all beef hotdogs / part 1 of the summer series

*special note for beginners : if this is your first time making sausages, check out this short and very instructive and video here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeW0sSsMNOw

• pour the evaporated milk in 2 ice cube trays and freeze until solid
• cut the beef chuck into smaller cubes (4 x 4 cm), freeze for 30 minutes, then grind at least twice through the finest plate of your meat grinder (you can rechill the meat for 15-30 minutes between grindings)
• mix all the spices salt and and curing salt and incorporate into the ground beef (with or without) the liquid smoke
• use a food processor to emulsify the mixture and work in small batches, adding the evaporated/condensed milk ice cubes as needed to the ground meat and emulsify the meat mixture until very smooth
• do a taste-test with a small patty of meat mixture and cook in a frying pan, taste the sausage and adjust seasonings if necessary
• place the meat in a large dish and press a sheet of parchment paper directly on the surface of the meat (to prevent any oxidation), cover the dish tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate several hours or overnight (preferably)
• before stuffing the sausage meat in the casings, soak the casings (if packed in brine) in warm water for 10 minutes to soften them and rinse or if packed in salt, then rinse away the salt, soak them longer in warm water (20-30 minutes) and rinse again
• before grinding the meat, place the metal pieces of your meat grinder / sausage stuffer in the freezer for 30 minutes (so the ground meat does not stick to it )
• stuff the sausage meat into the casings and make very long sausages by working with 1,5 meter lengths at a time and roll up in a snail form, when filled
• after stuffing, create links by pinching the 2 ends of each sausage length and twist several times tightly (you can make small links of 15 cm or medium links of 17 cm or longer links of 20 cm) to make 40 – 50 hot dogs

note of encouragement : please don’t be upset if your first sausages don’t look perfect, some will be less firm and less well-filled, others will have air bubbles, sometimes the casings will rip … this takes some practice and understanding your meat grinder/sausage stuffer, it’s okay to start over too … I ended up making 43 hot dogs measuring 17 cm each and weighing 85 grams each.

• if not consumed on the same day or the next day, pre-cook the hot dogs in simmering water at 80°C for 15 minutes maximum (do not boil), then let cool and store in the refrigerator in a sealed container

note : the hot dogs are fully cooked after simmering and can be stored in the refrigerator for several days

• finish preparing the hotdogs by frying, oven-baking, grilling or barbecuing … (or “steaming” as is often done in Quebec, Canada).