by Chuckwagon » Tue Nov 10, 2009 9:39 pm
Try An All-Beef Dog!
Americans alone, consume six hundred hot dogs every second! That’s more than 16 billion each year… seven billion during the summer months alone!
Hi Dan, Welcome to the forum. Although I’m not Jewish, I have many friends that are and I’ve found that I must know a bit about “kosher” style products. My “kosher” doctor is a great guy and we pal around a lot. He likes my all-beef kosher hot dogs, so I thought I’d send along this recipe to you. If you have ever seen a commercial frankfurter made, you would be amazed. They are actually placed into a plastic casing then slightly heated until the meat “sets”. Next, they go through a plastic casing-stripping machine that boggles the mind. It removes the casing so rapidly that one cannot see it being done. They literally shoot out of the machine, fly through the air, and land in a bin where they develop a “pellicle” or air-dried casing.
However, not everyone can eat pork and I can’t remember where I stole this all-beef recipe, but it is a good one. I’m sure you’ve tried the “Nathan’s beef hot dog”. This recipe will remind you of a “Nathan’s” all-beef hot dog although it is usually put into a larger casing. To make a decent frankfurter, a sausage maker must know how to “emulsify” sausage. Here are some tips.
Frankfurters, bologna, and many other sausages are made with very finely ground meat mixed with a liquid lubricant and is known as emulsified meat. A simple hand grinder is not sufficient to prepare the texture required. With the introduction of the geared food processor in recent years, it is now possible to make very nice emulsified sausages such as wieners or frankfurters. Some folks even use the machine to prepare pepperoni. You’ll have more success using a better processor with direct-drive gears instead of belts. Meat for emulsified sausages is first ground using a regular grinder using a 1/4" plate, then mixed with seasonings and cures before being further processed inside a food processor where the myocin develops a sticky “meat paste”. A liquid (usually icewater) is always added to lubricate the meat, preventing excess wear on the motor of the machine.
"Hobble Creek Hot Dogs"
(Ranch-Made All-Beef Frankfurters)
10 lbs. lean beef chuck
1 pint icewater
4 tblspns. paprika
4 tblspns. dry powdered mustard
1 tspn. white pepper
1 tspn. black pepper
1-1/2 tspns. ground celery seeds
1 tblspn. coriander
2 tspn. garlic powder
6 tblspns. uniodized salt
2 cups soy protein concentrate
4 tblspns. powdered dextrose
2 level. tspns. Prague Powder #1
To make all-beef frankfurters, cut the nearly-frozen meat into inch chunks then grind them through a 1/4" plate. Grind ‘em again through a 1/8" plate using a little ice water to keep the plate and knives cool. Mix all the dry ingredients together with the Prague Powder then stir the mixture into some of the ice water for even distribution in the meat. Finally, mix every ingredient together, including the meat, making sure the curing agent is distributed entirely throughout the sausage. Emulsify the sausage in small batches inside a food processor, using ice water as needed to thin the mixture slightly and reduce the stress on the motor. Do not over process the meat. When a sticky paste develops, start another batch.
Stuff the sausage into 38 m.m. clear synthethic fibrous casings or plastic casings in desired lengths. Our gang always liked "foot longs". Hang the franks inside your kitchen thirty minutes, then place them into 200° F. (93° C.) water until the internal meat temperature reaches 150° F. (66° C.). Use a probe-type thermometer with cable and alarm. (Poulder is about 30 dollars U.S.). Immediately, immerse them in icewater, lowering the internal meat temperature to room temperature. Strip off the plastic and allow a slight pellicle to bloom before refrigerating them overnight.
PS. Avoid the fibrous casings with protein lining. This casing shrinks with the meat and clings to the product. It is made for dry-cured sausages.
The Western Hot Dog
In 1987, the city of Frankfurt celebrated the 500th birthday and it has been said that the frankfurter was developed there in 1487, five years before Christopher Columbus set sail for the new world. The people of Vienna, Austria, disagree, reminding all sausage-heads that the name of their city is Wein, as in "wiener", and Austrians claim their home as the birthplace of the hot dog.
It is most likely the North American hot dog comes from sausages of several nationalities, but who was first to slap it on a bun? And who called it a dog? One report says a German immigrant sold emulsified sausages with rolls and sauerkraut, from a pushcart in New York City's Bowery during the Civil War. In 1871, German butcher Charles Feltman opened the first Coney Island hot dog stand selling 3,684 during his first year in business. His "dachshund sausages" were placed inside a roll. Then in 1893, Chicago hosted the Colombian Exposition where hordes of visitors consumed gigantic quantities of sausages sold by vendors. People liked the tasty "dachshunds" as they were easy to eat and convenient and inexpensive to purchase. Within the same year, bread-wrapped sausages became the standard fare at baseball parks sold by the St. Louis Browns major league baseball team owner Chris Von de Ahe, a German immigrant who also owned a bar downtown. Historians say the Germans always ate dachshund sausages with bread and give credit to them for today's hot dog, nestled inside a bun. Some say the term "hot dog" was coined in 1901 at the New York Polo Grounds on a cold April day. Vendors were selling hot dogs from portable hot water tanks shouting "They're red hot! Get your dachshund sausages while they're red hot!" A New York Journal sports cartoonist, Tad Dorgan, observed the event and hastily drew a cartoon of barking dachshund sausages nestled warmly in rolls. Not sure how to spell "dachshund" he simply wrote "hot dog"!
Best Wishes, Chuckwagon
If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and walks like a duck, it probably needs a little more time on the grill.