Natural hog casing question

[renoman]

I made a batch of Italian sausage last night and I used some casings that I had soaked previously and then put back in salt and into the fridge. When I stuffed last night the casings seemed to be stretched quite a bit larger than when the first time I used them to the point of the links being hard to fill tight and there being a lot of air in them. Did I do something wrong or is this to be expected when resoaking hog casings?

[Griffen]

I've never experienced that, some are bigger than others though, i have seen quite a bit of inconsistency, depending on where I purchase them.

[RexLan]

Has nothing to do with the casing being soaked previously (I do it all the time).  If you hold it back you can fill it until it breaks.  So either your mix was full of air (likely) or you simply did not hold them quite long enough in the stuffing process.

I don't like to fill the "tight".  Seems like they burst when cooking because there is no place for the juices to expand.  I fill fresh sausage to a sort of spongy consistency like the Johnsonville brats .