Advanced Meat Recovery

There's a lot buzzing around my head today. Big news day. Hot celeb gossip to deal with. Obama scoring some points with the ladies by putting more chicks [okay, one chick] on the bench. Rush Limbaugh continues to be the most vile and pointless slug of a quasi-human to live. That whole Jon and Kate business [please note: I do not watch this program, but I feel as though over the past couple of weeks it has taken over the entire world]. And yet...the main thing I can't get out of my mind is the rather striking image of how hot dogs are made. I know, I know - this is not a groundbreaking topic. But, it's spring, it will soon be summer...more hot dogs will be consumed...and seriously, it's so much grosser than even I imagined.

So there I was watching DOOL, eating my sandwich...when I clicked on to the Food Network. As I do. It was one of those "how food gets from the field to your table" type of shows. I like knowing how things are made. But at first, I wasn't even sure *what* was being made. Then, I realized - it's hot dogs! Soylent Green is hot dogs! What I was presented with was the image of meat slurry. That's right - ground "meat" [I didn't catch what type/what part of what animal[s] it was] was turned into a thick liquid right before my eyes. Not unlike a milkshake. A sickening pink-ish brown-ish milkshake. Shooting out of large tubes and pooling in vats...before being squeezed into animal casings. Then they went on to explain the difference between hot dogs that remain in the casings and those that don't...demonstrating how those that retain the casing make an all-too audible snap when one bites into a prepared dog. Like this is a good thing.

The thing is - I never had a problem with hot dogs. Of course I was well aware of what hot dogs are, but I almost always chose the hot dog over the hamburger @ countless family BBQs. A hot dog had a dependable flavour - that goes very well with all the toppings I like - spicy mustard, onions, sauerkraut. Hamburgers could be fantastic, but only if they were homemade with a delightful combination of meat and spices and whatnot. Now that I'm a vegetarian I do sometimes indulge in soy hot dogs and I find the flavour to be quite comparable. And I do get that hot dogs are delicious and I will try to not judge those of you who still eat them...but now I'm going to have to try harder.