It isn't pretty, as the photo on the right illustrates. They're perfect in their simplicity: savory sausages in buns. Traditional meat hot dogs are made of pork, beef, or veal, but now there are many variations available that are made from poultry or even vegetarian products. If there's a BBQ happening, hot dogs are undoubtedly also going to be on the menu. Trimmings. What is REALLY in a Hot Dog? The hot dog is the quintessential summer food: cheap, tasty, great for grills and forgiving of even the most inexperienced backyard cooks. If the casing is from a different source than that of the hot dog, this must be listed on the label. Hot dogs are now made by hundreds of companies all across the globe, and each company has its own secret recipe. But what's in a hot dog? But before you chow down you might want a little more information about what you’re ingesting. Hot dogs have been synonymous with summer for as long as we can remember and probably well before that. But who made the Hot­ dogs, also called frankfurters, were first created in Frankfurt, Germany, in 1852.At its heart, a frankfurter is a sausage. Examples include kosher, all beef hot dogs that have no by-products, fillers or artificial colors or flavors. Higher quality products are made from top quality meats and no chemicals. But before you chow down you might want a little more information about what you’re ingesting. First, specially selected meat trimmings of beef and/or pork - just like the meat you buy in your grocer's case - are cut or ground into small pieces and placed in a mixer. Hot dogs are one of the greatest American foods. And How Unhealthy Are They? by www.SixWise.com. Hot dogs are made of “mechanically separated meat,” defined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture as “a paste-like and batter-like meat product produced by forcing bones with attached edible meat under high pressure through a sieve or similar device. The recipe starts with beef and pork trimmings. How Hot Dogs are Made: The Real Story There are many tall tales about the way in which hot dogs are made, but the National Hot Dog and Sausage Council is eager to tell the real story. Hot dogs are already cooked or smoked so the product needs only to be reheated. One of these products is the hot dog, a classic of pre-cooked, processed meat. Now that baseball season is wrapping up, and you've likely eaten your share of ballpark dogs (9 percent of all hot dogs purchased are bought at baseball stadiums, after all), it's the perfect time to delve into what's really in one of America's favorite foods: the hot dog. The National Hot Dog & Sausage Council (NHDSC) notes that hot dogs, whether regular, turkey, pork or beef, begin with “trimmings.” A purposely-vague word, trimmings come in lots of shapes and sizes. The factory processes a mindblowing 300,000 hot dogs an hour. Hot dogs certainly aren’t the healthiest thing at your barbecue. They are available with or without skins (casings). Those seemingly basic sausages aren't just blank canvases awaiting hot dog toppings.Hot dogs are made through a process known as "meat emulsion," during which a mixture of protein, fat, and water is blended into a kind of meat batter and piped into a casing. A Guide to Common Ingredients in Hot Dogs Hot dogs are among America’s most popular foods, but consumer surveys indicate that many hot dog lovers aren’t sure how they are made and why some ingredients included on the label are used.