Smoked Hot Dogs
- Feb 24
- 2 min read
Bring your hot dog game to the next level with a mixture of Pre’s grass-fed beef and delicious pork fat. The key is to keep everything as cold as possible and you’ll end up with the best dog at your next cookout.
Total Time: 24 hours
Servings: 8–10
Ingredients
3½ 16-ounce packages Pre 95 % ground beef
1½ pounds pork fatback
3 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt
1 1/3 tablespoons grams paprika
2 teaspoons garlic powder
2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon mustard powder
1 1/4 teaspoons onion powder
1/2 teaspoon number 1 curing salt
15 feet collagen casings
Instructions
Combine all the spices in a small bowl and set aside.
Cut your pork fat into small enough chunks that they’ll easily fit in your grinder. Combine those chunks with some chunks of ground beef in a large bowl and season with the spice mixture. After all the meat is well-coated in the spices, put bowl back in refrigerator to keep it cool.
While everything is cooling, set up the grinder using the finest die. Work in batches, alternating beef and pork to grind the seasoned meat into a large bowl. When you’ve worked through all of the meat, check the temperature of the grind with an instant-read thermometer. If it’s above 40º F, put the bowl back in the refrigerator to cool it down.
When everything is below 40º F, put about a pound of the grind mix into a food processor bowl and add 1/4 cup of cold water. Begin to process the mixture in 1 pound batches. If it looks like the food processor is struggling, slowly pour in more cold water. Periodically check the temperature and if it’s starting to creep above 40º F, stop and put everything back in the refrigerator to cool off.
Keep everything cold so the emulsion doesn’t break (when the moisture in the meat separates from the fat).
When you’ve finished working through all 5 pounds of meat, it’s time to stuff the hot dogs. Set up the stuffer, load the hopper, and thread a good length of casings onto the tube. Slowly fill the casings, stopping to reload more if you need. You should now have a few lengths of stuffed casings.
Tie off one end using twine. Measuring about 8 inches from the end twist your first link away from you and tie off with twine. Measure 8 inches from that spot and twist toward you. Once again tie this off with twine and continue in this matter (twisting away from you, then toward you), until you’ve made all the links. Place your finished links on a baking sheet, put in refrigerator overnight to cure.
Welcome back! It’s time to fire up your smoker. Preheat to 180º F to 200º F. Lay the hot dogs flat on the smoker grates and smoke until the internal temperature reaches 145º F, about 45 minutes to 1 hour.
If serving right away, cut the links apart, remove the twine (the collagen will remain closed now), and place them on a preheated grill.
If not using right away, wrap links in foil and put into the freezer immediately so they don’t overcook.
