Time for the guts of the operation—literally. The meat mixture is pumped into casings. You’ve got two options: natural casings (made from cleaned animal intestines—yeah, really!) or collagen casings (made from animal skin and bones, which sounds gross but is way more consistent). Most supermarket hot dogs use collagen casings. The machine squeezes the meat into a long, continuous tube that twists every few inches to form individual dogs. Think of it as a sausage factory sausage factory.
If you’ve ever seen a hot dog with a little snap when you bite it, that’s from a natural casing. That snap is basically a tiny high-five from the pig who used to own that intestine. Respect the snap.
Hot Dogs Made For Dogs at Quyen Elliott blog
