Hot Dogs-Homemade

Submitted by adopt a greyhound

"This is posted for a request. Hot dogs or frankfurters are nothing more than ground meat with seasonings. They are easy to make at home with about an hour of time invested. You can make these all beef or all pork, if you wish. Feel free to adjust the seasonings to suit your own personal tastes. Plan ahead to find the casings, usually available at your local butcher shop."

 

• Ready In: 1hr 20mins
• Ingredients: 16
• Yields: 2 lbs,
• Serves: 12-16

ingredients

• hog casing, 3 feet (1-1/2-inch diameter)
• 1 lb lean pork, cubed
• 3⁄4 lb lean beef, cubed
• 1⁄4 lb pork fat, cubed
• 1⁄4 cup onion, very finely minced
• 1 small garlic clove, finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon coriander, finely ground
• 1⁄4 teaspoon dried marjoram
• 1⁄4 teaspoon ground mace
• 1⁄2 teaspoon ground mustard
• 1 teaspoon sweet paprika
• 1 teaspoon white pepper, freshly fine ground
• 1 egg white
• 1 1⁄2 teaspoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt (to taste)
• 1⁄4 cup milk

directions

1. Prepare the casings (see instructions below). In a blender or food processor, make a puree of the onion, garlic, coriander, marjoram, mace, mustard seed, and paprika. Add the pepper, egg white, sugar, salt, and milk and mix thoroughly.
2. 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.
3. Chill the mixture for half an 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.
4. Preparing the Casing.
5. 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. Place it in a bowl of cool water and let it soak for about half an hour. While you're waiting for the casing to soak, you can begin preparing the meat as detailed above.
6. After soaking, rinse the casing under cool running water. Slip one end of the casing over the faucet nozzle. Hold the casing firmly on the nozzle, and then turn on the cold water, gently at first, and then more forcefully. This procedure will flush out any salt in the casing and pinpoint any breaks. Should you find a break, simply snip out a small section of the casing.
7. Place the 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 are ready to use it. Rinse it well and drain before stuffing.

Reviews

[Pokey in San Antonio]

Great recipe--I just got a meat grinder (Lem #5) for Christmas, so I had to make this. I especially liked the part on handling the casings. Adding the vinegar really did make the casings almost totally transparent on the finished franks--just like store-bought. I used 1 3/4 pounds beef and 1/4 pound ground pork. Everything else was as directed in the recipe. I loved being able to serve healthy franks, with no preservatives or nitrates--these were even better than the Hebrew Nationals I usually serve. Thank you so much for posting--no more store bought for me.