Hot Dog Fiasco

[Tatoosh]

I just started making my own hotdogs. The first two tries were fairly successful. I use a recipe found in Len Poli's collection of sausage recipes. I adapted it to use lean beef and pork fat. I then smoke them with hickory. Normally until they are 130F or so. Then I vac pack and sous vide to the recommended 151F finish temperature. However, many folks will simply put them in a water bath, no sous vide, and finish that way.

Last time I decided to do mix the approach a bit. I used my sous vide setup, but instead of vac packing, I simply put in heavier ziplock style bags, added water, and finished that way. The result was disasterous. The fat leached out of the hotdogs and left me with a very dry product. And this puzzles me greatly. At the 151F temperature, there shouldn't be any serious loss of fat. That is the lower end of what a street vendor should be keeping his hotdogs at in a cart. And those can sit for quite awhile before they are sold.

I had expected to lose some flavor to the water in the ziplock, but not all the hotdogs moisture. Any ideas what would be causing that? I have cooked these hotdogs in boiling water, they come out fine. But sit for an hour or more in a bath and they become barely edible.

Size of dogs: about a 1 inch "dinner dog" using 26ml or 28ml collagen casing.

Photo below is the normal setup, not with water in the ziplock. - and we make sure they are all submerged.

Edited December 7, 2012 by Tatoosh (log)

[Mjx]

My recollection of hot dog ingredients is that they include emulsifiers, to keep the mixture in emulsion when they're heated; you might need more/a different emulsifier.

[Tatoosh]

Well, the recipe called for nfdm aka non-fat dry milk, kind of rare in my part of the globe, but I found some low fat dry milk and used that. It also asked for a couple of things I didn't have, sodium erythorbate and celery seeds. I am pretty sure how those two could not effect the loss of fat juiciness. I will go back to vac packing before I finish. I'm just curious why they would lose all their juiciness in a moderately hot water bath.

Thanks for the idea, I will keep an eye on my binder.

[nickrey]

Loss of emulsification also happens when the meat is warmed too much when you are grinding it. Make sure everything is kept very chilled.

[Tatoosh]

Okay, that is a good point and while I try to keep things cold, sometimes the rush to finish may cause me to let that slide a bit. I am not sure that is what happened, but it might have and I will be more mindful of it in the future.

Thanks!