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Hot Dogs
Total Project Time: 2 days
A friend recently said to me, "Once I bought a foot-long hot dog at a truck stop, and my mom looked at me and said, ‘Why do you eat those? Don’t you know they’re made of hooves and toenails?’" While no one really knows if hot dogs are made from hooves and toenails, or lips and assholes, we’re pretty sure they’re made of shit ingredients.
Let’s get back to making dogs using the real deal: short ribs. That’s right, fuck yeah. We’re going to make this almost the same way that German and Austrian immigrants made these tasty meat treats over a century ago.
This is based on the recipe from Michael Ruhlman, and he really knocked this one out of the proverbial park.1. Intro
2. Procure Equipment
3. Buy Ingredients
4. Prepare the Meat
5. Prepare the Casing
6. Mix and Grind
7. Taste Test
8. Pasty Meat
9. Stuff those Dogs
10. Smoke 'em
11. Finito
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2. Procure Equipment
Before Event
The day or multiple days before the event, procure the following equipment:
• Chef's Knife
• Cutting board
• Meat Grinder
• Sausage Stuffer
• Food Processor
• Food preparation gloves
• Smoker
• Alder Wood Chips
• Meat Thermometer
• Plastic wrap
• Sealable plastic freezer bags
• Sharpie
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3. Buy Ingredients
Before Event
The day before the event, procure the following ingredients:
• 18 lbs. beef short ribs
• 4 tbsp. Kosher Salt
• 1 ⅓ tbsp. Instacure No. 1 curing salt
• ¼ cup dry mustard
• 2 ⅔ tbsp. paprika
• 1 ⅓ tbsp. ground coriander
• 1 tsp. white pepper
• 6 cloves garlic
• ½ cup Corn Syrup
• 2 tbsp. white wine vinegar
• 20 ft. Hog Casing or 40 ft. Sheep Casing
18 pounds of short ribs will produce 10 pounds of meat. You can use the remaining bones to make a beef stock.
Buy Hog Casing if you want to make a thick dog or Sheep Casing if you want to make a slender dog. -
4. Prepare the Meat
Day 1
Place a large mixing bowl and the Meat Grinder attachment in the freezer, in order to make sure the equipment is cold so the grinding will go quickly.
Place 1 quart of water in a liquid measuring dish; place in the refrigerator to chill it before use.
Prepare the Meat Grinder for use. Cut the short rib meat off the bones, and chop the meat into 1-inch square pieces.
Grind the meat using the small die grate into the chilled mixing bowl.
Mix the ground meat together by hand with:
• 4 tbsp. Kosher Salt
• 1 ⅓ tbsp. Instacure No. 1 curing salt
• 1 quart chilled water
Cover the meat mixture with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for 24 hours. -
5. Prepare the Casing
Day 2
The next day, prepare the casing:
Add 4 cups cold water and 2 tbsp. white wine vinegar to a bowl.
Place the 20 ft. of Hog Casing or 40 ft. of Sheep Casing in the water / vinegar mixture and allow to sit for at least 30 minutes before using the casing. -
6. Mix and Grind
Day 2
Before the family meal, place the Food Processor bowl and blade, and a large mixing bowl in the freezer.
Prepare the Meat Grinder for use.
Measure out the following ingredients:
• ¼ cup dry mustard
• 2 ⅔ tbsp. paprika
• 1 ⅓ tbsp. ground coriander
• 1 tsp. white pepper
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
• ½ cup Corn Syrup
Combine all of the ingredients together. Remove the meat mixture from the refrigerator and mix the spice ingredients into the meat by hand.
Grind the meat mixture again using the small die grate.
Set aside a small 3 x 1.5 inch amount of meat for the next step. Place the remainder of the meat mixture in the freezer for 30 minutes. -
7. Taste Test
Day 2
Now it’s time for the quenelle test.
Add water to a sauce pan; place on the stove on high heat. Bring the water on the stove top to just below a simmer, and keep at that temperature, about 180F.
Take the small piece of meat that was set aside and wrap the meat in plastic wrap. Place in the hot water and allow to poach for about 10 minutes, until it reaches an internal temperature of 150F.
Remove the meat from the plastic wrap and taste. If you need to add any other spice ingredients to the mixture, remove the meat mixture from the freezer, mix in the spices, and place the meat mixture back in the freezer. -
8. Pasty Meat
Day 2
After the family meal, place ¼ batch of meat from the freezer at a time. Place in a Food Processor and puree until the mixture is a uniform paste. This will take between 1 and 2 minutes per batch depending on your processor.
When each batch is pasty, use a spatula to remove the meat paste into a bowl. Place the bowl in the freezer to keep the meat cold while processing each batch.
Place a cookie sheet in the freezer to chill it for the next step. -
9. Stuff those Dogs
Day 2
Prepare the Sausage Stuffer for use.
Press meat through the stuffer until the ground meat just barely pokes through the end of the spout.
Push the open end of the Hog Casing over the end of the stuffer, and continue to push the casing onto the stuffer until you reach the end of the casing. Tie a knot at the end of the casing.
Remove small batches of the chilled meat mixture at a time from the freezer.
Stuff the meat paste into the casing, twisting into links every 6 inches, and allow the links to fall onto the chilled baking sheet. -
11. Finito
Day 2
Place in the refrigerator for up to 1 week, or the freezer for up to 1 month. If freezing, place in a sealable freezer storage back and label with a Sharpie Hot Dogs: made on May 23, 2013.
The hot dogs can be consumed chilled. For best results, either cook on a grill, or poach in water heated to just below a simmer for about 10 minutes, until the dogs reach an internal temperature of 150F.
