How to Make Your Own Homemade Hot Dogs

Hey Guys, this is Austin with WaltonsTV! And welcome to Meatgistics and How To Make Hot

Dogs .....at waltonsinc.com

Meatgistics is the process of transforming meat from animal to edible, and today we will

be making 100% beef hot dogs from beef trim. However, Hot dogs can truly be made from either

beef, pork, turkey, chicken, or a combination of any of them. For something to be really

called a hot dog though, it must have a very minute particle size, or something that is

emulsified. In a hot dog

meat particle size so small that the fat particles compared to the lean are basically indistinguishable.

Another staple of hot dogs, is to make a skinless product, or not have a casing on the final

product. This is not a requirement though. Many people still do and can use a natural

casing or collagen casing. Today we are making hot dogs using a cellulose or plastic casing

which we will remove once the hot dogs have been cooked and smoked. We will also make

a few hot dogs with collagen casings so we can compare the difference between the two.

We are starting out with 100% beef, in a 25 pound meat block that is about 85% lean and

15% fat. If it is possible with your meat block, separate the fat from the lean, because

when you mix and process just half of the lean meat, but use all of the salt and seasoning

in it, it will help maintain a temporarily higher salt content which will help with the

emulsification of protein in the meat and the binding of the rest of the meat, fat and

water together in the final product. Our meat block today is lean enough, being only 15%

fat, that we will do everything all at once. If you have a higher fat content, like up

to 30 or 40 percent, then I would separate the fat and grind separately and mix separately

for the first half of the mixing cycle.

now we are ready to grind

We will grind everything 3 times. First through a 3/8 inch (or 10mm) plate, and then twice

through a 1/8 inch (or 3mm) plate.

Now on to mixing. This is when we will add all of our ingredients. For 25 pounds of meat,

we will need one quart of ice cold water, one 6 ounce package of sure gel meat binder,

one package of Walton's hot dog seasoning, and one package of our 1 oz sure cure

We will start by mixing the sure gel into our water. It will have a bit of a tendency

to clump, so it will take a couple minutes to try and get it as dissolved as possible.

Now, we'll start the mixer, which is our Weston 44 pound meat mixer, attached to our #22 Weston

Meat Grinder. I'm a bit lazy, so when we hook up the meat mixer to the grinder, we don't

actually have to crank the handle, the grinder will automatically turn the mixing paddles

for us. Using a meat mixer is definitely preferred for making hot dogs. Many other products like

a fresh bratwurst, I would say it is completely fine to hand mix, and while it is possible

to hand mix when making hot dogs, it is extremely difficult just because we have to make sure

we get a lot of protein extraction, where the meat gets really sticky, to make the final

product turn out right. Hand mixing will take a lot longer to mix, and may not turn out

as ideal of a product as using a meat mixer would.