The Shocking Truth Behind Hot Dogs That Will Make You Rethink Every Bite
Ever caught yourself sneaking a bite of a hot dog while wondering, “What the heck is actually in this thing?” Yeah, me too—and trust me, once you find out, there’s no unseeing it. Hot dogs might scream 4th of July BBQ vibes and American comfort food, but guess what? Their origins actually jet-setted from Germany and Austria, where they were known as wieners or frankfurters. Thanks to some savvy German immigrants and a dash of mass production magic, we ended up with these tube-shaped snacks flying off supermarket shelves today. But here’s the million-dollar question—how do they really go from mystery meat to that perfect, grill-marked dog in your bun? Buckle up; it’s a wild ride. LEARN MORE.
If you’ve ever found yourself wondering ‘what are hotdogs made of?’ then you’ve come to the right place. But be warned, because once you know, you can never go back.
Commonly associated with the 4th of July, hot dogs are typically seen as a quintessential American food.
However, these specific types of sausage trace their roots across the Atlantic to modern-day Germany and Austria. Originally known as wiener or frankfurter, depending on the exact origin, these parboiled sausages were brought over to the US by German immigrants in the nineteenth century.
Add in a dash of mass production, and voila, you have the modern-day hot dog.
Now production has, of course, changed over the years, meaning the canned hot dogs you pick up on the shelves of your local supermarket are very different from the Frankfurt originals.
But how are they really made?
We’re all familiar with hotdogs – but do you know how they’re made? (Getty Stock Images)
The answer is here – if you really want to know.
A detailed look into how hot dogs are made
One of the most in-depth looks at how modern hot dogs are mass-produced came from the long-running Discovery Channel series How It’s Made, which aired a pretty detailed look inside a hot dog factory in 2003.
The episode explains that most US hot dogs start life as a mix of ground beef, pork and chicken, which is closer to the Viennese wiener recipe, with the leftover meat cuts processed through a machine and then mixed together.
Ingredients such as food starch, salt and various flavourings are then added to a ground mix of something which very much resembles Teletubbies tubby custard.
A jet of water and corn syrup – ‘for a dash of sweetness’ – is then sprayed into the mixture as it churns in a large metal vat to combine.
First we have anaemic meat worms (YouTube/@HowItsMade)
Which then becomes a paste resembling Tubby custard (YouTube/@HowItsMade)
To everyone who’s made it this far, there’s good news: it’s all up from here as the amorphous meat blob is now sorted into something which resembles a hot dog.
The meat is pumped through a machine into rows of plastic casing – a modern take on the traditional sheep’s small intestine – taking workers just 35 seconds to make a chain of hot dogs which spans the length of a football field twice.
Talk about that for efficiency! Congratulations, we finally have something which resembles a hot dog.
The racks of hot dogs are now cooked and smoked. Once this is completed, they are cooled and loaded into packets, ready to head to your local supermarket for mass consumption.
Take a look at the video below if you’d like to relive the hot dog-making process all over again:
22 years on from the episode’s original release, and it’s likely that hot dog production has changed somewhat – there’s probably more AI involved; however, the video never fails to elicit the same reaction in people.
Which is shock, horror and a declaration that they’ll never eat another hot dog again.
“I lost my appetite for the week,” penned one person in response to the video, while a second wrote: “I haven’t had a hot dog in 10 years thanks to this show.”
“There’s something really wrong with USA consumers,” added a third.
However, not everyone was scarred for life, with several people making the commitment to continue eating hot dogs while others noted that it’s better to have an idea of where your food comes from.
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