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I saw a cable show which toured the Sabretts plant. They use bull meat in their hot dogs.

My uncle always told me when I was a kid that hot dogs were made from p*ckers n lips....i was an adult before I would eat them.

Whatddaya think it was, magic? Cheese and rice! Hot dogs are one of the noblest meats, in my opinion, because it uses all the trimmings, not those elitist choice cuts. If I was killed, parted out and eaten, I wouldn't want anything to go to waste either. Besides, they are delicious. I'd rather have a hot dog in a crackly casing any day over one of them skinless wieners though.

At around 4:17 this is my favorite video of all time. I think I saw this on TLC or something once. I just love the sheer numbers involved in this sort of process. Now, whenever I see hotdogs, I think of them shooting out of a machine and landing in a big pile. Its something that can't be unseen.

Cellulose casings are inedible. They have to be removed.

Natural casings for hot dogs are generally sheep intestines, very labor intensive to use, and fairly fragile, so the production is limited and warrant a premium price. There is dining experience better than feeling the casing snap followed by the juicy, greasy goodness as you pull then hot and steamy from the smokehouse. I pity you who have never experienced it.

I don't think it's a bad idea to try to keep waste to a minimum, but I disagree with it coming out as a diarrhea slurry at some point in the process.

I agree about the comments regarding the natural casings. The snap of the external casing, that gives way to juicy salty, meaty goodness is rivaled by no other. It really is out of this world.

Rutt's Hut in Clifton, NJ is one of my favorite spots for "rippers". I grew up eating them and they are nice and crunchy. Max's in Long Branch is probably THE best dog you can get your hands on. The snap on those babies is just too good to be true. But it is true.

here's my review:
http://www.ubereater.com/2008/09/jersey-shore-chronicles-part-iii-maxs.html

The Ubereater

I was always told they were from lips, @$$holes and elbows. Maybe the elbow meat was the clincher. I love a hotdog on occasion, but it has to be all beef...I guess beef lips, eyelids, ankles and buttholes? sorry

I just went back and read the review of Max's by Ubereater. Wow! The review, pictures, and descriptions of the dog at Max's would have a vegetarian drooling. Unfortunately Max's is seasonal and they aren't open now. They open for the season sometime in March and close shortly after Labor Day. From speaking with people in the business (distributors, restaurant owners, hot dog plant people, etc.) I've found out that Max's is 3rd in amount of hot dogs sold. This is quite impressive given the fact that they are closed almost half of the year.

The Hot Grill in Clifton sells more hot dogs than any place in Jersey. A fairly mild dog deep fried and topped with mustard, onions, and a thin chili sauce. They sell what is known as Texas Weiners. The chili has cinnamin, nutmeg, cummin, and other spices. Popular in and around Passaic County, this chili may be an aquired taste. I love it. The Hot Grill is open until 1 AM which in part accounts for the large amount of hot dogs sold here. Former President Richard Nixon was a customer.

The Galloping Hill Inn in Union is second in terms of hot dogs sold. No place sells more at lunch time. There is always a line, but it moves quickly as this place has been doing great dogs for years and are experienced at serving a lot of customers quickly. They would probably sell more dogs than The Hot Grill, but they close much earlier. While The Hot Grill's dogs are similar to Rutt's in preparation and taste, the Galloping Hill Inn's dogs are similar to Max's. A flavorful beef and pork dog prepared on a griddle and topped with a great Dusseldorf mustard and put in a harder football shaped bun. The GHI is known for it's hot reslish. I've never tried it (my wife loves it) as this dog is so good that I enjoy it with mustard only. The roll is unique. People either love or hate it. It's specially made for the GHI by Pechter's bakery, which is owned by the same people who own the GHI. People from the Hudson Valley in New York who attend the Annual New Jersey Hot Dog Tours love this dog more than any other that we've sampled in the five years we've been doing the tours. The roll is a little big so I get a double dog; 2 dogs on one roll. The frank is made from a recipe that was originally made at a local German butcher.

The tasty dogs at Max's are Schickhaus brand. There was a Schickhaus plant in Kearny, New Jersey that made these dogs and other meats. In fact, they sponsored the New York Mets in the 60's and 70's. They even had a jingle. "A frank by any other name can never, never taste the same as Schickhaus, Schickhaus Franks!" The plant closed, but the recipe was preserved and made by a number of different meat companies. Grote & Weigel of Connecticut made them for years. They lost the contract and Russer out of New York was making them. Grote & Weigel again started making them 5 or 6 years ago. As of about a year ago Schickhaus franks (and bologna) were/are being made by Armour-Eckrich. But nothing has changed in terms of taste and quality. Still the same great dog.

Many places down the shore and on the boardwalk serve this frank and prepare it like Max's on a hot griddle. Few, if any, do it as well as Max's. The dogs are prepared perfectly, spending enough time on the griddle. The buns are toasted. I can't wait until March. BoardWalk Dogs in Brick serves this particular frank. Jimmy Buff's in East Hanover offers it in addition to their Italian Hot Dogs, footlong (the old Syd's dog) and pushcart style. At Buff's it is prepared on a griddle and finished off on a charcoal grill. Both places are worth seeking out if you can't wait until March and need your Max's fix.

There is a science and art to making hot dogs. Beef franks require a little more of the art than chicken and turkey. Let me be Alton Brown for a moment.

The slurry you see going into the casings is best described as a meat batter. It looks little different from and performs the same way a cake batter does, you wouldn;t call cake batter gross, would you?.

The protein in the meat is solubilized to coat the fat and spices and creates the bouncy texture of the meat when cooked. Beef hot dogs, and pork and beef, use sheletal trimmings and low demand primal cuts of meat, lots of chuck, belly meat, and light colored beef muscle. These large muscle chunks of meat are ground down to expose as much surface area as possible so the protein can loosen with the addition of salt and water. When fluid enough, the fat is added, coated with the meat protein, and size reduced in one of several ways, bowl chopper or meat emulsifier, an ultra high speed grinder which cute the meat into pieces a fraction of a millimeter in size, this creates the baby food paste you see in the video. Special stuffers are used to remove any air that gets mixed into the batter prior to stuffing, otherwise the hot dog can have the texture of a sponge, a meat marshmallow. I've seen them made this way, and trust me a meat marshmallow would only sell at Alinea, what a concept a $2000 a pound hot dog, I must go to my marketing group.

The turkey and chicken used in hot dogs is a different matter. this is primarilly meat which is removed from chickens after they have had the breast, legs, wings and thighs removed. Run through a grinder and pressed through a sieve, It looks like baby food right from the start.

If you are dealing with all beef or beef and pork only dogs, the meat quality must be fairly high to make a hot dog. Gristle/ collagen at high levels makes them fall apart, so the meat may be scraps that are too small for a roast or steak, but they are clean and fresh otherwise they become your hamburger. Forget Upton Sinclair, the laws were changed almost a century ago, no rat hairs are allowed and only rarely a missing worker.

Thank you for the great post! I've been to plants where hot dogs are made and have seen the process before, but it wasn't explained to me like you did. I do know that a beef or beef/pork frank has to use fairly high quality meat as you stated.