Recipe: Hot Dogs at Home
Entry by adam | January 26, 2006 | Link |
Late Tuesday afternoon, after four days of testimony and summation and eight hours of deliberation, my fellow jurors and I reached a verdict in the case we were sitting on. On Slice, I did some musing on the old Otto von Bismarck quote: "Those who love sausage and obey the law should not watch either being made." Needless to say, the proceedings in the courthouse reminded me of those words. I explored the topic of making Italian fennel sausage on the pizza site.
From there, however, it's a quick leap to homemade hot dogs. It's a leap my mind made during an intense period of argument in the jury room when it was clear we were getting nowhere: "Sausage and law, heh ... homemade Italian sausage ... should explore that idea for pizza ... isn't a hot dog just a sausage by a different name? ... homemade hot dogs ... no lips and assholes ... no gross, unknown ingredients ... could make homemade corndogs, too ... need deep fryer ... the girlfriend's not going to like the deep-fryer idea ... "
So I did some research Tuesday night. It looks like making your own hot dogs wouldn't be so difficult. Time consuming, sure. But it's basically just running some meat, pork fat, and seasonings through a food processor or meat grinder and then stuffing the mixture into some sausage casings. And what better way to honor the Year of the Dog?
CASING THE OINK
I think a lot of people intentionally avoid thinking about casings. After all, sausage-makers originally used hog intestines, and how appetizing is that? I don't really mind the idea, but if you do, there are "synthetic" casings now, made from collagen. Where to get these? Check with your butcher. My neighborhood butcher, A&S Pork Store on Fifth Avenue and Garfield in Park Slope, sells large and thin casings. If you can't find casings at your own butcher, try ordering them online from SausageMaker.com: casings.
STUFF IT, BUDDY
Oh, you can't just spoon the meat mixture into the casings. You need a sausage stuffer for that. You can find those, too, at SausageMaker.com. On that site, they range in price from $50 for a hand-operated model that can handle three pounds of sausage (right) to a $2,000 motorized stuffer with a 25 lb. capacity. Even better, if you own a Kitchen Aid stand mixer, you can buy a sausage-stuffer attachment for $13.99.
LET THE DOGS OUT
So after you stuff the casings, you've got honest-to-goodness dogs on your hands. Before you do anything with them, though, it looks like you gotta par-boil them. Once par-boiled, you can either cook them in any manner you'd like (personally, I'd grill 'em) or freeze them for later. Seems like it'd be a shame to freeze them, though. Why go through all the trouble only to degrade the quality and freshness by going arctic on 'em? The recipe below (click through the jump) seems like it'll make about 24 frankfurters. So instead of icing the links, fire up the grill, invite some friends over, cry havoc, and let slip the dogs. (It should be noted that you can refrigerate them for up to a week.)
GOT BUNS, HON?
This is probably material for another post, or an addendum to this one at a later date, but as long as you're making the dogs from scratch, why not the buns, too? I haven't had time to look for a really great tried-and-true bun recipe, but maybe I'll start with this one from AllRecipes.com.
Of course, why use a bun at all? I believe that once I get the homemade dog technique down, corndogs will follow. Stay tuned!
Homemade Frankfurters (Hot Dogs) [About.com]
Burger or Hot Dog Buns [AllRecipes.com]
Order casings [SausageMaker.com]
Kitchen Aid sausage-stuffer attachment [KitchenAid.com]
HOMEMADE HOT DOGS
3 feet sheep or small (11/2-inch diameter) hog casings
1 pound lean pork, cubed
3/4 pound lean beef, cubed
1/4 pound pork fat, cubed
1/4 cup very finely minced onion
1 small clove garlic, finely chopped
1 teaspoon finely ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon dried marjoram
1/4 teaspoon ground mace
1/2 teaspoon ground mustard seed
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
1 teaspoon freshly fine ground white pepper
1 egg white
1-1/2 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
1/4 cup milk
1. Prepare the casings (see instructions below). In a blender or food processor, make a purée of the onion, garlic, coriander, marjoram, mace, mustard seed, and paprika. Add the pepper, egg white, sugar, salt, and milk and mix thoroughly. Grind the pork, beef, and fat cubes through the fine blade separately. Mix together and grind again. Mix the seasonings into the meat mixture with your hands. This tends to be a sticky procedure, so wet your hands with cold water first.
2. Chill the mixture for half and hour then put the mixture thorough the fine blade of the grinder once more. Stuff the casings and twist them off into six-inch links. Parboil the links (without separating them) in gently simmering water for 20 minutes. Place the franks in a bowl of ice water and chill thoroughly. Remove, pat dry, and refrigerate. Because they are precooked, they can be refrigerated for up to a week or they can be frozen.
Preparing the Casing
1. Snip off about four feet of casing. (Better too much than too little because any extra can be repacked in salt and used later.) Rinse the casing under cool running water to remove any salt clinging to it, and place it in a bowl of cool water and let it soak for about half an hour. Meanwhile, begin preparing the meat as detailed below.
2. After soaking casing, rinse it under cool running water. Slip one end of casing over faucet nozzle. Hold casing firmly on nozzle, then turn on cold water, gently at first, then more forcefully. This procedure will flush out any salt in casing and pinpoint any breaks. If you find a break, simply snip out a small section of the casing.
3. Place casing in a bowl of water, and add a splash of white vinegar. A tablespoon of vinegar per cup of water is sufficient. (The vinegar softens the casing a bit more and makes it more transparent, which in turn makes your sausage more pleasing to the eye.) Leave the casing in the water/vinegar solution until you're ready to use it. Rinse casing well and drain before stuffing.
Entry by adam
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Comments
Just found your site off a comment on full belly. Love this doggie post. Do you have one of those crazy stuff it machines? That's intense. But for fennel and any sausage it would be worth it. What's your favorite dog in the city?
Posted by: Mona at January 26, 2006 02:29 PM
Mona: No. I don't have a stuffer. I have a Kitchen Aid, though, and the stuffer attachment for it is pretty reasonable at $13.99, especially for a Kitchen Aid attachment. (Those things can get pricey.)
I've never really explored hot dogs in NYC. I like them but don't LOVE them. So it's never been a priority for me. The thing with making them from scratch, though, is that I really like to learn about the process involved in making foods -- especially ones that people usually wouldn't make on their own. I think that once you start to learn what's involved in creating a product, you're better able to appreciate a really good one when you come across it.
Posted by: Adam ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.bitebybyte.net/nav-commenters.gif)
at January 26, 2006 08:54 PM
First, I went to BroomeDoggs last night and it was good, but not great. I'll post about it on my blog.
Second, If you need a taste-tester for homemade hot dogs, I'm your man.
Posted by: Matty at January 28, 2006 03:36 PM
The Hot Dogs we use at Broome Doggs are also SMOKED which might prove harder to do at home; still a "fresh" (not smoked) dog should taste good. Maybe more liek a Brat!
I think most dogs are lightly smoked.
Also, thanks Matt for the kind words about BroomeDoggs.
Posted by: Harry at January 30, 2006 10:38 AM
Ah. I'll have to try Broome Doggs next time I'm in that area. It looks like Harry and the Schnack folks are moving into Manhattan now.
Harry: The smoking thing probably would be harder to do at home, although I did see an episode of Good Eats in which Alton Brown showed how to build a make-do homemade smoker out of a galvanized trash can and an electric hot plate.
I have a brisket from the Salt Lick in Austin waiting for this treatment ...
Posted by: Adam at January 30, 2006 01:25 PM
Aren't the briskets from the Salt Lick already smoked on site? I don't know that I'd mess with that perfection. I am totally in love with our stovetop smoker, but I definitely wouldn't pit it against the Salt Lick's smokehouse. However, I can testify that the stovetop smoker works Great for sausages.
Posted by: Jenny at January 30, 2006 07:41 PM
If you ever make it out to Berkeley, CA - Top Dog is a must on your list. I love that place.
Posted by: Gerald at February 3, 2006 01:14 AM