www.sausagemaking.org

My wife is interested in trying to make our own sausages from "proper meat" . Can collagen skins be used for all types.
We would be barbecuing the product or cooking them in our hot smoker.

Robert

Yes, they can be used pretty much the same way.

Any particular reason for using collagen rather than hog?

The reason we want to make our own sausages is that we dont fancy the ingredients which are reputedly put into shop made products. This includes organ meat - which includes what is used for skins. We would only buy the skinless varieties for this reason. It may seem silly I know. Thanks for your interest
Robert

Nosher,

collagen casings are made with beef collagen and not organs,

this link expalins a little more

http://www.devro.plc.uk/products/dev_han.htm


Franco

I'm also using collagen casings. Basically it doesn't seem that in the UK you can get hallal or kosher natural casings, so I need to stick to what's out there.

My question is this - how realistic is it to stuff collagen skins with one of the manual fillers. A clue to the answer I'm looking for: that it is possible, because I've just taken delivery of the basic sausage mincer and filler. However, if this is totally pie in the sky, let me know and I'll reassess.
thanks

I have also recently purchased a manual mincer stuffer aand used it without a problem. The suggestion is that you lubricate the skins with cooking oil. Super sausages.

Nosher

Nosher thanks for that, but were you using natural casings or collagen casings? Did the oil make it all ridiculously fiddily or was it pretty straightforward?

Has anybody heard about a worldwide collagen shortage? A retailer fed me that line two days ago. I'm not sure if he just wants me to make a bigger purchase.


David

According to a supplier I was talking to yesterday in London they've got tonnes of the stuff - I think they were selling you a line.

asilverfish,

It's very easy to stuff collagen casings with a manual stuffer. I've never oiled them before fitting them on the tube and never had any problems. Obviously with the manual stuffer, you need one hand to crank it so a spare set of hands come in useful until you get the knack of it.

Cheers

Thanks for all the help. I just wanted to let you know that my collagen casings work well. The sausages I made were all beef, no pork content. As it was my first go I simply tried out beef, salt, pepper and some garam masala. My main intention was to see if it worked and it absolutely does.
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