casings

[mez]

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.

[NePaSmoKer]

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.

[mez]

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

[NePaSmoKer]

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?

[mez]

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.

[Habanero Smoker]

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.