Too much water in casing after poaching?!?!?!

[Smokeymoose907]

Hi all
Rookie sausage maker here and I could really use some help. After poaching I noticed that my casing had filled with water and partially separated from the meat. Other than this my first attempt turned out great the sausage had great flavor and good consistency. I have a couple of questions then I will run down my process. Keep in mind this is my first time making sausage so any tips or advice are greatly appreciated. The
So first question
What to do about the excess water in my sausage? Will it reabsorb during the bloom or do I need slit the casing and drain the excess off?
QUESTION 2
what can cause this to happen and what is the best way to avoid this in the future?
MY PROCESS
this is my first attempt at making polish sausage I used 12 pounds of pork shoulder butt and added 1 lbs of suet to the grind. Ground and seasoned the meat then put it in my stuffer.
For a casing I used the Lem 32mm edible collagen casing. Now this casing specifically said to not presoak. Just pull it out of the package and feed it onto your tube.
I then stuffed the sausage I was worried about over stuffing so I'm thinking I didn't get them full enough. As some of my casing were a little loose. I just tied the tag ends of the casing in a knot and called it good.
From there they were hung in my smoker cold and I brought my smoker up to 130 F for the first hour then stair stepped up 5 degrees every hour. After about 4 hours I pulled them from the smoker. The IT was about 135 F i had a large pot of water on the stove holding at 160 F the sausage went in for about 25 min. When i pulled them their IT was 155 F. They went straight into ice water bathes and sat for another 30- 45 min till my IT was under 110 F. I will let them hang for 2-3 hours then place them in the fridge till tomorrow when they will get vac sealed and frozen.

I'm sure I made all sorts of mistakes but over all I'm satisfied with the end product. I'm practicing on pork and beef products so by the time I'm ready to process moose in the fall I know what I'm doing. I appreciate any advice and look forward to hearing your input.

[Habanero Smoker]

Hi Smokeymoose907,

Welcome to the forum.

This has happened to me in the past. There are probably other reasons, but what caused my problem was stuffing the sausage too loosely. After bring the sausage up to 135°F to 140°F, if the casings have not adhered to the meat, that air space will fill with water during the poaching stage. Most of that water will not be absorbed into the meat. You can prick the casings to allow the water to flow out. I've also learned through my mistake that when this happens  your sausage will loose a lot of flavor. The rest of your process looks good.

[watchdog56]

I agree. Sounds like you did everything right except the loose casings. As far as your process, that is how I do mine weather it is summer sausage,sticks or brats. Most time with sticks I do not need to water bath though. I do presoak my casing for about 30 minutes in warm water with 1 T of salt added. I usually start at 130 for 1 hour then 140 for 2 hours then 150 for 1 hour and 165 until they hit 135 then water bath.

[pikeman_95]

I have just a thought on this. I have not tried this myself but I feel it would work well. First this is not the fist time that I have heard of this problem with collegian casings. What I think you might try is to cut your meat sticks in lengths and fit them into a vacuum seal bags that are long enough to fit in your hot water bath. Or you could fit them in bags that you intend to store them in. If you seal them in a flat sheet and them plunge them into the 160 hot water bath they will easily reach the 155 cure temperature but never really be exposed to the water. You could even seal one of the small thermometers in one of the packages with one of the sticks so you know when they have reached the core temperature. If you keep the temp at around 160 F you can't hurt them leaving them in the water. None of the spices will be washed out. And after curing they would be ready for the freezer. If some one tries this let us know how it works.