I just had my first (and last) experience with natural casings :( . Wow are they tough to work with. I'm making some beef sticks today and thought I try natural (sheep) this time. I'm glad I had some collagen on hand. When they are done and I can evaluate the recipe/process, I will post it.
You are correct natural casings take a little more doing. You got to wash them real good. Next check to make sure there are no pin holes them. While I have used collagen I still prefer the natural.
We will all be looking forward to your end product and recipe.
Olds
I did soak them for about an hour, and ran water through them. They were very pliable, but also very slippery. They were very hard to slip on my stuffer tube. I will try natural again, but only for larger sausage. (hog)
acords,
Another thing about sheep casings, most of the horns that come with stuffers are really made for hog casings and beef casings. You really need the right size horn for sheep casings, even if they fit on, they really don't fill as well as with a proper horn.
There are definitely differences between casing types and I tend to pick accordingly. The naturals tend to be tougher, meaning you can stuff tighter for those sausages you want a firmer texture in and they support heavy sausage well in the smoker when you hang them to smoke.
The collagen tend to be thinner, but don't need refrigeration, are one hundred and twenty seven times easier to handle and can seem to disappear over the meat if you end goal is a 'skinless' product.
I use both, just targeting the product I'm after. I love the snap you get when biting into a bratwurst with natural casing! And I have to admit that my 6 year old gets grossed out when I tell him what we are using! Eats all he can get his hands on though.
mld
I have a question about casings, my parents have a mix master that has the tubes. although i bought the
right size I couldnt get the casings over the tube without opening them up and then stuffing over the tube.
I thought they would just slide over. I could only do two slimjims at once. what am I doing wrong.
If you can't get one "length" of casing on the horn, then you probably don't have the right horn. That is not to say that you can't make do with what you have, but usually a good horn for sheep casings is made of stainless steel.