I made some of Pens spicy snack sticks with 17mm casings and the collagen casing was loose and not tight. I did not bloom them. The meat tasted great, they came out good, just loose casing. They were over 152 and seemed to be cooked right. Last time I made them the casing was shriveled and tighter. The only diff this time was I added ECA. Think its cuz I didn't cook them long enough or that I didnt bloom them?
Every time I have had loose casings it was due to under stuffing them.
i just did my first ever batch of sticks. the one length of them had loose casings and that was because they were just barely understuffed.
Ditto on not stuffed enough
under stuffed or I would say not shocked in ice water to stop the cooking and the casing stopped but the meat continued to shrink
You gotta stuff till one explodes then back off a half a notch... ;D
John
Try to stuff till the casin has no wrinkles and like JT stated just before they explode. Once they explode a couple times you will know the limit.