How Beef Hot Dogs Are Made — And What's Actually In Them

Summer cookouts, baseball games, street carts ... hot dogs are an American classic. While they come in many sizes and varieties, lots of people have come to love the rich and intense flavor of all-beef hot dogs. But did you know that beef hot dogs are made using an entirely different process than other kinds?

Beef hot dogs begin with meat trimmings. These are the leftover bits and pieces that we get after steaks and roasts have been cut for retail sale. Unlike pork hot dogs, which are made from a process known as mechanical separation in which bones with meat are squeezed through sieves to produce a kind of sausage-stuffable meat paste, beef hot dogs follow different rules because of mad cow disease concerns. The beef trimmings are first ground super fine — way finer than your regular ground beef. Then, it's pumped into casings — either real ones from cleaned animal intestines (the old-school way) or artificial ones that get peeled off later.

These long strands of soon-to-be hot dogs then head to the smokehouse for cooking. Depending on the brand, they might even be cured or smoked with hardwood to add a touch of smoke. The results are packaged, and voilà: all-beef franks ready for your authentic Chicago-style hot dogs!

Long story short, yes, they sure are — the USDA doesn't play around with this kind of stuff. When that package of jumbo beef hot dogs that you bought for your simmered and loaded Brazilian hot dogs says "100% beef," it means that all of the meat inside comes straight from cattle — not mixed with chicken or pork. Any hot dog calling itself a "beef frank" has to follow these rules or else it would be cracked down on fast.

But here's the thing — that "100% beef" part only refers to the meat itself. Lots of seasonings like salt, paprika, garlic, sugar, and even preservatives get mixed in, so it's not quite 100% beef anymore. Still, the average hot dog should be around 30% pure fat.

As for those scary stories about hot dogs being made from mystery parts or floor sweepings? Total nonsense! That practice has been banned since way back in 1906, after Upton Sinclair wrote a book called "The Jungle" that was essentially a tell-all about the gross conditions inside meat factories. These days, hot dogs generally follow a strict set of rules. If there are any organ meats like heart or liver in there, they legally have to tell you on the package. So while hot dogs aren't exactly winning any health food awards, you can rest easy knowing that the meat is real, properly handled beef. And if it says "all-beef" or "100% beef" on the packaging, they aren't lying.