Hog casings and sausages with a hole in them.

[welsh wizard]

HELP PLEASE!

Re Hog Casings, I dont know why but they seem to be very stiff on the nozzle of the stuffer. I wash them out as recommended and have also tried pouring a little olive oil down them before running them up the lubricated nozzle, but still they seem not to flow off the end. I soak the skins overnight so they should be OK and have been in the past, but I must now be doing somthing wrong - any ideas?

Talking of doing something wrong the last batch of sausages I made, over half of them had a space running down the middle. Is this because I did not stuff them properly or could it be the mix I used? With this batch I tried making them with a home made stuffing. Can you use too much bread?

[sausagemaker]

Hi

Re the hog casings try running water down them before stuffing this will help better than vegetable oil.
As for your other problem of a space down the length of the casing was the mix dry as it this sounds like under stuffing caused be this, if you are unsure about the bread crumb to water ratio try mixing it with the water from the recipe before mixing it with the meat, this way you will see if needs extra water.
Hope this helps

Regards
Sausagemaker

[Shaun]

I find that soaking your casing for too long can sometimes cause problem's' also if you leave them on the tube for too long they can become sticky and stick to the tube. I find it's better to load and stuff A.S.A.P..

Regards
Shaun

[Paul Kribs]

I agree with Shaun, I have loaded the filler spout and put one lot of mix through, then went back about 1/2 hour later with another mix and the casings had gone too hard to flow properly off the filler spout. I was just trying to save a few minutes. I took the tube off with casing still on and re-soaked it for 2 mins and it was OK. Now I try to judge the length of casing I need to use for a single mix each time, and all is well. Seems they need to remain quite wet.

Regards Paul Kribs

[sausagemaker]

Hi There

Soaking casings overnight should not create any problems, provided they are a good quality and have not been soaked before & re salted.

Regards
Sausagemaker

[Paul Kribs]

Hi Sausagemaker,
What is supposed to happen if the casings are soaked dried and re-salted.. I have done this and re-soaked them for about 20 mins and had no ill effects. I squeeezed them out by running them through my fingers then patted them dry (ish) with a tea towel before returning to the bag and adding a bit more dry salt. I have done this on a few occasions after I have over estimated the length required. If it's only a foot or so I don't bother. and discard it.

Regards, Paul Kribs

[sausagemaker]

Hi Paul

What tends to happen if it has been soaked too much or too often the casing starts to deteriorate, even though you appear to be getting away with it the casing has been weakened, you may find that it breaks a little more often or split when cooking or filling, most people would put this down to over filling or careless handling but it is more likely to be due to the weakness of the casing.

Hope this helps

Regards
Sausagemaker

[welsh wizard]

Many Thanks my sausage making chums, there as always.

Re casings, does anyone have a calc for length of casing per lb of mix? I tend to use Hog as people tell me the others are difficult to fill. I always seem to soak too little or too much, but interesting stuff about re salting!

[sausagemaker]

Wow

That's an interesting question, a bit like how longs a piece of string.
It depends on the calibration of the casing, unlike collagen which is the same diameter all the way down the natural casing varies quite widely.
In collagen you can assume that on a 28 mm casing every 4" is about 2 oz therefore 32 inches per lb plus your twists in between say a further 3", with natural casing the diameter is more likely to be 30 - 32 mm & would be approximately 2.5 oz per 4" of casing so would use between 24 - 30 inches per lb of sausage.

Hope this helps
Regards
Sausagemaker

[Paul Kribs]

Thanks for the advice sausagemaker, much appreciated.

Welsh wizard,
I generally cut my casings about 3 feet for a pound of sausages. Admittedly I do tend to make them on the large size, but friends and family do prefer a bigger porkie. On wieghing, 6 of my sausages generally weigh about 1 lbs 3 ozs, which uses most of the casing at 36".
These are Franco's hog casings.

Hope this helps

Regards, Paul Kribs

[welsh wizard]

good reply sausagemaker, thank you. As you correctly say it really does depend on how you fill the skins. I tend to make a 4oz sausage, the traditional 4's to a lb, I suppose therefore it should be fairly easy to estimate rather than guestimate the ammount I should need - I need to be more alert each time I make them. I will try the next few times to calculate length vs weight and let you know my findings. There should be some form of calc even if it is a little out either way.

Thanks again.

[aris]

Sausagemaker, what calculation do you use for sheep casings?

[Paul Kribs]

Welsh Wizard..

4 sausages to 1lb is a monster sausage.. and I thought mine were big at approx 5 1/2 - 6. I actually had feedback from one of my friends who told me they take too long to cook, and that he split them down the middle. He was frying them. I did tell him to cook in a pre-heated medium oven, middle shelf for 35 - 40 mins.. or 1/2 hour on the BBQ on a low heat, with the lid off. I have had excellent cooking results using these 2 methods. I have even cooked a 1 kg coiled cumberland on the BBQ, bit of a juggling act turning it though.

I may try sheeps casings soon, saying that I've just ordered another hank of hogs casings from Franco. I did hover the mouse pointer over the sheeps for quite a while but failed to click.. I will eventually.

Regards, Paul Kribs

[welsh wizard]

Paul how right you are! I meant 8's not 4's. Thanks for the info re cooking, I must admit I get by far the best results oven cooking as opposed to frying but tonight - I am having a go on the old BBQ NOt posh enough to have a lid though!

[Paul Kribs]

WW,

It was not my intention to get one with a lid, it just happened to be the cheapest gas one available. The previous one had no lid and lasted 3 years (another cheapo). My BBQ is permanently outside under cover and rain does come down the chimney, I will cure this during the summer, by making a 'cooley hat' from steel sheet. The good thing about the lid is it keeps most of the weather off the BBQ proper, and I may test it for smoking some sausages, I have already got the missus to get a cheap baking tray for the sawdust / wood chippings. This is a pic of it. http://www.btinternet.com/~happydudevir/barbequenew2.jpg It's not wonky, thats just how the pic came out.

If I find I like smoked sausage, I will get one of those small table-top smokers from Franco.

Regards, Paul Kribs