What Is Exactly Inside A Hot Dog?

It can also refer to the sausage (the wurst or w rest) of its composition itself. The sausage used is the wiener (Vienna sausage or frankfurter (also Frank). The names of these sausages also commonly refer to their assembled sandwiches. Typical condiments include mustard, ketchup, mayonnaise, and relish, and common garnishes include onions, sauerkraut, chili, cheese, coleslaw, and olives. Hot dog variants include the corn dog and pigs in a blanket. 

Ingredients

Common hot dog sausage ingredients include:

• Meat trimmings and fat, e.g. mechanically separated meat, pink slime, meat slurry 
• Flavorings, such as salt, garlic, and paprika 
• Preservatives (cure) – typically sodium erythorbate and sodium nitrite 

Pork and beef are the traditional meats used in hot dogs. Less expensive hot dogs are often made from chicken or turkey, using low-cost mechanically separated poultry. Typical hot dogs contain sodium, saturated fat and nitrite, which when consumed in excess have been linked to health problems. Changes in meat technology and dietary preferences have led manufacturers to use turkey, chicken, vegetarian meat substitutes, and to lower the salt content.

Hot dogs are prepared commercially by mixing the ingredients (meats, spices, binders, and fillers) in vats where rapidly moving blades grind and mix the ingredients in the same operation. This mixture is forced through tubes into casings for cooking. Most hot dogs sold in the US are "skinless" rather than "natural casing" sausages.

What inside a hot dog/how is the hot dog made of 

In reality, most hotdogs you find at a grocery store, and especially the national brands, don't contain anything close to organs. According to the USDA, hot dogs must be made of meat or poultry and can contain more than one kind of meat. They also must be mostly made from "raw skeletal muscle." Any hot dogs that contain organs, what the USDA lovingly refers to as "byproducts and variety meats" must be labeled by ingredient. If a hotdog is labeled "all beef" or "all pork," it also must be made from 100% muscle tissue of that animal. Other ingredients are included for preserving and flavoring the links, but that can be no more than 3.5% of the sausage, not including added water.

Glancing at a local grocery store's offering, it's hard to find a single hotdog with organ meat in it, but there is something surprising: hotdogs not advertised as "all-beef" are often a mix of chicken and pork, with chicken being the first ingredient. Whether that matters to you can come down to taste.

The USDA definition of a hotdog goes on to say that the meat in a hotdog, whatever its source, must be "comminuted (reduced to minute particles)." How that hotdog filler gets to be comminuted varies, though one common method is mechanically separated meat. Both chicken and pork can be mechanically separated, which is about as attractive as it sounds. There is no limit to how much mechanically separated chicken can be in your hotdog, though there is a limit to how much mechanically separated pork can be involved — the USDA caps that at 20%. Because of fears of mad cow disease, mechanically separated beef is not considered safe for human consumption, so, by buying all-beef, you'll be avoiding mechanically separated meat altogether.

How to make hot dog 

First, specially selected meat trimmings of beef and/or pork - just like the meat you buy in your grocer's case - are cut or ground into small pieces and placed in a mixer. When poultry hot dogs are made, poultry trimmings are used.

High speed, stainless steel choppers blend the meat, spices, ice chips and curing ingredients into an emulsion or batter. The mixture is continuously weighed to assure a proper balance of all ingredients. The mixture is then pumped into an automatic stuffer/linker machine, where it flows into casings. The most popular brands of hot dogs use cellulose casings, which are later removed. Some wieners use natural casings, which remain on the wiener when it is eaten. These wieners are considered more "traditional," are frequently made by smaller manufacturers and tend to cost a little more. Once the casings are filled, they are linked into long strands of hot dogs and moved to the smokehouse, where they are fully cooked under controlled temperature and humidity conditions. They may be hardwood smoked for added color and flavor.

After passing through the smoke and cook cycle, the hot dogs are showered in cool water. If the hot dogs were made with cellulose casings, they are sent to an automatic peeler, where the cellulose "skin" is stripped away. The individual links are then conveyed to the packaging equipment. When cellulose casings are used, the hot dogs are of the exact size and weight. They are vacuum sealed in plastic films to protect the freshness and flavor of the hot dog. Because the casings on natural casings wieners are made from cleaned and processed animal intestines, they are of similar, but not exact, size.

Each package of hot dogs contains an ingredient statement, which lists everything that goes into the product. These days, it is less common to use variety meats such as hearts in hot dogs. When they are added, the package will clearly state "with variety meats." The particular variety of meat used also will be listed in the ingredient statement. Nutrition labels also are included on hot dog packages, showing calories and nutrients per serving. The entire process, from meat and poultry trimmings to being boxed and placed on the truck for delivery to retailers, can be measured in a matter of hours. The process also is carefully regulated and inspected for wholesomeness by the U.S. Department of Agriculture

1. Specially selected trimmings are cut and ground into small pieces and put into the mixer. Formulas are continuously weighed to assure proper balance of all ingredients

2. A high-speed, stainless steel chopper blends meat, spices and curing ingredients into an emulsion or batter.

3. The emulsion is pumped and fed into a stuffer. Shirred strands of cellulose casings are mechanically positioned on the stuffing horn. As the emulsion flows through the horn into the casing, the filled strands are linked into hot dogs of the exact size. The strand is then put on the smokehouse conveyor system.

4. In smokehouses, under controlled temperature and humidity, the hot dog is fully cooked and hardwood smoked for texture, color, and a delicious flavor.

5. After passing through the smoke and cook cycle, and being showered in cool water, the hot dog goes into the peeler. Here the protective, air and smoke-permeable cellulose casing "skin" is stripped away and individual links are conveyed to the packaging line.

6. Finally, the hot dog is conveyed to scales which divert off-weight franks and is then fed into the vacuum packaging equipment. Here, individual packages of the exact number and precise weight are wrapped and vacuum sealed in plastic film to protect the freshness and flavor of the hot dog.

7. Once packaged and boxed, hot dogs are moved to storage coolers and loaded on refrigerated trucks for delivery. The entire process, from cut trimmings to the consumer's table is often measured in a matter of hours. From beginning to end, the hot dog is carefully inspected by federal officials according to strict federal standards of quality and sanitation.

References:

<https://www.hot-dog.org/culture/how-hot-dogs-are-made>