April 24: Hot Dogs From Scratch

There are some things that I don't have a lot of faith that I can do better than in their most organic form. Eggrolls, for example: I seriously doubt that I can do anything more interesting with an eggroll than the Chinese restaurant around the corner. Mostly because I have no desire to deep-fry anything in my tiny little condo kitchen, but also, any Chinese restaurant eggroll is pretty much the gold standard of the thing; I have no reason to try to do it better.

It's sort of like quoting someone else: chances are somebody's already said it, and done it better than you can.

I love hot dogs, they're my guilty pleasure. Also, I have a not-quite-three-year-old; we consume a fair number of hot dogs in my house. A hot dog is a great blank canvas, you can put a lot of stuff on a hot dog. I like mine with mustard, onions, and cheese; I also really like a great authentic Chicago dog.

Just when I think I've taken the hot dog as far as it'll go, something else pops up for me. Today, it came in the form of Kim from The Yummy Mummy Cooks Gourmet and her homemade hot dog challenge. Homemade hot dogs? Well, why not. I make my own sausage, and a hot dog is really just that.

This weekend, we have tickets for the Nationals-Cubs game, but I am going to fit this recipe in regardless. There's lots of chilling and poaching time, not as much hands-on time as I would have guessed. Also, there's less gross random parts in this hot dog as I would suspect you find in a Ball Park frank. Anthony Bourdain aside, I'm not so much into eating all the parts of the animal, although my Dutch heritage sort of precludes me from ever being totally comfortable throwing edible bits away.

Make yourself some homemade hot dogs this weekend, and let me know how it goes. I will keep you updated.

Thanks to Kim Foster, the Yummy Mummy.

Hot Dogs From Scratch
From The Art of The Pig, who got it from a course on Sausage Making at CIA.

Ingredients
10 oz lean ground beef
1/2 lb smoked fatty bacon, minced
1 Tbs salt
1 Tbs sugar
1/2 tsp onion powder
1/4 tsp ground white pepper
1/4 tsp ground coriander
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 pinch garlic powder (be generous, use more)
6 oz crushed ice
1 oz nonfat dry milk

Method
Place the bowl to the food processor in the freezer, place blade in ice bath.
Combine ground beef with seasonings, place in freezer along with bacon until semi-frozen
In the food processor place the meat and the ice; process to a smooth texture until the temperature reaches 40 F.
Add the bacon and process until well blended and temperature reaches 50 F
Add dry milk and process to mix in.
Pipe onto plastic wrap, roll, tie every 6 inches. Refrigerate overnight.
The next day poach in water at 170 F until internal temperature of 155 F; shock in ice water.
Unwrap and refrigerate until ready to use.