Alternative to beef middle casing?

[beardedcook]

Hi everyone,
I am new here. I have been experimenting in making air dried sausage these couple of months. This is my first trial of salami http://imgur.com/mwNv6mV

Eventhough the flavor is good, my problem is with the size. It is too small, because I had to use 42mm (1.6") fibrous casing due to availability in my country. I understand that normally salami is stuffed into beef middle. However, I have been asking suppliers here and there for uncooked beef middle with no result. Here in Indonesia, beef intestines are usually sold pre-boiled for shelf-life. Even when I requested uncooked, they just refused to do that.

Is there any alternative for beef middle casing? fibrous casing is just too expensive here, $1-$2 a piece for 23.5" casing, while I could get 2lbs of fresh hog casing for $2.

Thank you.

[wheels]

Beef bungs are the largest ones. Do they cook those?

If not, you're looking at collagen, fibrous etc, which I assume you made need to import.

You could, of course, still do some thin ones in pig intestines - look for the posts by NCPaul on here for details.

HTH

Phil

[beardedcook]

Hi Wheels,

Thank you for your reply. That is strange... I swear I replied to you last night.. did I pressed the wrong button?

To answer your question. Unfortunately most digestive system organs here are sold pre-boiled to increase shelf-life. In traditional wet market in Indonesia beef are displayed at room temperature. Even Supermarkets here, with their cold storage unit still sell intestines pre-boiled.

Beef bung is very big, that'll take probably take half a year or more to dry to 40% water loss. I'm looking for alernative to 5.5cm-6cm casing diameter. If there are no natural casing alternative to that size, probably I'll have to use fibrous casing or collagen. I was just trying to cut cost because artificial casings are more expensive than natural one.

Thank you for your suggestion

[crustyo44]

Have you ever tried the dried pig casings coming out of China. They are now THE major supplier of dried pasted casings world wide. Check out AliExpress.com or one of their stores
https://www.aliexpress.com/store/group/ ... c0y8ZSetes
I have used them, they work well. Just check out all their stores for everything you need in dried casings.
Fairly cheap and postal cost included.
Good Luck. Jan.

[Snags]

Theres no problems with customs into Australia?

[crustyo44]

I had several postal deliveries with dried casings in several sizes
from an AliExpress shop. No problem at all, the bag was only inspected by Quarantine as I expected.

[beardedcook]

Hi Crustyo44,
Thank you for your suggestion.
Importing would be my last resort, customs here is hell... my Aliexpress order from 3 months ago still stuck in customs.... It only took 1 whole week according to the tracking for the item to get from China to Indonesia.

How long is the shelf-life of dried natural casing? If I had to import, it would be a big quantity order.

[beardedcook]

So.... in the end I relented and bought a roll of 2 1/2" fibrous casing.
Here's today's production of salami and peperoni.
http://i.imgur.com/xeOgT2A.jpg

Thank you for everyone's suggestions and input.

[wheels]

They look great.

Phil

[NCPaul]

Look great to me as well.