I tried some pepperoni a friend made using your spices and directions, it tasted great but didnt have the “hard” consistency of pepperoni that you purchase in a store. Was something done wrong or is this normal?

So Im finally having the time to start making hot dogs and other delicious concoctions. A question that came up, when making hot dogs, the last step is to put them in your smoker. Do you have to actually use “Smoke”? Hot dogs from the store are just cooked, not smoked so I was wondering if that is the way we should be doing it at home or just put them in the smoker with not wood so that they are just cooked and not actually smoked.

Thank you for the responses! The ones I tried that a friend made were smoked and I agree that they are delicious. I was just thinking about store hot dogs and others a friend has had made by someone for him and they were not so thats where this question came from.

Thank you again!

For many of the recipes like hot dogs and meat sticks, it says to use 80/20 beef. I want to use my venison grind. I have ground pork from a pig we raised, what would be the proper ratio of venison to pork?