sudsandswine
Quintessential Chatty Farker
- Joined
- Jun 23, 2012
- Location
- Kansas City
I've been experimenting with various forms of sausage and have been wanting to try making my own hotdogs/weiners/frankfurters. I bought a seasoning mix from The Sausage Maker and ground up some beef (chuck and short rib) along with a pork butt using a 1/4" plate.
I used 3lbs of beef and 2lbs of pork for this recipe. Normally when buying store bought hotdogs I'm adamant about all beef hotdogs, but since I'm controlling what goes into the mix I figured I'd try a combo and then do all beef next time.
I had some 22mm collagen casings and 20mm sheep casings on hand, so I went with the collagen, even though I'd prefer more like a 26 or 28mm casing for hotdogs.
I have a Ninja blender with a food processor attachment that I used to attempt an "emulsification". The processor attachment can fit probably 1.5-1.75lbs of mix before it seems too "full" and makes it hard to get the emulsification going. This pic is after I hand mixed in all the ingredients and placed in the processor.
After it was "emulsified" - this was cumulatively probably 30-40 seconds of mixing, I tried to do it in several bursts and then used a spatula to push the mix back down near the blades. I used ice water and small pieces of ice to keep the mix cold and to have the right amount of liquid present that it'd actually emulsify.
I wouldn't say it's the "puree" type you might have seen on the show "How It's Made" when they make hotdogs commercially but I think this is about as good as I'll be able to get it with the tools available to me.
Closeup of the mix:
Ready to go into the stuffer - I have a 5lb stuffer and had to do it in 2 batches. I used exactly 5lbs of meat so the higher than expected volume might be due to air? Not sure.
This is the smallest diameter casing I've used and 5lbs of meat resulted in many feet worth of stuffed casing. I need to work on my twisting method, it becomes especially apparent in such a long contiguous piece. I made some ~12 inchers and another batch closer to "bun length".
The next step after stuffing the frank is to "smoke" them, which is both a preservative and a flavor enhancer. I'm not sure how much smoke "penetrates" collagen, but it'll be on the surface regardless. I used my Mak 2* on the "smoke" setting for this step, which keeps it between 170-180*.
I felt like I was playing that "snake" game that used to be on the old Nokia phones, I was trying to avoid overlap/touching.
The color about halfway through the process - target IT was 145-150*
All done - some of the wrinkling in the casing seems to be due to the links becoming slightly uncoiled as I flipped and repositioned the sections. Doesn't bother me, just not as purdy.
Gotta have a post-smoke sample :thumb: I'm pretty happy with the consistency compared to store bought
The second batch is on there now. The first took a couple hours to reach target IT.
There's a decent amount of work involved for these but it was a labor of love :clap2:
I used 3lbs of beef and 2lbs of pork for this recipe. Normally when buying store bought hotdogs I'm adamant about all beef hotdogs, but since I'm controlling what goes into the mix I figured I'd try a combo and then do all beef next time.
I had some 22mm collagen casings and 20mm sheep casings on hand, so I went with the collagen, even though I'd prefer more like a 26 or 28mm casing for hotdogs.
I have a Ninja blender with a food processor attachment that I used to attempt an "emulsification". The processor attachment can fit probably 1.5-1.75lbs of mix before it seems too "full" and makes it hard to get the emulsification going. This pic is after I hand mixed in all the ingredients and placed in the processor.
After it was "emulsified" - this was cumulatively probably 30-40 seconds of mixing, I tried to do it in several bursts and then used a spatula to push the mix back down near the blades. I used ice water and small pieces of ice to keep the mix cold and to have the right amount of liquid present that it'd actually emulsify.
I wouldn't say it's the "puree" type you might have seen on the show "How It's Made" when they make hotdogs commercially but I think this is about as good as I'll be able to get it with the tools available to me.
Closeup of the mix:
Ready to go into the stuffer - I have a 5lb stuffer and had to do it in 2 batches. I used exactly 5lbs of meat so the higher than expected volume might be due to air? Not sure.
This is the smallest diameter casing I've used and 5lbs of meat resulted in many feet worth of stuffed casing. I need to work on my twisting method, it becomes especially apparent in such a long contiguous piece. I made some ~12 inchers and another batch closer to "bun length".
The next step after stuffing the frank is to "smoke" them, which is both a preservative and a flavor enhancer. I'm not sure how much smoke "penetrates" collagen, but it'll be on the surface regardless. I used my Mak 2* on the "smoke" setting for this step, which keeps it between 170-180*.
I felt like I was playing that "snake" game that used to be on the old Nokia phones, I was trying to avoid overlap/touching.
The color about halfway through the process - target IT was 145-150*
All done - some of the wrinkling in the casing seems to be due to the links becoming slightly uncoiled as I flipped and repositioned the sections. Doesn't bother me, just not as purdy.
Gotta have a post-smoke sample :thumb: I'm pretty happy with the consistency compared to store bought
The second batch is on there now. The first took a couple hours to reach target IT.
There's a decent amount of work involved for these but it was a labor of love :clap2:
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