It does vary from one brand to the next, Look at the ingredients list and see if it contains things like:
MSM / Mechanically separated meat / advanced meat bone separation / meat recovery systems - if it does, this is often chicken, either way, the "meat" is obtained as follows: Once they have stripped as much "real meat" from the bones, the bones (along with skin, feet and heads) and put into a giant centrifuge - that spins at an extremely high speed. VERY powerful (x,000 psi) water jets are directed into the drum and the contents basically break down into a "slightly gritty pink slurry".
Better quality hot-dogs may not contain chicken / MSM - but the "budget" ones nearly always do.
Add to that the rest of the pig that you would not normally consider "meat". In the UK - and I strongly suspect elsewhere - the **ONLY** part of the pig that cannot be legally added to the pot if the left ear - which is the part that takes all the jabs / inoculations / hormones etc.
EVERYTHING else is fair game, intestines, brain, "bits", skin, bone (after being liquidized into slurry by high pressure centrifuges).
Then they add a hint or two of glutinous matter, a bit more pink dye and some spices to it. Squeeze it out into an edible plastic tube and voila - one hot dog Intestines ARE fair game for a hot-dog but are not usually used as the casings - these are used only for better quality (!) sausages.
They do however taste ok and are fairly inexpensive - so folks eat them
=] I never thought of this before, so i looked at Owen's post and actually learned a bit. I really didn't care before so i just assumed that they just threw in pork. :P
Honestly as long as I don't get food poisoning from it, I could care less.
But in olden days (1950's) what ever was on the floor of the meat factory would get swept into a machine that made it. This includes: Rats Rat urine Rat manure Serperated body parts Blood Spit Dirt Shoes etc. they do not do this any more, it has become illegal.
back on topic, I though they could just put whatever they want to in it. I was pretty sure that some things were banned for health concerns, but any of the bits could be put in. so, have fun eating your pig brains+misc. pig parts+ random chemicals+ other misc. things
yeah, I know.. some of them are not so bad, but it was fun to type that
