热狗的前世今生：热狗是怎样制成的

Hot dogs are an All-American fare. But most likely, it was German sausage makers who first came up with the idea. In fact, there are reports of German immigrant selling them from push carts in New York’s Bowery as far back as the 1860s. A century and a half later, hot dogs are still the number one treat on the street.
热狗是一件全美国人的事。但很有可能是德国香肠制造者他们首先想到这个点子。事实上，早在1860年代，有些关于德国移民在纽约Bowery区用推车贩卖它们的传闻。一个世纪半以后，热狗仍然是街上首屈一指的享受。

Traditional hot dogs are made from a mix of pork, beef and chicken. The cuts they start with are called trimmings, pieces of meat leftover from cutting steaks or pork chops. The trimmings are grounded the same way butchers chop up hamburger meat, by pushing the cuts through grated metal plates.
传统热狗是由猪肉、牛肉和鸡肉的混合物制成。他们一开始所使用的部位叫做肉渣，是切牛排或猪排所剩下的残余肉块。 肉渣是屠夫用和剁碎汉堡肉一样的方式，藉由推动肉块穿过格子金属板而绞碎的。

Processed chicken trimmings are added to the ground meat, followed by food starch, salt and other flavorings. These flavorings vary depending on where the hot dogs are to be sold, because people in different regions have different tastes.
处理过的鸡肉肉渣被加进了绞肉中，接着是食用淀粉、盐以及其他调味料。这些调味料依热狗的销售所在地而不同，因为不同的地区的人们有着不同的口味。

Water is sprayed into the mix, and everything is blended together in a big vat. Corn syrup adds a dash of sweetness. The addition of even more water helps to disperse the ingredients and make the hot dogs juicier. Another machine then purees the meat batter into a fine emulsion and vacuums out any air.
水被喷洒在混合馅料中，所有东西都被调混在一个大桶子里。玉米糖浆增添点些许的甜味。添加甚至更多的水份有助于松散原料并使热狗更多汁。另一个机器接着将肉糊煮烂成一种细致的乳状液体并抽出所有的空气。

Long rolls of cellulose tubing are loaded into the stuffing machine. It pumps the meat puree into these casings, twisting it every five and a quarter inches, the length of one hot dog. It takes just 35 seconds to make a chain of hot dogs that would span a soccer field twice.
长卷的薄膜管被装上填充机器。它将肉浆灌注进这些肠衣中，每五又四分之一英吋扭转一次，正是一条热狗的长度。仅需花35秒来做出能够跨越足球场两次的热狗链。

Then, three of those hot dog chains are linked together to make an even longer string. And they’re loaded several at a time into another machine, which drapes the hot dogs onto moving racks. The process is carefully timed, so that the twist always lands on the bar.The racks shunt the hot dogs to a liquid smoke shower, then into an oven with several cooking zones. The liquid smokes seeps through the casing and adds flavor to the dogs as they bake.
接着，那些热狗链中的三串被连结成甚至更长的一串。而它们一次数条被填装进另一台机器，这台机器将热狗垂挂在移动的架子上。这过程被谨慎的定时，所以扭转节点总是落在条杆上。架子将热狗运往液态烟雾淋浴间，然后进入一个有许多烹煮区的烤箱。这些液态烟雾渗透到肠衣中并在烘烤时给热狗添加风味。

Hot out of the oven, these franks are drenched in cold salty water, to chill them in preparation for packaging. The hot dogs then file down to an unloading zone. Here, a machine pulls them off the bars onto an conveyer. Then, the hot dogs slide off the conveyer into metal containers.
热腾腾地出炉，这些牛肉热狗被浸泡在又冷又咸的水中，为了准备包装而冷却它们。这些热狗接着排队降至卸除区。这儿，一台机器将这些热狗从杆子上拉开至一条输送带上。然后，热狗从输送带滑落到金属容器中。

If you’ve been wondering those black stripes on the casings, all is about to be revealed. The stripe is a marker attached to the casing. The absence of the black stripe means the hot dog is cooked and ready for packaging. Inside the peeler machine, a tiny knife slits each casing along the top. Then, steamy air blows the casings right off the dogs. This machine peels 700 hot dogs a minute.
如果你曾好奇这些肠衣上的黑色线条，一切即将揭晓。这线条是个附在肠衣上的记号。没有黑色线条意味着热狗已煮熟且准备好要包装了。在剥皮机之中，有个微小的刀片从顶端切开每件肠衣。接着，蒸汽风不偏不倚地将热狗的肠衣吹掉。这台机器一分钟剥好700支热狗。

An inspector makes sure the casing has been completely removed, and that there are no defects in the dogs. Then, it’s into a device that looks like a plastic bicycle chain. The sprockets position the hot dogs for packaging.
一位检验员确保肠衣完全被移除，以及热狗中没有瑕疵。然后，它进入一个看起来像塑料脚踏车链的装置。扣链齿轮将热狗安置好包装位置。

This factory manufactures an incredible 300,000 hot dogs an hour. That’s close to two and a half million per shift. They really do churn them out like sausages. Fire up the grill, and a mouthwatering meal is just minutes away.
这间工厂一小时生产难以置信的三十万支热狗。那接近每班次两百五十万支。他们果真像香肠般大量生产它们。烤架升起火，一道令人垂涎三尺的餐点只要几分钟就好。