Norpac All Beef Franks

Canada Day for many signifies the official start of summer.  The traditional fare for this holiday is barbeque, usually hot dogs and hamburgers.  Both are perfect crowd pleasers and larger family get togethers.  We don't eat hot dogs very often but when we do, they must be all beef.    We discovered Norpac's all beef franks so decided to try them.

Norpac is a Canadian beef processing plant located in Norwich, Ontario.  It is owned by the Heleniak family.  Twenty percent of all the beef fed under their program are raised by the family.  Their philosophy on raising and processing cattle is quite impressive.  The cattle in their program is locally raised under their strict guidelines.  All cattle grown under the Norpac program must be less than 24 months old and BSE free.  The cattle are fed a 100% vegetarian diet that is hormone and antibiotic free, free choice system.

Norpac's all beef franks made from Ontario corn fed beef.  The ingredients are:  beef, water, soya flour, salt, spices, sodium phosphate, sodium erythobate, sodium nitrate, and smoke.  Sodium erythrobate is the salt of erythorbic acid, a variation of ascorbic acid (Vitamin C).  It is extracted from the sugars in sugar beets, sugar cane and corn.  It replaces sulfites as a response to increased consumer sulfite allergies by food manufacturers as a preservative and to retain the colour in cured meats.  Of note though is this ingredient should be avoided if you have a corn allergy, something that is also increasing.

We sliced open the franks lengthwise then pan fried them.  They were topped with cheddar cheese that was allowed to melt before placin on toasted sesame seed hot dog buns.  Additional toppings included mustard, ketchup and caramelized onions.

These delicious, mouth watering franks are considerably more expensive than other brands of weiners and about double the price of all beef wieners.  A package of six costs $5.99 or $1 per frank.  They are a bit larger than regular wieners though.  These franks are well worth the extra cost!  I'm looking forward to trying them on the grill.