Hot Dogs

[wvhunter1965]

Good morning all,

A while back, I made hot dogs and the taste was great, however, they are very ciateddense, almost tough. Although I realize that all beef dogs will be a different texture than a pork/chicken dog, I would prefer that my hot dogs be softer than what they were.

What would be the suggested method to achieve this? My thoughts were either additional fat, water or both.

Any input is appreciated!

[Jonathon]

wvhunter1965 Yes, addition fat will do it for sure. I made some beef sticks and pork sticks from the same seasoning, used leanish (85/15) pork and 73/27 beef and the beef were much softer. Additional water will help as well. What was your smoke schedule and what casing did you use?

[wvhunter1965]

I didn’t smoke them but baked them in my oven until I reached the desired 160 deg.

I used the cellulose hot dog casings and removed them after thermal processing.

[Jonathon]

wvhunter1965 if you started them and finished in the oven I would wonder what temp you were able to start them at. A fairly low starting tem for an oven is about 150° and it’s best to start a little lower than that if possible. You can prop the door open with a wooden dowl a little and that should bleed off some heat.

[wvhunter1965]

Will give that a try next time. My oven only goes down to 170 so I started them pretty high. Does that contribute to the solid nature of the dogs. I can smoke them on my grill and get pretty low with that as I can make use of no heat except from my smoking tube (if you are not familiar, it burns pellets in a small metal tube that lasts for about an hour or so per fill. Not sure what temp I can get at that rate but I can use the charcoal grill and maybe get around 130 or so with that.

Thanks for the info

[wvhunter1965]

Some day, I will get a legit smoker!!!

[Jonathon]

wvhunter1965 starting at a higher temp does a few things, one it cooks it more quickly was “damages” the proteins, now, does that matter a ton in a hotdog? Not really but it also is going to cook the outside too quickly and contribute to case hardening. Case hardening is not when the casing gets hard but rather when the outside of the sausage cooks and dries too quickly and it can no longer efficiently pass heat through to the middle of your sausage. This usually leads to long smoke/cook times and overly dry products.

[wvhunter1965]

Thanks for the info. Will certainly do it different from now on.

[Parksider]

I’d also try emulsifying them. People say using a juicer will create that hot dog texture and make the softer. We triple grind but it’s such a pain. Lots of tips about hot dog making on previous posts too. If you are not smoking them, why not thermal process in a water bath. I think the electric roaster pan would be a perfect job or a pot of water not hotter that 170F.

[wvhunter1965]

Both of these sound like great possibilities for when I make another batch. Thanks for the input.

[hamm460]

Hello maybe someone can answer this for me, I used collagen casings for the hotdogs do I still need to do a water bath/cool them down when finished ty

[Parksider]

hamm460 YES. This about thermal processing. The time it takes heat your product to a safe standard including the time it takes to cool it back down to below 40F. I’d strongly recommend ice bath to help cool your product. I think it also makes getting the casings off easier if you use cellulose.

[Jonathon]

hamm460 If you are interested in more information on this the USDA has something called appendix a and appendix b. A deals with time and temp for lethality for beef,pork, chicken, etc., and B deals with the opposite of that, how quickly you need to get the temps back down! A is getting ready to get an update for the USDA but here is the link to Appendix B https://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/wcm/connect/9ac49aba-46bc-443c-856b-59a3f51b924f/Compliance-Guideline-Stabilization-Appendix-B.pdf?MOD=AJPERES Scroll down to the bottom for the actual sheets.

[hamm460]

TY all, everyone has been very helpful here and is very much appreciated