www.sausagemaking.org

I had my first experience with natural sheeps casings this weekend - I must say I think i'm addicted. They are quite delicate, but I found them easy to use, and they slip on quite easily onto the Reber filling tube. Alot better than the collagen casings.

I made some pork and apple sausage using chopped up Bramley apples (which i've also discovered are quite a nice eating apple - or at least I think so) and fresh rosemary and thyme. Worked quite well - though I think I overdid it on the herbs.

I also made a pork and mint sausage - just used Tesco's mint sauce mixed in - also worked quite well.

There are advantages and disadvantages to sheeps casings from what I can see:

Advantages:

- Cook faster
- Somehow taste better
- Quick to stuff

Disadvantages:

- Casings are more expensive
- You need to re-load the stuffer with fresh casings quite often (particularly on the 8kg Reber)

I'm still on the lookout for some stright (non tapered) stuffing tubes for my reber so that I can use a greater quantity of collagen casings at once. As it is, I can only put about 2 or so metres on the tube. With natural casings I can put alot more - I suspect because they are thinner (almost like silk) and more elastic.

For your pork and apple sausage try

74 % pork consisting of
1/4 hard pork backfat
3/4 lean pork shoulder (90-95 vl)
7 % Oatmeal
along with 6 % apple (Brambley is fine) and 11% cider (NO WATER)

don't make the sausages too over powering with the spices. I would suggest (per Kilo)

1 Tblspn Salt
1 tspn ground white pepper
1 tspn fresh rosemary
1 tspn fresh thyme
2 tspns dried rubbed sage


Though the sheep's casings do certainly make a superior product I think you mean that they are a lot more expensive than the typical 28-30 mm hog casings and all collegen casings, or at least where I am.

Kind regards

Parson Snows

Thanks for the recipe. I think next time i'll just put apple, salt and pepper, and perhaps some allspice or some mace. The cider is a good idea - i may substitute apple juice though.

Yes, sheeps casings are more expenisve - look on franco's site. They are more expensive per 100ft, and also only take 1/3rd of the filling.

Though it's obviously up to you, I would certainly recommend a little sage. As to the apple juice vs cider. Sorry but I shouldn't have assumed. I appreciate that some people may not want to include cider be it for religious or other reasons. In future I'll try to practice what I always tell my staff : NEVER ASSUME ANYTHING. If you are going to use apple juice check that it's pasteurized otherwise it may ferment and spoil your batch of sausages.

Kind Regards

Parson Snows

No religious reason here - just not a habitual drinker. I have the odd tipple. Apple juice is just more convinient as there is always an open carton of it for my son.

I have just found a local supplier for sheep casings, they are a larger calibre22-
24mm so should be easier to use on the Reber stuffers.

Franco

Franco

As the EU now requires that the Ileum (the short terminal part of the small intestine to which the Plicas ileocaecalis is attached) is removed from the intestines make sure that the supplier is HACCP accredited. If not you might want to get in touch with

Terry Rudgely @
Associated Casing Company Ltd.
ASCO House
Helions Bumpstead Road
Haverhill
Suffolk
CB9 7AA

Tel (01440) 702247
Fax (01440) 707978

Hope that this is of some help to you

kind regards

Parson Snows

Parson,

The supplier is a licensed abbatoir, they have just won a massive contract to supply Halal sheep casings to North Africa hence they can supply me with small amounts (50 hanks per week).

Incidentally if anyone wants Halal casings I can now supply these as they are now accredited or whatever the word is ,blessed??


Franco

Franco

Sounds like you have a great deal to pass onto the forum members etc. However, I have worked in North Africa and as in Thailand the hygeine/sanitary regulations etc are a lesser standard than that required by the UK/EU. As they are also for export they may not have to conform to these more stringent measures such as complying with the natural casing microbiological analysis as recommended by ENSCA (Forms No. 11A & 11B)

Better to be safe than sorry

Kind regards

Parson Snows

PS for your information the EU now considers the Ileum of sheep and goats to be Specified Risk Material (SRM) for risk of BSE

Even though the casings are being prepared for export all the EC regulations apply, there are no short cuts allowed for export.

The supplier started over 100 years ago preparing casings, there are photos on the wall of slaughtermen checking casings for holes by blowing them up with their mouths, somehow I don't think that's allowed these days


Franco

Franco

Sounds like you've got it covered, but it's always better to make sure that you have all of the bases covered (i's dotted t's crossed mentality) as you're a long time dead.

As to the mouth blown casings, it may not legally be accepted in the UK but if you ever saw a meat pie (fish'n chip shop variety slush pie) be made you'd probably never eat another one. I was a butchers' mate in the UK and you wouldn't believe the half of it. In Thailand I personally know families, grandmother down to the smallest grandchild, sitting around at night in a non-airconditioned room hand stuffing Thai sausages into hand prepared natural casings. These will be kept at room temperature for several days (non-refrigerated) then up for sale in the local markets the next day or so.

Kind Regards

Parson Snows

Long live the thrall. We have not always had these clinlcal regulations in Britian. Personally I feel the more clinical we become the more suseptible we become to infection.

As I mentioned before check this out.



or check out the whole web site.

http://www.leafpile.com/TravelLog/Roman ... arePig.htm

Not for the squeamish.

kind regards

Parson Snows

Parson snows

Great website!

Fatman

Fatman

Glad that you enjoyed the website. I'll post a couple of links to similar web sites in the next couple of days

kind regards

Parson Snows