By admin 
Go to the taste test
Hot dogs have become part of the Bonfire night tradition. For some people, they are synonymous with frankfurters, a narrow cooked and smoked German sausage with a smooth texture. For others, it’s an American version of that frankfurter – thicker, more seasoned and without a casing.
What are they made of? Traditional pork and beef, chicken often creeps in, and sometimes turkey. There are only poultry varieties available for people who avoid pork, but they do taste different, with a mealy texture and without the classic porkiness.
The price also varies enormously, and this largely has to do with the quality of the meat. Artisan hot dog makers such as Claire Drysdale and Euan Macgregor Brigston & Co use pork shoulder and grind it finely. Others, using lower quality meat, will emulsify it into a liquid ‘slurry’ (the technical term, not a judgmental term). According to Macgregor, grinding instead of emulsifying “gives it a slightly different texture, but also aims to better retain the flavor of the meat during the cooking process.”
Use many of the cheaper frankfurters mechanically separated meat (MRM)which must be stated on the ingredients label by law. The process involves mashing the carcass, stripping it of the valuable parts and pressing it through a sieve to remove the bone.
Sure, it’s not a wonderful idea. But if we heard a chef promote a homemade technique that allows our chicken carcasses to produce another meal, a dish that is popular with the entire family, we would shout it from the rooftops. So let’s not be snobs. It’s a way to get all the good out of an animal, just like the ultra-trendy bone broth.
The difference is of course that the animals do not have high welfare. If a producer can promote organic separate chicken, I will join in immediately. Maybe all the organic chicken carcasses go to that fancy bone broth to sell for ten bucks a liter.
As for additives, all the frankfurters I tried contained added nitrites or nitrates, which were used as part of the curing process. Admittedly, they are not healthy and the advice is to eat less. But they’re also an intrinsic part of cured meat products – and while companies like Naked have made some interesting moves in the realm of added nitrite-free cured pork (they have a frankfurter in the works), I’m not sure it’s time to throwing away nitrite bath water for fear of losing the baby.
The lower quality sausages can also replace some meat with pea protein, which, since most people are trying to eat less meat, seems like a fair trade. Yes, it’s a sign of ultra-processed food, but these frankfurters are already ultra-processed. Other additives are of more concern and can include antioxidants, emulsifiers, stabilizers, flavorings and monosodium glutamate, designed to keep costs down for the manufacturer by retaining more water, extending shelf life and making bad ingredients palatable, without anything to add to the nutritional value. contents.
So here goes: 17 hot dogs; the ones you put in a sandwich and those who throw on the bonfire.
All products were tasted blind and assessed for texture, color and taste