What are hot dogs made from?

Hot dogs were first created in Frankfurt, Germany. But what exactly are they made from? Check out this HowStuffWorks podcast to learn more about the mysterious ingredients of hot dogs.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to brain Stuff from house stuff works dot com
where smart happens. H I am Marshall Brain with today's question,
what are hot dogs made from? Hot Dogs, also called
Frankfurter's were first created in Frankfurt, Germany, in eighteen fifty two.

(00:24):
At its heart, a hot dog is just a sausage.
Hot Dogs are now made by hundreds of companies all
across the globe, and each company has its own secret recipe.
In general, however, hot dogs contain meat, meat, fat, a
cereal filler for example, bread crumbs or oatmeal or flour,
a little egg white, and some spices. My mother has

(00:47):
a recipe that contains one point five pounds of pork,
three quarters of a pound of pork fat, a quarter
cup of bread crumbs, an egg white, a little water, salt, pepper, onion,
and garlic to taste. Note that this recipe leaves out
the preservatives, coloring, and the sodium nitrate that you would
find in store bought hot dogs. Many brands leave out

(01:09):
the breadcrumbs and say no cereal fillers on the label.
Cereal fillers got a bad name because some manufacturers got
greedy and started using more filler than meat. These ingredients
are blended together in a meat grinder or a food processor,
and then they're stuffed into natural sausage casings. Once the
hot dogs are stuffed, you can pre cook them. You

(01:31):
can boil them in water for fifteen minutes and then
refrigerate them or freeze them. All hot dogs bought at
the store are pre cooked like this. When you're ready
to eat one, you cook it again by boiling, microwaving, frying,
or grilling it. Be sure to check out our new
video podcast, Stuff from the Future. Join how Stuff Work

(01:52):
staff as we explore them as promising and perplexing possibilities
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