natural hog casings shelf life

[jimmyb]

I bought one of those High Mountain kits for making sausage. They came with natural hog casings. I had no idea on my first frun how much of the casing I would need. I soaked all of them and used a small portion. I dried and packed the rest in kosher salt and stored in the refrigerator. I thought these would keep for a while like this but just read the below quote from the HI Mountain Web site instructions.

"**If you have soaked more casings then you need, you can drain all the water and mix a small amount of table salt with the remaining casings and refrigerate. This will hold them for approximately 48 hours; you may also freeze for longer storage."

Really? Only 48 hrs? Are these all garbage now after about six weeks?

[Sailor]

I think it is a CYA statement.  I have soaked more casings than I need many a time.  Just pat dry and salt them and put in a ziplock bag and throw in the fridge.  Never had a problem with them.  Maybe I have just been lucky but I have used casings that I have had stored that are well over 6 months old.

[OU812]

As long as they are heavily salted they will be good for a long time in the fridge.

If your using Kosher salt you might want to grind it a bit, smaller grains means more surface the salt is in contact with the casings.

Dont use iodised salt!

[NePaSmoKer]

If you are going to re salt use non iodized or better yet purified 100% salt.