ok i made the snack stix and they came out good. lost track of temp and left them in to 158 degrees so they were a tiny bit dry but anyway....my question is this. when i was stuffing them i couldnt fit the casing as it was in the package right over the tube. what i had to do is kinda unravel it and then slide it over the tube. is my tube to big? now once i did do that i can only fit maybe 24 inches onto my tube. is this tube too short?
i see some pics online here with guys stuffing sausage and the sausage is 10 feet long. i couldnt get past 2 feet
I have the same problem. My tube is the one I bought from LEM when I got my stuffer so it's not to big. The casing might be too small. There are several sized. A butcher suggested rubbing a little olive oil or vegetable oil on the tube first. I haven't tried that yet.
The diameter of the smallest plastic tube is too large to fit inside of the 19mm collagen casings you are using. The posts that you see of us having the longer sausages are because we have purchased an additional stuffing horn that is the correct size. I believe Smokeitall has them on his website smokeandstuff.com but there are other places to get them.
Also if you get the casings a little wet they slip right on. I just dip it in water.
I ordered the LEM 3/8 tube and you cannot fit the casing on it unless you unravel the 18 and 19mm casing. I cut my casings to 37 1/2 inches and they fit just fine. I cut them that length so I can get four 6 inch stix and 2 stix that have a bit of a curl that is caused from hanging on the bell hanger. I do not soak the casing. Just unravel it, cut it to your length, stuff, tie, smoke, drink and be happy ;D I like the drinking part the most.
im using 17mm casings. i can unravel it and then slide it on the tube. is that how its supposed to work or is it supposed to come right out of the package and slide on the tube in one piece?
It should slip onto the tube as it comes out of the package. Many people use 1/4" diameter stuffing tubes. I normally use 19mm casings. But it you stretch it out and then put it on the tube doesn't matter as long as it works for you. It may take longer though.
I measured my tube and it's a lot less than 19mm. I think that because the casings are put together like an acordian, the inside is a lot smaller. As mentioned, if you stretch them out, they fit fine. I'm going to try the oil on the tube next time.
Scott over at Smoke and Stuff has 7/16 OD stuffing tubes. I just made a custom OD flange double for him yesterday.
(http://i47.photobucket.com/albums/f163/johnplctech/Smokin/Stuffing/DoubleStuff07.jpg)
John
I let others answer this cuz i do things outta the norm ;D