Food

Half-Smokes (Washington DC)

American · Beef · Cured · Pork · Sausage · Smoked Foods · Spicy · Street Food

Half-Smokes (Washington DC)
Prep 1 hour, plus overnight curing
Cook 3–4 hours smoking and cooking
Serves About 5 lb / 2.3 kg — 20 links of about ¼ lb
Level Medium

The half-smoke is Washington, DC’s own sausage: a fat, coarse, smoked link of pork and beef, spicier than a hot dog, split and griddled until the cut face browns, then laid in a steamed bun under mustard, chopped onion and chili. Ben’s Chili Bowl on U Street, open since August 1958, made it the city’s signature, and the DC meat packer Briggs & Co. is usually credited with first selling it to grocers in the 1930s. It looks like a hot dog and is built like a sausage: coarse where a frank is emulsified, red-flecked with pepper, and smoked. Nobody knows what the “half” means. The people who make and sell it have offered at least four explanations — half beef and half pork; less smoked than a regular smoked sausage; a cross between a hot dog and a sausage; half the seasoning of a Polish — and none is documented. Even the composition is not public: the Baltimore packer that supplies the city’s street vendors makes a formula used only at Ben’s. I have not made this one yet; the formula is constructed from standard smoked-sausage practice to the published descriptions, and it is untested.

Ingredients

MEAT BLOCK (2,270 g / 5 lb), % of meat weight

  • 1,135 g / 2 lb 8 oz boneless pork shoulder (50%)
  • 1,135 g / 2 lb 8 oz beef chuck, about 20% fat (50%)

CURE (% of meat weight)

  • 41 g / 1.4 oz fine salt (1.8%)
  • 5.7 g Cure #1 (pink salt, 6.25% sodium nitrite) (0.25%) — 2.5 g/kg × 2.27 kg = 5.7 g; 2.5 g × 6.25% = 156 mg nitrite per kg = 156 ppm, the USDA ceiling for comminuted products
  • 9.1 g dextrose (0.4%)

SEASONING (% of meat weight)

  • 6.8 g crushed red pepper flakes (0.3%)
  • 3.4 g cayenne (0.15%)
  • 9.1 g sweet paprika (0.4%)
  • 6.8 g black pepper, coarse (0.3%)
  • 3.4 g coriander, ground (0.15%)
  • 3.4 g mustard, ground (0.15%)
  • 9.1 g garlic, minced (0.4%)
  • 45 g / 1.6 oz nonfat dry milk powder (2%)
  • 182 g / 6.4 oz ice water (8%)
  • 32–35 mm natural hog casing, about 12 ft / 3.7 m, linked at 6 in / 15 cm (about ¼ lb / 110 g each)

TO SERVE

  • 20 hot dog buns, steamed; yellow mustard, chopped onion, chili

Directions

Key ingredients

Black Pepper · Mustard

  1. In the collection: Black Pepper and red pepper flakes. The finer, milder cousin is All-Beef Hot Dogs (American Frankfurters); the nearest coarse smoked relative in the collection is Polish Sausage.
  2. Grind coarse: chill to 30–32 °F / −1–0 °C. Grind the beef through a 4.5 mm (3/16 in) plate and the pork through an 8 mm (5/16 in) plate. The coarse pork is what makes a half-smoke eat like a sausage, not a frank.
  3. Mix: dissolve salt, Cure #1 and dextrose in the ice water; add the spices, garlic and milk powder; mix into the meat until tacky and sticky, 2–3 minutes. The milk powder holds water so a lean-ish smoked link stays juicy on the griddle.
  4. Taste: fry a teaspoon. Smoky heat should come later from the smokehouse; here you are checking for a clear red-pepper warmth and enough salt. It should be noticeably spicier than a hot dog.
  5. Stuff and cure: stuff firmly into hog casing and link at 6 in / 15 cm. Hang or rack in the fridge overnight so the cure sets the colour.
  6. Dry, smoke, cook: dry in the smoker at 130 °F / 54 °C with the damper open, about 1 hour, until the casing is dry. Smoke at 140–150 °F / 60–66 °C for 1½–2 hours to a medium reddish-brown, then raise to 170–175 °F / 77–79 °C until the centre reaches 155 °F / 68 °C. Shower or plunge in iced water, then hang an hour to bloom. Refrigerate up to 10 days, or freeze.
  7. Griddle to serve: split each link lengthwise almost through, open it and cook it cut side down on a hot griddle or skillet until browned and sizzling and hot through to 160 °F / 71 °C. Into a steamed bun with yellow mustard, chopped onion and a ladle of chili — the Ben’s “all the way”.
  8. Sibling recipe: the Michigan chili dog is Detroit Coney Dog.

Notes

Where this recipe came from — and what it isn’t. No half-smoke maker publishes a formula, and the best-known one is proprietary. The build follows the published descriptions — pork and beef, coarser and spicier than a hot dog, smoked — and the numbers are standard cured-and-smoked sausage practice (Marianski’s cure rate and hot-smoking schedule). Choices: (1) 50/50 pork and beef takes the most common name theory literally; (2) red pepper flakes and cayenne at 0.45% combined give the red flecks and moderate heat; (3) the smokehouse finish is 155 °F / 68 °C because it is reheated on the griddle to 160 °F / 71 °C before serving. Untested.

Where the half-smoke came from. DCist’s 2016 history credits Briggs & Co., a large DC meatpacker, with first selling half-smokes to markets and grocers in the 1930s. Alvin Manger of Manger Packing in Baltimore, which has supplied the city’s street vendors for decades, believes it started with Briggs, and Manger makes a formula used only at Ben’s. Esskay also distributed them. A 1954 Arlington, Virginia, stand called Weenie Beenie is credited with an early half-smoke sandwich. Ben’s Chili Bowl opened on U Street in August 1958; its co-founder Virginia Ali said, “we kind of put it on the map”, serving it on a steamed bun with mustard, onions and homemade chili.

The name. The dive lists three explanations; the record holds at least four. (1) Half beef, half pork. (2) Partly smoked — Manger’s own best guess is “a less smoked product, producing a different flavor”, and he adds that no one knows. (3) A hybrid between a hot dog and a sausage. (4) An Esskay account manager’s guess: half the seasoning of a Polish sausage. The split-down-the-middle griddle cut is a fifth that circulates without a source. None is documented, and the name was probably assigned inside Briggs.

Variations. All-pork and all-beef half-smokes are sold. Hotter versions double the red pepper. Some are made in a natural casing about the width of a bratwurst; some vendors grill them whole rather than split.

Sourcing and gear. Hog casing, a 4.5 mm and an 8 mm plate, a smoker that will hold 130–175 °F, nonfat dry milk from the grocery shelf. Ben’s chili contains no secret the dive needs; any meaty chili works on top.

Still open. Whether Briggs’s original was half beef and half pork, and what the Ben’s formula contains, are not public.

Read more on the site. American Regional