What Cut Of Meat Should You Use To Make Homemade Beef Hot Dogs?

Hot dogs catch a lot of smoke in general; everyone loves nothing more than to make cracks about the questionable provenance of what goes into hot dogs. But, nobody can deny that they're delicious, and the truth is, they're generally made with pork, chicken, or beef. It's the last one that tends to be regarded as the king of tubed meats.

But even though you can buy hot dogs at any grocery store, that's not the only way to get your hands on those savory beef cylinders. You can actually make them at home as long as you've got a meat grinder (they make attachments for your stand mixer now!), and you've got some commitment. You can even grind meat in a blender. It's a great idea since it allows you full control over what goes into the finished product and lets you get your meat-fat ratios down.

If you're working with beef hot dogs, what cuts of cow should you be using? Much like with pork sausages, you're looking for anything that gives you that magic, 80–20% meat-to-fat ratio, meaning super lean cuts are to be avoided.

The reason you want that 80/20 ratio is because if your fat content is lower than 20%, the end result is going to be a sausage Sahara desert. Using anything too lean like eye of round or top round as your base meat is going to cause your hot dogs to dry out, and a dry sausage is no one's idea of a good time. The 80/20 ratio will keep those hot dogs juicy. Too much fat, though, is going to cause the opposite problem, and the texture is going to get a little goopy. If you're the sort of person who eats a steak's unrendered fat cap, maybe that's what you want, but for the rest of us, it's probably best to avoid it.

The main difference with beef as compared to pork is there's a much lower cap on how much fat can be in the product; even the fattiest cuts of beef aren't generally going to sit at more than 70-30% meat-to-fat. But, there are still cuts you want to avoid — although they tend to be some of the pricier ones. T-bones and porterhouses are right out, as they're the fattiest cuts of beef you can find, with ribeyes right behind them.

What you want, then, is something like chuck roast, which naturally comes in right at that perfect ratio. Chuck is generally the most common cut found in ground beef, so it's no surprise it's great for sausages. You can get it from the supermarket, but if you want to make sure the ratio is spot on — and you want the highest quality — going to a butcher shop will always be your best bet. Always bear in mind as well that you can buy beef fat from a butcher if you love the flavor of a leaner cut than chuck roast and want to engineer the correct ratio on your own.

Whatever method you use, though, the ratio is still key. As long as you're going for a cut with that 80/20 blend, your hot dogs should come out in great shape.