www.sausagemaking.org

I'm really starting to get into making my own sausage. My father in law bought me a sausage making kit from bass pro last year and it has sparked my obsession. I'm getting ready to build a hot smoker to make my sausage. Right now I cold smoke the meat and then cook it low and slow in the oven. However my casings seem to shrink/shrivel after I make them. I cooled this one to 120F in the freezer after it was finished cooking and then let it sit out until it reached about 80F.

Why is it doing this?

As soon as you pull the sausage out of the oven plunge it into an ice water bath until the internal temperature gets down to at least 90 degrees F. I do this on summer sausage so that it does not get all wrinkled looking.

As tommix said, you need to be sure to cool them quickly. Dunking them in cold water is the most common method.

Another thing I have read is that once cool by dunking in cold water, if you dunk them into boiling water a few times the casings will shrink tight as they cool again. It worked on a batch of snack sticks that I made, but that was the only time I had tested this technique.

If you have no allergy to milk you can add some powder milk to your mix, I use about 2 1/2 cups to 25 lbs of meat. it will not change the taste at all. and when you pull it sausage out of the smoker immediately rinse under cold water until the internal temp is below 110. then place in fridge overnight to cool. next day package. ive been doing this for years and it makes a great plump sausage