What Are Hot Dog Casings Made Of? The Most Common Ingredients, Explained

It's now a commonly repeated saying that you don't want to know how your hot dog was made, but when it comes to the casings, most people probably don't think about it at all. In reality, the process of making hot dogs isn't that mysterious — it just involves chopping up beef, pork, and chicken with spices, emulsifiers, and curing agents before stuffing it all in a casing. While some people find this suspect, using up unwanted, cheap cuts of meat and turning them into something affordable and delicious is exactly what sausages were created for. It's actually the less thought about end of the process that is the most opaque, and there are three different ways that hot dog casings are made.

If you are eating a hot dog, the three main options are skinless and are made with a cellulose casing, collagen casing, or natural casing. If you've thought about hot dog casings at all it, was probably because you were in search of natural casings, which give some hot dogs that coveted snap. Natural casings are made with the traditional sources of sausage casings: animal intestines. While different types of animal intestines are used, in the case of hot dogs, it is usually sheep intestines because they are thinner than other options, like pig, which fits the skinnier form of a hot dog. And while the idea of eating intestine understandable makes some people nervous, modern hot dogs use machine-cleaned versions that pass strict health standards.

While hot dog aficionados may chase the snap of natural casings, most hot dogs you see on grocery store shelves are skinless. These are made with a cellulose casing, which is made from wood and cotton or other plant and vegetable fibers. These casings are permeable by smoke and water, allowing the hot dogs to be cooked in them. As you might guess, they are not edible, which is why they are peeled off after the cooking process, creating skinless hot dogs. Because cellulose is manufactured, companies can make hot dogs with very consistent sizes and do so more cheaply, which is part of the reason why skinless hot dogs are so common.

The hot dog casing you are least likely to encounter is collagen. These casings are made from the collagen that's naturally found in animals and can be made in both edible and non-edible versions. Collagen casings are cheap and create a more consistent shape than natural casings, but they don't provide the same snap. Because consumers prefer skinless hot dogs, which provide a lot of the same advantages, you don't see many collagen-cased dogs for sale. However, they are easier to work with and more sturdy than natural casing, which makes them a good choice for home sausage makers. Each style of hot dog casing has its own advantages, but knowing exactly what you are biting into can help you make the choice for your best hot dog recipes.