Inspired by the Cage Free Tomato’s post, I finally decided to make homemade hot dogs using the recipe from Charcuterie.
These took a fair amount of time with a number of steps including grinding, a 24 hour (or so) chill, spicing, regrinding, chilling, pureeing, stuffing into casings and smoking.
I used boneless short ribs ($5.99/lb) and sheep casings (70 cents/10ft) from Whole Foods. The grinding (with a Kitchenaid grinding attachment) was easy–Jonathan was happy to do it–and so was the spicing (mustard powder, coriander, paprika, garlic, white pepper). Pureeing was not hard, but seeing meat mush flying around the food processor was a bit icky. I started humming “meat emulsion” to the tune of Aerosmith’s “Sweet Emotion,” and the song association will likely permanently stick in my brain.
The trickiest step by far was stuffing due to the Kitchenaid’s lackluster abilities, the texture of the meat and the narrowness of the casings. The process was really slow, and hot dog mush occasionally got splattered on nearby walls. I might want to invest in a real sausage stuffer sometime.
I hot smoked these at around 225–250 over applewood chips using a smoker box, which took around 30–45 minutes.
They were the beefiest, smokiest, most intensely flavored hot dogs I’ve ever had. While enjoyable on their own, the sharp acidity of saurkraut would make a great counterpoint. I might get some fermenting shortly.
A pretty close approximation of the original recipe can be found here.
Thanks for sharing! You’ve got bigger balls than most home cooks. To attempt is to appreciate true craftsmanship when it’s placed in front of you at a restaurant. The Kitchenaid is passable, but just barely. It’s actually harder on sausage than hot dogs because it makes for some mushy ass links. Hats off to you and the boy. Double hats off that both of you didn’t lose any fingers.
Thanks for the shout out. And Cal always coming through with kind words. If you guys ever need to borrow the stuffer get in touch. It just stares at me mockingly when I’m in the basement most days. Also, with dogs, and I suspect other emulsified sausages, hand stuffing with a funnel is really not too bad. Nice work on those.
Oh, yum, those sound wonderful. And I didn’t know of such a thing as a smoker box– excellent! I love smoked meats and fish so much, but I thought that meant you had to buy a whole big standalone smoker (my mom had one of those). Good to know there’s a less pricey alternative.
Being not all that unfamiliar with Aerosmith’s repertoire, I visited YouTube to make sure I knew which song you meant (I did!), and the video was very entertaining (gotta watch all the way to the end). I can only hope the song won’t be forever altered just by reading about the hot dog making version
Cal: I’ve actually had better luck with sausages. But maybe the issue was that the casings were really stiff. It was a lot easier after I ran them under warm water.
CFT: Thanks again for the inspiration and the e-mail. I might take you up on that sausage stuffer offer sometime.
Darcy: The smoker box just holds wood chips that are used in a smoker so that they work more gradually. You still need a smoker, or at least a grill. One convenience of the box is that it can be used with a gas grill.
A real sausage stuffer makes the job MUCH easier. We struggled with the kitchen aid stuffer and finally gave up. For our first batch we ended up using a jury rigged cookie press! Northern tool has several nice stuffers at reasonable cost. The first time you use one you’ll wonder why you ever tried any other method. Get the type that presses using a screw mechanism, not the “U” shaped plunger. Last check, the 5lb model ran about $80. For me, it was money well spent!