Well, I made my own hotdogs yesterday. Used a Hi Mountain Seasonings kit. Meat was ground pork from the last hog I had processed and recently processed chicken from my farm. I added some more garlic powder, onion powder and black pepper to the mix. Came out pretty good! This was a good practice run for doing things like brats and smoked sausage in the future.

This was the first time I have used the stuffer and was a good run in preparation for other sausage making in the future.

Coarse and then fine ground done on the chicken meat. These were recently butchered cockerels that were boned out. I made and canned stock from the carcasses a few days ago. All meats and seasoning hand mixed before going to the stuffer.



I have a very small kitchen and had to really wrangle things for the tubing process. The stuffer is a 15 pound size and was perfect for this amount of meat.



Finished product. There was about ten pounds total. I grilled a few last night and was happy with them but thought they needed a bit more salt for taste. Just had them with no bun and some mustard along with home grown cucumber, onion and tomato salad topped with some feta cheese.



I will divide these up and vacuum seal/freeze for future meals.

Paddy and Patrick immigrated to the US.

They were in New York.

They wrote post cards and went to the post office to send them.

Right there was a large poster of a black man.

Underneath it was written WANTED FOR RAPE.

Paddy was a bit shocked.

He turned around to Patrick and said “bloody hell, these blacks get the best jobs!”

Off they went to the park.

Paddy noticed a kiosk selling HOT DOGS!

He turned to Patrick and said “Them bloody Yanks eat DOGS!”

Patrick answered “Shut up! We will be living here, so we will eat what they eat. I am going to buy us some!”

He got two hot dogs, and they walk to a park bench.

Sat down to eat.

Paddy wasn’t sure about this dog business!

He unwrapped his, and looked inside.

They said to Patrick “Which part of the dog did YOU get?”

This is excellent.

What cuts of pork did you use?

Joshua, it was from the last butcher hog I had processed. I don't know what they used but since I have so much of it, it was perfect for this project. None of it has ever been grisly or had bone grit in it. If I have any complaints it would be that it was a bit on the lean side for sausage making.

Ann, you mentioned that the spices needed a bit of doctoring, and were still a bit bland. Have you looked into any of the traditional frankfurters recipes?

I ask because Renee and I made frankfurters a few years back using elk meat and pork fat. Mine were a bit on the lean side, but they were delicious. As I recall they were a lot of work as we double ground the meat and then further emulsified it using a food processor.

Also, I’ve never been impressed with the High Mountain seasoning kits. They always seemed lacking, which was a bummer as they are headquartered near where we lived in Wyoming.

*edited to add: one drawback of using a traditional recipe was the number of specialty spices and curing agents that were required.

Yes, Jason, since this was my first ever try at this which is why I went with the Hi Mountain kit. I added extra spices because I like them. I thought the end product lacked enough saltiness and it was a bit on the lean side so next time I will use a fattier pork for the mix. Probably will buy and grind some butts.

I have some sausage making books and will eventually use them for recipes. My end goal here was getting the feel of stuffing casings. I have several other Hi Mountain kits to use and they have natural casings. This will be good practice for me when I get to them.

I plan to eventually make snack sticks with venison, brats, smoked sausage, bologna, etc. I like a variety of meats and sometimes want something different. Right now I have six pounds or so of boned out rabbit meat in the freezer. I will use it for a sausage recipe as well.

My end product here was plenty emulsified without using an additional process like you and Renae did with the food processor. I am tired of low quality store bought products that are obviously using the junk- bone gritty, grisly parts for their sausage. Nasty.

Yes Ann, there is nothing better than homemade sausage. Knowing exactly what went into your mix makes it worth the effort.

Those frankfurters of yours are beautiful.

Thank you, Jason. It was a fun process and a good skill to know.

Ann, that recipe looks good, but unless you are employing a rabbi and are using beef, I am going to have to pass!

LOL, I hear ya but I need to use what's on hand. I don't raise beef.