www.sausagemaking.org

Someone must have asked this but I can't find it on the site: what length of hog casting do you need to soak to hold each Lb of sausage mix?

Hi there Welsh wizard

I would say about 24 - 30 inches

regrads
Sausagemaker

That's per kilo isn't it sausagemaker? I thought it was about a pound per foot for hog casings.

Hi Aris

It really depends on the width of the casing but if it is 28 mm then the sausage will be approx 4" in length then 8 per lb.
so 8 x 4 = 24" so if you intend to link them you need extra

Hope this makes sense

Regards
Sausagemaker

Ah yeah, linking would make a big difference. I think my hog casings are more like 32mm. Is there a butchers technique for testing the width of a casing?

Hi Aris

I not too sure about a butchers way, I use a vernier which I got free from Devro (I knew a couple of guy's there).
But when buying natural casing you should always ask the size, the bigger the diameter the cheaper the casing is.
Sheep casing runs at
18 - 21 mm
21 - 23 mm
23 - 26 mm

Hog run at
26 - 30 mm
28 - 32 mm
32 - 35 mm
35 - 38 mm
38+
I have included a link below with some good info on casings

http://www.dewied.com/DW20050321/faqs/natural.htm#top
Hope this helps

Regards
Sausagemaker

What is a vernier?

A vernier is an accurate measuring caliper, and looks like this

Mine has a small dial attached to enable me to measure to 0.1 mm

regards
sausagemaker

You can get them in all sorts of varieties now, dial, digital, and the original type shown the the picture.

Although if I were being a pedant I would have to say that only the pictured type is a true vernier caliper.

Named after Pierre Vernier who invented it sometime in the 1500's

The dictionary definition goes something like this;
"A small, movable auxiliary graduated scale attached parallel to a main graduated scale, calibrated to indicate fractional parts of the subdivisions of the larger scale, and used on certain precision instruments to increase accuracy in measurement."


Err.... Sorry about that.
I'll get my coat!

I'll open the door

So are hog casings measured while flat, or do you measure the diameter when they are stuffed? It would make a bit of a difference.

Hi Aris

You measure after stuffing, the industry doers this whilst flushing with water, prior to salting.

Hope this helps

Regards
Sausagemaker

So how does one measure with the vernier while flushing? Sounds tricky.

You don't I use the vernier after stuffing, the factories use other methods not available to us mere mortals

Regards
Sausagemaker