BRADLEY SMOKER | "Taste the Great Outdoors"

Smoking Techniques => Sausage Making => Topic started by: mez on March 30, 2012, 06:53:53 AM

Title: casings
Post by: mez on March 30, 2012, 06:53:53 AM
I was wondering why the casings on my sausage came out hard.I soaked them for an hour like the pack said to before i stuffed them and i was careful with the temps in the smoker.Is it the casings themselves?They came out of the hi mountain german sausage kit and who knows how long the kit was on the store shelf.Or is it me messing it up?Also i was wondering what kind of casing to get to make hot dog size brats?The hog are pretty big and sheep are to small.thanks for the help.
Title: Re: casings
Post by: NePaSmoKer on March 30, 2012, 07:07:05 AM
Quote from: mez on March 30, 2012, 06:53:53 AM
I was wondering why the casings on my sausage came out hard.I soaked them for an hour like the pack said to before i stuffed them and i was careful with the temps in the smoker.Is it the casings themselves?They came out of the hi mountain german sausage kit and who knows how long the kit was on the store shelf.Or is it me messing it up?Also i was wondering what kind of casing to get to make hot dog size brats?The hog are pretty big and sheep are to small.thanks for the help.

Are the casings natural or collagen? Hard casings usually mean to high heat upon smoking, no water in the pan or like you said old casings.

For skinless dog there are cellulose casings and hot dog casings. Non edible.
Title: Re: casings
Post by: mez on March 30, 2012, 07:11:57 AM
they were natural hog casings.I was looking for an edible casing that was close to hot dog size .I actually want to use them for brats
Title: Re: casings
Post by: NePaSmoKer on March 30, 2012, 07:17:14 AM
Quote from: mez on March 30, 2012, 07:11:57 AM
they were natural hog casings.I was looking for an edible casing that was close to hot dog size .I actually want to use them for brats

Some sites do have small sz hog casings. You dont like the sheep?
Title: Re: casings
Post by: mez on March 30, 2012, 07:27:01 AM
The sheep I have are more breakfast link size.I am looking for a little bigger.I like the hog casing personally but I need a medium size caseing for camping to feed the masses kids wont eat them that big.
Title: Re: casings
Post by: Habanero Smoker on March 30, 2012, 02:00:40 PM
It seems you have the smaller diameter sheep casings. You can get sheep casing up to 26mm. I use the 24-26mm, and they are the diameter of the typical hot dog. Also if your casings are hard, sometimes when soaking change the water, at the end rinse the inside of the casing out; helps. The brats I make I don't consider hot dog diameter. For those I use 32-35mm hog casings.