Hot Dogs

Hot dogs are smoked, cooked sausages consisting of pork, beef, chicken, or turkey, singly or in combination. Most hot dogs are made from emulsified or finely chopped skeletal meats, but some contain organs and other “variety” meats. Water, fat (roughly 30 percent), and seasonings, such as salt (about 1–1.5 percent), garlic, sugar, ground mustard, nutmeg, coriander, and white pepper, are other ingredients. Hot dogs can be made in natural gut casings, but most are skinless, stuffed in a cellulose wrapper that is stripped off after cooking. But the hot dog is more than just a sausage.