Hot Dogs Are Done!

[woodsman416]

Alright guys, there all done. I finished up on Wednesday night. This was my first attempt at hot dogs and, while they didn't come out perfect, they are pretty darn good. So here's the way I did it.

Sunday morning I shot a doe that dressed out at 108 lbs. I skinned it warm and beboned it right away. I filled a big covered meat lug with the venison and put it in my shop refrigerator.

Monday night after work I trimmed all the meat. I had enough hot dog seasonings from LEM to do fifty pounds of hot dogs. I wound up with 48 lbs of trimmed meat but I had to mix 20% pork. I put 20 lbs of venison in each of two meat lugs and cut up and mixed in 5 lbs of pork fat into each. I put half of the hot dog seasonings into each lug than added 2 tsp of soy protein concentrate for each pound of meat. This is used to keep the finished product from shriveling up.

[woodsman416]

After that I ran the two batches through the grinder twice. First through a 7 mm plate than through a 4.5 mm plate. That was my first mistake. I should have run everything through a third time using a 3 mm plate. I don't have a 3 mm (I just ordered one) but I could have run through the 4.5 mm plate again. After I was done grinding I covered both lug with plastic wrap and put them back in the fridge overnight. I turned the fridge down to it's lowest setting. That was mistake #2. The next day I had a frozen layer on top of the meat mixture.

[woodsman416]

Tuesday night I had two friends come over to help with the stuffing. Of course I had to pay them in hot dogs but I really needed some help. So it went like this, I'm operating the stuffer. I have one friend working the casings and twisting them into lengths and another friend tie string around each end to make sure they don't unravel. We used plastic casing on these. After a while we got the hang of it and it went pretty quick.

Once everything is made up they need to be cooked in 180 degree water for 30 minutes. That's how much time it takes for the internal meat temperature to reach 165 degrees. This also makes the hot dogs stay together when you remove them from the casings. We used a propane turkey fryer to cook them. As soon as they come out of the water they go into ice water for 20 minutes. After that they're done. We cooked up six of them right there and the taste was great. Pretty heavy on the garlic but I like that. The consistency wasn't as smooth as hot dogs should be. Grinding a third time would definitely help that.

[woodsman416]

We never counted our total production but after we split them up, 1/2 for me and 1/4 for Ed and Jack each, I wound up with 212 hot dogs!So the total was over 400. I put mine back in the fridge and finished packing them up for the freezer on Wednesday night.

[woodsman416]

This is MY total so it's about half of our total production.



All packed up.



Equipment used.
My 1 hp grinder.



Sausage stuffer.



Vacuum packer.



And a turkey fryer. (no pic)

[Canadian trapper]

Great story, info and pics. Looks like you have a nice setup going on. Now I'm hungry again. Thanks
The Canadian Trapper

[trapperbud]

That's a pile of hot dogs . Nice set up . ;D

[maritimer]

;D Great write up. Looks like a nice pile of hotdogs you got there.

[patricimo54]

I came across the recipe for the original frankfurter that was introduced to the American people back at the turn of the last century. I gave it a try and they turned out great. The recipe I had was all about pork.

What percent of yours if any was pork? You sure take your venison production serious. That's a whole lotta dogs.

Karma to ya.

[woodsman416]

Nov 19, 2011 8:07:59 GMT -5 patricimo54 said:

What percent of yours if any was pork?

20% pork fat.

[muskrat24]

Very nice woodsman ;D

[Admin]

Ken, This is awesome. ;D I've had dogs made from my venison but never made them myself. I may have to give it a try. You said you used LEM seasonings. I've used their products in the past and was pleased enough with them. I have a big LEM grinder much like yours. You said they were heavy in garlic, is that the way the seasoning came or did you add some?

Do you need the stuffer or can you stuff them from an attachment off the discharge end of the grinder?

Great project. Definitely worth a karma. ;D

[woodsman416]

JC, This is these are the LEM products that I used.

www.lemproducts.com/product/4024/cured_seasonings
www.lemproducts.com/category/Soy_Protein
www.lemproducts.com/product/671/178

This was my first shot at this so I used it right out of the pack.

I ordered my sausage stuffer because I wanted to do more sausage making this year. In doing research on hot dogs and smaller diameter sausages I got the idea that the force needed to stuff through a 10 mm tube is considerable. I didn't want to take a chance on overloading my grinder. After doing this project I think I was right. While it might not have broken my grinder down it may have shortened it's life quite a bit.

I still plan on making 50 lbs of summer sausage and 50 lbs of bratwurst this year so I'll definitely get my use out of the stuffer!

[tinknocker1]

great job on the hotdogs !! they look fantastic

i just made some jerky and summer sausage turned out pretty good i would like to make up some dogs ..

just something about making your own stuff !