the cure#1 for 5 gal of water plus meat, and I’d just put 1.5% salt in there so your hotdogs stayed roughly same saltiness, didn’t lose or gain salt.
(From calculator at www genuineideas dot com:
Salt 116g or 4.1oz or 8 tablespoons of morton kosher. But don’t add any salt, because just the cure1 added below will give brine around 4% salt. Should be fine for a couple day soak)
Cure1: Per Marianski’s book:
For immersion, pumped or massaged products, the maximum in-going nitrite limit is 200 ppm and that corresponds to adding 4.2 oz of Cure #1 to 1 gallon of water.So I’d add 8.4oz cure1 to 2 gal water. That will already have enough salt to give 4% in brine or so. Soak a few days, 3 or 4 to ensure penetration of the cure. Then smoke normally.
-
Thanks for the advice my friends. I went back and removed the casings and put the meat in the mixer added a little water and sure cure mixed for a few minutes and stuffed it in new casings. Thanks for all your help.
Hello! It looks like you're interested in this conversation, but you don't have an account yet.
Getting fed up of having to scroll through the same posts each visit? When you register for an account, you'll always come back to exactly where you were before, and choose to be notified of new replies (either via email, or push notification). You'll also be able to save bookmarks and upvote posts to show your appreciation to other community members.
With your input, this post could be even better 💗
Register LoginSponsored By:
