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Hi all! Newcomer to sausage making and to this board, so please bear with me.

I've only been making sausage for a few months now. We use a Chef's Choice model 796 food grinder/sausage stuffer attachment on a KitchenAid stand mixer. Thus far, it's done really well for us.

While the sausages we've made have all been quite tasty, I'm just not getting the "snap" from the casings that I enjoy in commercially produced sausage. We're using natural hog casing from our local supermarket butcher. They come packed in salt which we rinse, inside and out. We soak them for a couple of hours in fresh water before filling.

What am I doing wrong? What do I need to do to get that "snap"?

Hi John, welcome.

Can you elaborate please: what type of sausage are you making?

We're a world wide forum, so it would help to know where in the world you are so that replies can be relevant to where you live.

Phil

Using a dedicated stuffer will help immensely. The grinder/stuffers pack them too loose which causes the sausages to fall apart when you cut in to them, and the casings don't get tight enough when blooming.

wheels: I'm in Northern California. Thus far, I have made Polish garlic sausage, a lamb sausage, and a "Texas-style hot link". (The recipe for this last one I found on this site.)

kil2k: It's not the texture of the sausage itself. They are firm and fully packed. It is just the casing itself. I'm looking for that "snap" or "pop" that a good sausage has when you bite into it.

After the casings are filled, try putting them on a rack in the fridge for 24 hrs. to both dry out and set the links and to allow the spicing to equalize. You'll see this as allowing the sausage to "bloom." Welcome to the forum.