Just don't look at the ingredients, NO! DON'T, DON'T LOO.......Oh, too late! (Ye Olde Oak 8 Hotdogs)

Member Name: pmcds

Product:	Ye Olde Oak 8 Hotdogs
Date:	26/06/09 (65 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Taste nice, great in a bun with mustard

Disadvantages: What is 'mechanically recovered chicken'?

For some strange and twisted reason, I have a particular liking to this type of 'sausage', the frankfurter style sausage which is coined as a hot dog sausage. This particular brand is one I hadn't tried before, opting instead for whatever has been on Tesco's shelves before. However, I popped into the Co-Op on Sunday and bought a tin of these.

Ye Olde Oak Hot Dogs contains 8 of the sausages, in brine, and to cook them couldn't be simpler. The tin tells you to empty the hot dogs into a pan of hot, but not boiling, water, heat gently for 5 minutes and then serve. It's not clear whether you drain on the brine first or not, but I generally do with this type of product, so I did on this occasion.

They have recommendations as for usage but you can really do what you want with them. I like to have them in a roll or a bun as you would perhaps expect if you went ot get a Hot Dog, say at the fair or the cinema or somewhere. I usually add a bit of French's mustard for a real Hot Dog feel, but again, you can add anything you want. Similarly, they're really handy to use if you chop them up and add them to a salad or a pasta dish.

Tastewise, they're very smooth and flavoursome, although there is a bit of a worrying artificial taste to it. They have a solid outer skin which is easy to simply bite through, before you get what seem like processed meat on the inside. However, the taste is quite nice, so the contents don't particularly worry me........

.......that is, until I looked at the ingredients list. 55% of the ingredients are mechanically recovered chicken! I mean, what exactly does this entail? How do you mechanically 'recover' chicken? A bit worrying, to say the least! Then there's water, pork fat and pork collagen. I'm not entirely sure what collagen is, but it rings bells of cholesterol or something similar. I know I've heard of it before, and I'm sure it's not particularly healthy. There is also a natural smoke flavour added, not that you can really taste it very much, perhaps it's masked by the beef collagen that also appears on the list, just after the chicken fat!

Okay, enough of the ingredients, they're worrying me a little too much. Let's focus more on the taste, which is actually quite nice. No doubt, I won't be able to eat another of these without a certain amount of trepidation and worry, but then I didn't really buy them for their nutritional content. I bought them because I know I like the taste of Hot Dogs, and these aren't really any different.

Value wise, decide for yourself. I can't remember the exact price, but I know it was less than £1 for a tin of 8 Hot Dogs. Other brands can be more expensive, I know, but ultimately, I wasn't surprised at the price. I'd recommend these if you like this sort of product. If you're not sure what to expect, then sure, they are a little like sausages, although they are predominantly made of chicken, and not the good parts. I wouldn't worry too much, nutritionally, as if you're buying these, then they're not going to be for nutritional reasons. Just enjoy the flavoursome, if somewhat artifical taste, wrap it in a bun and slop on some mustard. Job done!

Summary: 8 Hot Dogs in brine: they taste nice, just don't look at what's in them